The Teaching Assistant Award was established in 1998 to recognize the important contributions to the university by teaching assistants, seminar leaders and lab demonstrators. Since 1998, three additional awards have been created to recognize and celebrate excellence in teaching demonstrated by teaching assistance at Brock.

Award Categories & Past Recipients

Visit the 2022-23 Award Showcase

Application Guidelines

Submissions Now Open

Eligibility

Brock teaching assistants, seminar leaders, and lab demonstrators who have demonstrated a commitment to assisting others in reaching their educational goals are eligible to apply for the Teaching Assistant Awards.

Candidates are only eligible to receive one award within a 5-year period.

Deadline

Application packages must be submitted to the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation (CPI) by the first Friday in March annually.  The package may be submitted as either a hard copy (TH 136) or digitally (eddev@brocku.ca).

Application requirements

Each candidate must submit an application package (i.e. dossier) to be considered for an award. The dossier should include the following items:

1. One nominator must be a faculty member/instructor for the course for which the candidate served as a teaching assistant, seminar leader, or lab demonstrator.  An optional second nominator may be a student, peer, or faculty member/instructor.
2. Nomination letter(s). Nominator(s) must submit a letter outlining:
   1. their relationship to the candidate
   2. why they have nominated this person
3. A summary of the support documentation (i.e., a summary of the testimonial letters, teaching evaluation data, etc.)
4. Supporting documentation. Supporting documentation is essential for consideration for the award(s). Documentation should include:
   1. a statement of teaching philosophy written by the candidate
   2. evidence of professional development in teaching (e.g. attendance at the TA Workshop Series offered by the CPI; participation in GRST 5P01: Theory  & Practice of University Teaching graduate course; completion of the Instructional Skills Workshop; etc.)
   3. faculty evaluation of TA performance (if available)
   4. a summary of teaching evaluations (if available)
   5. testimonial letters/emails from sources other than the nominators (maximum of 6)
   6. a brief Curriculum Vitae (CV)

All documentation is subject to verification by the selection committee.

Suggestions

Types of teaching. For the purposes of these awards, the following types of instruction will be considered: classroom instruction, lecturing, seminars, tutorials, online facilitation, and lab demonstration. Teaching experience includes teaching assistant positions at other post-secondary institutions.

Letter and supporting documentation. Letters and supporting documents should address how the candidate has made a contribution to teaching rather than how great a person he/she is. For the purposes of this award, the following may be considered:

• Availability to students
• Student mentoring
• Marking and evaluation
• Ability to respond to student needs
• Methods of delivering instructional material
• Contributions to course development and modification
• Developing an effective and positive learning climate

Supporting documentation from a variety of sources is preferred (students, faculty, peers, administrators).

SELECTION COMMITTEE and AWARD presentation

All application packages will be adjudicated by a selection committee consisting of cross-Faculty representation including students, faculty/instructors, and administrators. The selected candidate will be presented with their award at the TA Reception held annually in April.

Please note that the selection committee reserves the right not to select an award recipient in any given year or to select multiple recipients.