About the Baylor Fellows
History & Program Overview
The Baylor Fellows program aims to honor faculty members who exhibit excellence in teaching and desire to further transform student dispositions, thinking, knowledge, and skills through teaching innovations. The fellowship program, begun in 2011, is sponsored by Baylor’s Academy for Teaching and Learning (ATL). Selected faculty members receive an award of $1,845.00 in honor of Baylor’s founding and the title of “Baylor Fellow” for the year of their appointment.
Program Aims & Procedures
The primary purpose of the Baylor Fellows program is to recognize outstanding teachers across the disciplines and honor these individuals by giving them an opportunity to experiment with new approaches to teaching. To facilitate course innovation, Fellows are asked to identify one course to serve as their “incubator” or “lab” classroom. Fellows then implement their project in relation to the year's theme and with articulated aims to assess. A secondary purpose is to provide a forum in which Fellows can share and discuss their efforts to transform students. All full-time faculty members are eligible to serve as Baylor Fellows.
Selection Process
Each summer, academic deans, previous Baylor Fellows, and members of the ATL Advisory Council are invited to submit nominations of faculty members for consideration as Baylor Fellows. Nominations are received by the ATL via a web-based nomination form. Baylor Fellows are selected by the Office of the Provost. Criteria for the fellowship include a commitment to teaching development, a strong interest in teaching & learning research possibilities, and overall fit with the theme for that year's cohort.
Additional considerations include the following:
- A demonstrated excellence in teaching
- A reflectiveness about teaching paradigms and pedagogies
- A desire to experiment with new modes of teaching
- An openness to technology and/or technology-enhanced teaching and learning
- A willingness to discuss and reflect upon examples of transformational education
- Creating a vibrant cohort that draws upon a range of disciplines, schools/colleges, and faculty
Program Outcomes & Expectations
The outcomes of the Baylor Fellowship include the following:
- sustained discussion of teaching strategies, curricula, and course design
- assessment of student learning, student values and dispositions, and teaching and learning strategies and techniques
- advancement of teaching expertise, University priority initiatives, the Baylor Fellows program, and the ATL
- promotion of teaching and learning scholarship, interdisciplinary teaching and research, and the use of and/or development of evidence-based teaching practices
- investment in a community of faculty who share a commitment to teaching
- increased visibility of faculty members and academic units that promote teaching excellence
The Baylor Fellows are led by a Senior Fellow selected from the preceding year's cohort. Nine Baylor Fellows are then selected to create a group of ten. The Fellows meet five times a semester (basically once a month) where they confer on their projects with each Fellow presenting their work once each semester (two Fellows per meeting). Baylor Fellows are also expected to present their work in their department and participate in the Provost's Faculty Forum each Spring.
Baylor Fellows may also be invited in the future to contribute to the ATL and Baylor University after their year as Baylor Fellows.
- provide teaching observations for instructors across campus
- present ideas on teaching and learning at various ATL events
- join in the leadership of ATL seminars, such as a Seminar for Excellence in Teaching
- mentor a Graduate Fellow of the ATL or a Baylor colleague
- share ATL events and programs with departmental colleagues