Three annual awards will be given to faculty in the David O. McKay School of Education who have made outstanding contributions to education. The following categories will be considered for selecting awardees:

  • Outstanding Teacher
  • Outstanding Mentor
  • Outstanding Scholar

Each award recipient receives a cash and a physical award at a college-wide event.

Awardees will be chosen by a committee selected by the dean. Examples of criteria related to each award are listed below.

Outstanding Teacher

  • Superior teaching evaluations from students and/or peers
  • Sustained efforts to evaluate and improve teaching
  • Evidence of quality teaching (e.g., quality text materials, availability to students, innovative teaching methods, technology use, positive student impact)
  • Products of high quality teaching (e.g., evidence of student achievement, student scores/papers, students’ scholarly works, theses and dissertations supervised, successful academic internship and service-learning programs, student placement in graduate school or meaningful employment)

Outstanding Mentor

  • Supervision of graduate and/or undergraduate students and/or faculty
  • Effective student or faculty mentoring
  • Mentored learning environments
  • Committed to advancing students’ or faculty careers by providing additional guidance and experience
  • For faculty teaching graduate students, obtains and maintains Graduate Faculty Status
  • Helps students learn program/course requirements, be proactive, ask the right questions, and to solve their own problems
  • Takes an interest in students’/faculty academic progress, life, and career prospects and know how they are doing
  • Be supportive, but also honest and clear when communicating with students or faculty
  • Meet regularly with students or faculty and sets appropriate boundaries
  • Foster effective use of time
  • Encourage students or faculty to develop relationships with other mentors
  • Encourage students or faculty to recognize and develop their own strengths and interests
  • Shows students or faculty that they have confidence in them
  • Provide a safe haven where students or faculty do not feel vulnerable or threatened
  • Respect student or faculty learning styles while maintaining academic standards
  • Generate substantive and content rich letters of recommendation
  • Including mentees in your own academic network
  • Model and expect ethical behavior
  • Assists students in applying for awards, fellowships, and grants

Outstanding Scholar

  • Develops an independent scholarly agenda with a clear area of focus
  • Scholarship contains some element of originality
  • Scholarship contributes to overall effectiveness as a teacher
  • Collaborative scholarship
  • Mentored research and/or co-authoring with students
  • Publications have been published in high quality national and international scholarly presses and journals
  • Evidence of rigor, influence, and prestige of scholarship
  • Sufficient first-author works
  • Presentations at professional meetings and conferences have been developed into publications
  • Acquired grants for research or creative works
  • Received awards or recognition for scholarship or creative works