Graduate Student Teaching Award

The Kent State Graduate College Graduate Student Teaching Award highlights excellence in teaching and mentoring among current graduate students. The award recognizes graduate students who exemplify excellence in teaching/learning as part of their professional development and training. One award will be given to a doctoral student and one to a master’s student. The award will include a $500 honorarium, sponsored by the Center for Teaching & Learning and the Graduate College.

Kent State University recipients will also be submitted as institutional nominees to the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools as KSU nominees for the MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award. The MAGS award includes a citation and a $750 honorarium that will be presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS).

Congratulations to the 2023 Doctoral Recipient, Maren Greve! Maren is a Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology. Great work!

View the Past Recipients of this award

Nominations:

To nominate an applicant, please submit the following:

• Letter of support from the department head (Please note any departmental honors awarded to this student for excellence in teaching.)
• Nominee’s teaching portfolio (including a link to the teaching video). Click here to learn more about the Graduate Student Teaching Award YouTube Instructions.

  • Teaching Philosophy and Practice (25 points): Share your teaching philosophy by describing your understanding of how people learn, and how that understanding, in turn, informs what you value most as an instructor and the way you approach teaching. This explanation could include your fundamental understanding of the purpose of education, the nature of learning, and/or your role as a teacher in facilitating that learning. Please describe the instructional strategies and evidence-based practices that you utilize to support your teaching philosophy.

  • Course Design (25 points): Connecting course design to your teaching philosophy and practices, describe how you have approached instructional design in one of your courses. Focus on the main elements of instructional design (e.g. objectives, course organization, content and format, learning activities, interaction, assessments) and provide examples from your course along with your rationale for adopting them. 

  • Video clip of “Teaching in Action” and Description (10-minute maximum/electronic link provided [25 points]: Provide a link to a 10-minute video clip from a collegiate-level course that demonstrates your teaching in action along with a one-paragraph description explaining how this video is representative of your teaching philosophy and practices. A variety of teaching settings may be used for the video including but not limited to lecture, facilitated discussion, lab, etc. as appropriate to the course. The focus should be on activities that demonstrate exceptional or innovative instruction or student learning, such as student engagement, personalized learning, project-based learning, etc. For asynchronous online courses, a video presentation by the instructor of key engaged learning activities, or learning environments, would be an example of good evidence. Please note that instructors need to adhere to all campus FERPA policies, including those for sharing class lectures. If your campus does not have a policy in place, instructors should pass around a sheet where all present students give their signed permission for the specific video(s) that will be shared with this award committee.

  • Evidence of Effective Student/Colleague Mentoring [10 points]: Describe your experience with mentoring students outside of the classroom, whether that be related to the courses you teach or in other settings. Additionally, discuss any experience you have with mentoring your peers or colleagues in the context of teaching.

  • Evidence of Professional Development [15 points]: Explain how you have used professional development opportunities to improve your teaching skills. If appropriate, how have you aligned professional development with the feedback you have received on your teaching?

• Current curriculum vitae.
• Excluding the letters of nomination and support and curriculum vitae, the nominee's teaching portfolio only is limited to six (6) pages double spaced, with a 12 point font.
• Nominations must be submitted as a single PDF document, with an embedded link to the teaching video. All materials must be submitted electronically to the Graduate College (graduatecollege@kent.edu).

The application window for the 2024-2025 academic year will open in September.

Selection:

• All nominees are reviewed by a committee comprised of faculty representing various ranks and disciplines. Recipients are selected by the Dean of the Graduate College.
• For questions, please contact Dr. Sarah Beal at sbeal5@kent.edu.

If you are selected to receive a scholarship, fellowship, graduate assistantship, tuition waiver or any other award, your current financial aid offer, including student loans, could be reduced. If you would like to know how your financial aid offer may be affected by another award, please contact One Stop for Student Services for assistance. To learn more about taxes on scholarships and fellowships, visit the Tax and Treasury Services webpage.