Teaching Engagement Grants (TEGs) are competitive awards that enable Yale-NUS faculty to develop new pedagogies, collaborations, and participate in transformative professional development experiences, in line with the College’s mission to redefine liberal arts and science education for a complex interconnected world. (The TEGs replace what used to be known as Teaching Innovation Grants or TIGs.) Individual faculty members can apply, as can a team of faculty members or a faculty-staff team. The College invests in these grants to encourage reflective teaching and foster creative strategies in the service of our distinctively global, interdisciplinary, undergraduate education. The program also provides a pathway for encouraging experimentation and making our excellent and innovative teaching more visible to the Yale-NUS community and the world.

We particularly encourage applications that will deepen expertise and introduce impactful strategies relevant to the most distinctive features of the Yale-NUS educational experience:

• The Common Curriculum and Team Teaching
• Interdisciplinarity and the Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Global Curriculum and Student Body
• Diversity and Community in Learning
• Experiential and Community Engaged Learning
• Residential Education

With respect to experiential and community engaged learning, TEGs are not designed for one-off field trips or one-week learning projects like CIPE LABs. Rather TEGs are designed for courses in which experiential learning permeates the entirety or a large portion of the course structure. Currently, given travel and safety restrictions, we can only support projects that do not require international travel. Specific information about experiential and community engaged learning is provided at the end of this application. If you need additional information, please contact Valentina Zuin (valentina.zuin@yale-nus.edu.sg).

EXAMPLES OF ELIGIBLE EXPENDITURES

Grants can be used to cover the costs of conducting research on teaching and learning, attending training programs and professional development workshops, procuring new classroom technology, establishing partnerships in Singapore and beyond, piloting experiential and community engaged learning projects in the curriculum (e.g. not extra-curricular experiences which are already provided for via CIPE LABs), and presenting research and innovative practice at conferences. TEG funds can support stipends for student associates (e.g. to work on faculty-led technology development or as research assistants) and collaborative work with educators around the world, including – but not limited to – at NUS and Yale. TEGs can be course-specific or non-specific.

 ***Currently, given travel and safety restrictions, we can only support projects that do not require international travel.***

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Connection to core features of the Yale-NUS experience: The Common Curriculum; Interdisciplinarity and the Liberal Arts and Sciences; Global Curriculum and Student Body; Diversity and Community in Learning; Experiential and Community Engaged Learning; Residential Education.
2. Clarity: Clear articulation of the implementation plan, aims, objectives, and expected outcomes; timeline and milestones specified. Explicit discussion of plans for development, implementation, and evaluation.
3. Impact: How the project will enhance student learning and faculty practice, and have an impact in Yale-NUS and beyond; how the results could be used by other courses/instructors. Successful applications will demonstrate the potential for enduring and sustainable impact on a given course, the faculty members’ (or broader faculty’s) teaching practice, and/or the partner/ community involved.
4. Sustainability and Ethics: Demonstrated attention to sustainability, and a plan that fosters equitable partnerships with external organizations/ constituencies. Guidance on some issues related to sustainability and ethics can be found here.
5. Feasibility: Strong and innovative design, with activities clearly defined and achievable within a two-year period.
6. Assessment, Reflection and Self-Reflection: There must be a plan for assessment of the impact of the grant on the recipient (faculty), as well as students, and the community/partners (if involved).
7. Dissemination: There should be an explicit plan for how the TEG experience will be shared with relevant internal and external audiences, Yale-NUS faculty and/or a community of their choosing (e.g. the community with which they collaborated). Some examples include presentation at division meetings, presentation to common curriculum teams, sharing at a CTL Teaching and Tonic event, curating content for the CTL website, or something else of their choosing.
8. Budget: Appropriateness of the budget plan to maximize the benefits/outcome of the proposal.

EXPERIENTIAL AND COMMUNITY ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECTS

We are particularly interested in receiving applications from faculty members to pilot new and ambitious experiential and community-engaged learning projects. These can be projects that are linked to existing modules or that envision entirely new course designs purpose-built for more experiential and community-engaged modes of learning. For projects that are designed to create new credit-bearing courses or to modify substantially courses that were previously approved, approval or re-approval from the Curriculum Committee is required, and should be obtained as soon as the new course is ready.

We encourage projects that include a thoughtful integration of experience and reflection, and that promote sustainable and equitable partnerships with external stakeholders and organizations. Faculty who are doing experiential learning projects are also encouraged to approach CIPE staff who bring expertise to these issues. Faculty and CIPE staff may want to formally co-author their applications. CIPE staff may be particularly valuable partners in thinking through practical implementation, models for reflection, and identifying community partners. When approaching CIPE staff, faculty members should be mindful regarding the timing of the project, and the need for CIPE staff to balance many programming commitments (e.g. Week 7, LABs).

More resource-intensive projects that involve designing new courses or substantial enhancement to existing courses will also require a report to the Curriculum Committee upon completion of the grant on what was achieved, learned, and future plans.

ELIGIBILITY

Any Yale-NUS individual faculty member on a multi-year contract (educator track, tenure track, multi-year lecturer contracts) can apply for a TEG. Additionally, a team of faculty members or mixed faculty-staff team is eligible for a TEG as long as at least one team member is on a multi-year faculty contract. Priority will be given to faculty members who have not yet received such a grant, though in some cases grants will be awarded to the same faculty member more than once. Junior faculty are advised to consult with their mentors and Head of Study to discuss the merits of pursuing teaching grants versus other commitments.  You can learn more about past teaching grant projects and experiential and community engaged learning at the CTL website. If you wish to discuss possible ideas, please contact Catherine Sanger (catherine.sanger@yale-nus.edu.sg) or Valentina Zuin (valentina.zuin@yale-nus.edu.sg).

BUDGET

Normally awards will be up to $5000, but faculty members can apply for awards of up to $10,000 in those special circumstances where the nature of the activities/project will require greater financial support. The amount awarded to each project will depend on the needs and merits of that specific initiative, the number of applications, and budget availability. Funding for the TEG program has been generously provided by DOF, ERT, and the President’s Office and the program is administered by the Centre for Teaching & Learning.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, please complete this TEG Application Form and send it to teaching@yale-nus.edu.sg before the submission deadline.

TIMEFRAME AND PROCESS

 Applications will be evaluated by the TEG Committee on the following time-line.

GET INSPIRED:

Examples of Experiential and Community Engaged Learning from other institutions:

• Fieldwork in Public Affairs and Private Non-Profits: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sGoDfFnXDfloiMmV60lkNjDfjO9A8JLjkMjAohsUu_s/edit
• River Stories – experience the river that is central to much of literary tradition and history: https://catalog.swarthmore.edu/preview_course.php?catoid=7&coid=63596
• Grant-Writing, Non-Profit Organization Management, and Social Impact: https://www.wellesley.edu/news/2014/09/node/48521
• Partnership Learning with Incarcerated Students: https://learning-in-action.williams.edu/fieldwork/by-sector/education/postive-pathways-partnership-p3/
• Urban Exploration in a Public Health Class: https://uwaterloo.ca/stories/experiential-learning-streets
• Performance and Crafting in a History Course: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/resources/teaching-stories/greta-kroeker
• Simulations in a Political Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUIxeNIgBUg&feature=youtu.be
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program: https://learning-in-action.williams.edu/courses-teaching/volunteer-income-tax-assistance-program/
• Role-Play in a History of Science Course: https://ablconnect.harvard.edu/book/1923-role-play
• Jeopardy as Exam Prep in an Astronomy Class: https://ablconnect.harvard.edu/book/astro-jeopardy
• Collaborative Art-Making in the Community: https://web.williams.edu/admin/registrar//winterstudy/courseinfo/courses11.html#ARTS14
• Different approaches to integrating service into courses: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-through-community-engagement/#ways

Past Yale-NUS Grant Projects

Most Recent Grant Recipients (AY 2020/2021)

Congratulations to the following recipients, who have received funding for their projects!

 

Past Grant Recipients (AY 2019/2020)

No.	Name	Division	Project Title
1	Jane M Jacobs	Social Sciences	Singapore Building Archive: Using Digital Humanities with Classroom Learning to Generate a Public Resource on Singapore’s Architectural and Urban History
2	Parashar Kulkarni	Social Sciences	Training for Contemplative Pedagogies in  the Social Sciences
3	Valentina Zuin	Social Sciences	Exploring Models of Experiential and Service Learning in Liberal Arts Colleges (Smith College and Williams College)
4	Nienke Boer	Humanities	Keywords for Oceanic Literary Study
5	Kevin Goldstein	Humanities	The Form of World Literature: A Student-Generated Compendium of Literary Devices
6	Matthew Walker	Humanities	Exploring Philosophy as a Way of Life Pedagogy
7	Stanislav Presolski	Science	Feeling the Invisible: Building 3D models of molecular structures to improve intuition of the nanoscopic world

 

Past Grant Recipients (AY 2018/2019)

No.	Name	Division	Project Title
1	Malcolm Keating	Humanities	Yale-NUS College Philosophy Student Survey
2	Robin Zheng	Humanities	Writing A Collaborative Philosophy Textbook
3	Sandra Field	Humanities	Applying political philosophy to real-world cases
4	Chan Kiat Hwa	Science	Understanding Problem-Based Learning in Chemistry
5	Nicholas Tolwinski	Science	Developing Effective Strategies for Undergraduate Mentorship in the Life Sciences
6	Jean Liu	Social Science	Psychology in the Public: Website Development for Student Coursework
7	Paul A. O’Keefe	Social Science	Promoting A Growth Mindset of Interest and Intelligence Among Yale-NUS College Students
8	Shian-Ling Keng	Social Science	Exploring the Role of Contemplative Inquiry and Education at Yale-NUS

 

Past Grant Recipients (AY 2017/2018)

Click on the photos to find out more about each recipient’s project!

Collaborating with peers at Yale University and University of Wisconsin on IAALLT 2017 project By Associate Director of Language Studies and Senior Lecturer of Spanish, Humanities Division, Eduardo Lage-Otero	A Database of Teaching Resources for CSI   By Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Social Sciences Division,  Anju Paul	Sharing strategies for teaching climate change in the humanities at ASLE conference 2017 By Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Social Sciences Division, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson
Teaching “Proof” through Peer Feedback Software By Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Science Division, David Andrew Smith	Sharing analyses of “Biolab” at The Drosophila Research Conference By Assistant Professor of Biology, Science Division, Nicholas Tolwinski	Classifying Signals Supplement By Assistant Professor of Life Sciences, Science Division, Philip Johns
Yale-NUS Journal of Dante Studies By Assistant Professor of Literature, Humanities Division, Andrew Hui

Past Grant Recipients (AY 2016/2017)

Click on the photos to find out more about each recipient’s project!​

Writing and Teaching Philosophy By Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Humanities Division, Matthew Walker	Foundations of Science and Conversion Biology By Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Science Division, Jennifer A Sheridan	Psychology in Public Policy By Assistant Professor of Psychology, Social Sciences Division and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Jean Liu
Learning Diversity in Conceptual Calculus and Applied Calculus By Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Science Division, Matthew Stamps	Collaborative Teaching for Advanced Chinese By Senior Lecturer of Linguistics, Humanities Division, Hu Jing