Campus Life

Texas A&M Presidential Transformational Teaching Grants Awarded

The funds support faculty innovation and creativity in teaching, efforts to improve diversity, equity and inclusion, and more.
By Sherrie MacWillie, Texas A&M University Center for Teaching Excellence March 3, 2021

PTTG encourages faculty creativity in the pursuit of teaching excellence .

Texas A&M Division of Marketing & Communications

 

Thirty projects have been underwritten by the Texas A&M University Presidential Transformational Teaching Grant (PTTG) program.

Supported by the Presidential Excellence Fund, PTTG encourages faculty creativity in the pursuit of teaching excellence and seeks to promote transformational teaching and learning in which faculty design learning experiences that stimulate critical reflection and shifts in student perspectives.

PTTG funds 30 two-year projects per year, which include 20 projects by individual faculty at $20,000 each and 10 team projects for $60,000 each.

“At Texas A&M, our faculty form the foundation of our academic excellence,” said Texas A&M Interim President John L. Junkins. “As an institution, it’s important to recognize and reward those faculty whose innovative teaching is helping lead the university to a new level of excellence.”

The projects were awarded grants for teaching and learning components with an emphasis on innovation and creativity; interdisciplinarity; diversity, equity and inclusion; or Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).

A unique opportunity to collaborate with Prairie View A&M University faculty was included in the 2020 PTTG Call for Proposals, resulting in three team Texas A&M-Prairie View collaborations.

“The PTTG program invests in the creative capacity we know our faculty have,” said Blanca Lupiani, dean of faculties and associate provost at Texas A&M.

”The program seeks to encourage innovative approaches in undergraduate, graduate, and professional teaching and learning across existing and new courses, as well as, learning experiences outside the course setting.”

The awards were randomly selected from 103 proposals submitted. Funded grants are broadly distributed across the university, with 42 faculty members from 16 Texas A&M colleges, University Libraries and branch campuses, as well as three faculty members from Prairie View.

Lupiani said the program seeks to support both the ideas of individual faculty, as well as interdisciplinary teams.

“Starting this year through PTTG we are broadening and deepening our ties with faculty at PVAMU,” Lupiani said. “The semi-random selection process for PTTG ensures an inclusive distribution of the funds across colleges, faculty, student populations, and learning situation types. It is exciting to watch how our faculty use these funds to transform their teaching.”

The 2020 projects impact new and existing courses, as well as non-course learning experiences across a wide range of topic areas, including race and international relations, clinical case-based animations, service learning, virtual study abroad, sustainable campus initiatives and more.

The projects selected include the following emphasis areas: 18 interdisciplinary; 14 diversity, equity, and inclusion; 12 scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL); and 28 for creativity.

The awards will impact students at the undergraduate (19), graduate (4), or both graduate and undergraduate (7) levels.

A complete list of funded Round 2 projects is on the PTTG website.

Funded faculty will showcase their proposal plans during the virtual Transformational Teaching and Learning Conference, April 30.

Media contact: Sherri MacWillie, smacwillie@tamu.edu

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