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Excellence in Teaching Awards

Includes the following awards :
Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching
The Presidential Citation for Meritorious Teaching
The Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

The Board of Regents will present six awards as tribute to Mānoa faculty who exhibit an extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity, and personal values that benefit students. The President may award additional Citations that recognize outstanding performance of teaching. The Frances Davis Award recognizes teaching excellence for dedication and attention to undergraduate students.

These annual awards recognize the importance that students, faculty and administration place on quality teaching on this campus. Online nominations for the awards are accepted during the Fall semester from mid-September through mid-October and awarded in the following Spring semester.

The nomination period is now closed.

Awards will be given near the end of the Spring semester.

Submit Nominations Online

As nominator, you will need to provide:

  1. your name
  2. your contact information
  3. the nominee’s name, department, and college/school.

Nominations will be forwarded to the respective nominee’s college/school to notify faculty of their nomination, and faculty may submit an e-dossier application to be considered for an award. The deans’ appointed committees will select the college/school finalists to be reviewed by the campus-wide Mānoa Awards Committee and recommendations are forwarded to the President for the specific awards. Award recipients will be announced in the spring semester (April/May.)

Criteria for Excellence in Teaching Awards

Subject Mastery and Scholarship
The teacher demonstrates mastery of the subject matter in courses taught, has the ability to organize, emphasize and clarify ideas, elicit useful questions, communicate knowledge beyond the mere exchange of information. The teacher blends new ideas, research and developments into classroom instruction.

Teaching Effectiveness and Creativity
The teacher has developed effective skills in managing the art and craft of teaching; well-prepared for class, interesting and clear presentations, fair and reasonable evaluation of students, ability to encourage and motivate learning in students. The teacher is open to new techniques and approaches to stimulate learning, and demonstrates these qualities in innovative ways.

Personal Values Beneficial to Students
The teacher has an interest in student learning and the quality of the learning environment, is enthusiastic about teaching, approachable, tolerant of different viewpoints, and sensitive to cultural, ethnic and gender differences among students. The teacher treats students with respect and promotes civility and good relationships among students.

Eligibility

Any full-time UH Mānoa faculty member with instructional duties and an established record of accomplished teaching for the last 3 years at UH, as well as EWC or Research Institute joint appointees with at least 50% teaching loads during the previous 3 years up to the current Fall semester, is eligible for the award and may be nominated by any student, faculty member, administrator, or alumnus. Faculty may only be awarded the Board of Regents (BOR) award once in a lifetime, but past BOR award recipients may be eligible for a Presidential Citation.

Nominations of those faculty who do not meet the strict eligibility criteria (ex. specialist faculty with alternative teaching duties) are welcome for nomination with a letter of explanation by the Dean and considered on an ad hoc basis by the Mānoa Awards Committee.

Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

The Frances Davis Award, financed largely by faculty contributions, is a memorial to the late Frances Davis who taught mathematics at Leeward Community College and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for 19 years. Frances Davis was an inspired teacher dedicated to sharing her knowledge of mathematics with undergraduates attending the University of Hawaiʻi (“UH”). The award recognizes recipients for their dedication to teaching, for their demonstrated excellence as teachers, and for their attention to undergraduate students.

At UH Mānoa, the final recommendation is made by the Mānoa Awards Committee. College/School may designate a faculty nominee for this award and the submitted dossier will be considered as part of the college/school quota. The award recipient will receive a cash award and a certificate.

Eligibility

  • Candidates must be full-time or part-time faculty or lecturers in good standing at any UH campus. Graduate assistants at UH Mānoa are also eligible to receive this award. Nominations of graduate assistants will be handled separately by UH Mānoa’s Graduate Division.
  • Candidates should demonstrate a record of dedication to teaching, excellence in the design and instruction of lower division or interdisciplinary undergraduate courses, and service to undergraduate students.

Weighing Priorities

Highest:  Demonstrated professional expertise as exhibited in teaching success. 

2nd Highest:  Demonstrated interest and involvement on behalf of students.

3rd Highest:   Demonstrated exemplary performance, setting a good example for students.

Nominee Procedures

Nominees will be notified by their college dean about requirements and deadlines for submitting e-dossier applications.

A single e-dossier PDF application should be organized in separate sections to include:

  1. A statement of a philosophy of teaching, maximum of three pages
  2. Information on courses taught with the number of students and six semesters of summaries (no raw data) of student course evaluations during the last three-year period (Fall–Spring or Spring–Fall). Maximum of three student comments per class.
  3. Current curriculum vitae
  4. Supporting materials to include pertinent information demonstrating creative and innovative teaching.
  5. Five to eight letters of support. Additional letters should not be included and will not be considered.
Teaching Awards Dossier Library Logo

Teaching Awards Dossier Library

Dossiers of past awardees may be viewed at the Awards dossier library

Entry through Kuykendall 107
M–F, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Please call us at 808-956-9567 to ensure staff availability for access to the library.