The Decanal Award for Teaching Excellence in Nursing recognizes the recent use or development of meaningful and/or innovative methods of curriculum design, course instruction, learning materials and technologies, and/or assessment.
Award Criteria
In addition to providing students with timely, helpful feedback and leadership to support and strengthen learning, the candidate has distinguished themselves by excelling in the following practices:
- Imaginative Approaches: The candidate has implemented creative approaches to course design, instructional strategy, or assessment.
- Quality of Course Materials and Instructional Strategies: The candidate has created well-designed course materials and utilized effective instructional strategies.
- Learner Satisfaction: The candidate has demonstrated rapport and ongoing engagement with learners as well as other course participants.
- Effective Learning Outcomes: The candidate has demonstrated effectiveness in enabling students to achieve desired learning outcomes in the course and promoting critical thinking and social inquiry, deep learning, student engagement, and/or, creative, logical, and persuasive expression of ideas.
Eligibility
This award honours teaching within a course (excluding practice courses) or a teaching project completed within the given academic year that supports students’ development and learning and promotes student engagement with nursing research and practice.
Eligible nominees include all TFSON full-time and part-time faculty who have taught at least one half-credit course in nursing during the academic year in which they are nominated. For the purposes of this award, the academic year is considered to begin in Summer Session of one calendar year and end in Winter Session of the following year. Previous recipients are eligible for the award once in a three-year period.
How to Nominate:
Nominations will be cumulatively collected during three set periods during each academic term:
Nomination Widow 1: August 12-26, 2025
Nomination Window 2: November 18, 2025-December 2, 2025
Nomination Window 3: April 8-22, 2026
To nominate an instructor, complete the online form below. The online form will be live from 8AM the first day of each nomination window and close at 4PM on the final day:
>> Online Nomination Form for the Decanal Award for Teaching Excellence in Nursing
What should your nomination include?
Complete the "Nominator Information" and the "Candidate Information" sections on the Nomination Form.
In the section on “Candidate Qualifications,” explain what the instructor did to create a successful course. Present specific details about your experience with the candidate, providing clear examples that illustrate the ways in which they used or developed meaningful and/or innovative methods of curriculum design, course instruction, learning materials and technologies, and/or assessment. How did the instructor specifically promote student engagement with critical scientific inquiry and encourage deep learning of scientific knowledge?
Please see “How to Write a Strong Teaching Award Nomination” for guidance on writing your nomination as well as annotated examples of high-quality nomination letters.
How is the Award Determined?
Nominations are collected over the course of the academic year during three nomination windows in August, December, and March. They are then collated by Trent Teaching Commons staff who remove nominators’ identifying information except for whether they are faculty, staff, students, or alumni. All nominations are then considered by the TFSON Awards Committee, which determines the award recipient in the spring.
A public announcement of all Decanal Award recipients is made by Communications in September of each year. Recipients receive $500 and a framed certificate of achievement.
Timeline
August-March: Nominations are cumulatively collected during Summer, Fall, and Winter terms.
Early March: Final nomination window close.
Early March: Trent Teaching Commons prepares nomination packages.
Early March: Collated nominations packages are circulated to TFSON award committee members for review and scoring.
Mid-March: Deadline for all committee members to submit scores to Trent Teaching Commons.
Mid-March: Trent Teaching commons sends finalized shortlist to committee.
Late March: Meeting to deliberate and decide award.
April: Award recipient is notified.
April/May: Award is presented at the annual TFSON awards ceremony.
September: All nominees are notified.
September: All Decanal Award recipients are publicly (re)announced
Previous Recipients
- 2024-2025 Julie Plessl
- 2023-2024 Dr. Victoria Reid-de Jong
- 2022-2023 Kinza Malik
- 2021-2022 Dr. Abeer Omar