Purpose

To recognize excellence in teaching by SSC members, with emphasis on evidence-based pedagogy, with the Early Career Award focused on emerging contributors, and the Distinguished Educator Award aimed at extensive career-long practice.

Description

The statement of purpose of the SSC is to advance the knowledge and education of Canadians concerning statistical sciences and related fields. Teaching statistics at different levels of our Canadian education system is a crucial part of this purpose. Through these awards the Society recognizes those individuals who have profound impact on the practice of teaching statistics at the tertiary educational level across Canada.

To reflect best practices in pedagogy and scholarship of teaching and learning, award winners’ use of evidence-based pedagogy and promotion of accessibility and inclusivity in learning are of primary concern.

Criteria

The essential idea of these awards is to emphasize educators who treat teaching as a priority in their professional lives, and whose teaching goes beyond simple classroom excellence. Educators should be possessed of self-reflection and show strong evidence of innovation and improvement in their teaching and development of educational resources, especially through use of tested, evidence-based pedagogies. Note: research student supervision is explicitly excluded from consideration for these awards.

For the Early Career Educator Award, possible areas of excellence that could be considered include:
 

•    contributions to evidence-based pedagogy (e.g., through publication of scholarship of teaching and learning scientific articles),
•    contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning,
•    attention to accessibility and inclusivity of learning environments,
•    self-reflective and responsive approaches to teaching,
•    active integration of one’s own research or professional experience into teaching,
•    innovation in development and/or implementation of new courses, curricula or programs,
•    innovation in community building for statistics, especially for students,
•    innovation in pedagogical methods
 

Some evidence of breadth of impact on statistics education beyond a nominee’s institution should be clear, for example:
 

•    creation of Open Educational Resources (OERs),
•    organization or presentation on topics related to statistics education at national and international conferences,
•    authorship of book chapters or textbooks relating to statistics,
•    editorial or senior editorial roles relating to statistics publications, or
•    general contributions to the Canadian statistics education community.
 

This list is intended to be examples of contributions and is not necessarily exhaustive.
 

For the Distinguished Educator Award, possible areas of excellence that could be considered are the same as for the Early Career, but with evidence of sustained or continued contributions to these areas across many years. In addition, for the breadth component, nominees should have evidence of sustained leadership and national and international impact on statistics education.

Eligibility

Any member of the SSC is eligible. Nominees need not be currently working or living in Canada, but should have an active connection to both Canada and the Canadian statistics education community. For the Early Career Educator Award, nominees must be within 10 years of their first full-time tertiary educational appointment which included a statistics teaching role, with additional time allowance made for any career interruptions and leaves of absence up to a maximum of five additional years. For the Distinguished Educator Award, nominees must be active in Statistics education at the time of their nomination, or have had an extensive career or experience in the same, ending no more than five years in the past, and must have at least 10 years of experience in full-time tertiary educational appointments which include a statistics teaching role.

Procedures

Any person or group can make nominations, although the nominator should be personally speak to the nominee’s contributions. 

For the Early Career Educator Award, the first-stage nomination package should consist of a letter of nomination and at least one (and no more than four) supporting letter(s) from past students supporting the nomination, a copy of the candidate’s CV, and possibly a teaching portfolio. Such nominations should make clear how the nominee has had broad and deep impact: broad across the Canadian community in some way, and deep in their personal, local teaching. The latter should be supported by the student letter(s) of support. The awards sub-committee will then consider the following criteria in short-listing nominees for the award:
 

•    Demonstrated excellence in the practice of teaching statistics, as communicated by the nominator
•    The relative impact of the nominees’ contributions beyond their institution
•    The clear connection of the nominee to Canada and the Canadian statistics education community, and ensuring that they are current members of the SSC
 

The letters of support should ideally be able to speak to the nominee’s teaching excellence (e.g., use of evidence-based pedagogy or scholarship of teaching and learning). These letters could come from graduated students upon whom the nominee had exceptional impact, and who are able to speak to the quality of teaching in retrospect. These letters are to be gathered by the nominator. The teaching portfolio may include (but is not restricted to): a teaching dossier; example syllabi; statement of teaching philosophy; and so on. This will be contributed by the nominee at the request of the nominator, and is acceptable in any form available to the candidate as used to support their appointment, renewal, permanence, tenure, continuing status, or equivalent at their institution, to a maximum of 100 pages.

For the Distinguished Educator Award, nominees should be nominated by a long-time colleague/collaborator who is able to personally speak to the nominee’s extensive historical contributions. This nominating letter should come with at least two additional supporting letters from statistics educators familiar with the nominee’s contributions. The nominating letters should make clear how the nominee has had both broad and deep sustained impact: broad across the Canadian community in some way; and deep in their personal, local teaching; and sustained across a breadth of time. Finally, the nomination should come with a citation suitable for public announcement of the award. The awards committee will then consider the following criteria in adjudicating nominees for the award:
 

•    Quality and quantity of national and international impact on statistics education
•    Demonstrated excellence in the practice of teaching statistics, of development of teaching materials and pedagogies, and in actual teaching delivery across their career
•    Relative breadth of contributions across career
•    A clear connection by the nominee to Canada and the Canadian statistics education community
 

Nominations are to be made by a specified and well-advertised deadline, e.g., February 1. The SSC Statistics Educator Awards Committee shall call in Liaison for nominations for the awards, and shall report its decisions to the President by March 31; ratification of the decisions shall be made by the Executive Committee by April 30, in time for the recipients to be alerted to receive the award at the Banquet held in conjunction with the SSC Annual Meeting, and for the Distinguished Educator to be able to plan their invited talk. Short citations, based on those provided with the nominations and submitted by the SSC Statistics Educator Awards Committee shall accompany each award.

Award nominations shall be solicited annually, but if no meritorious candidates are found,  awards need not be made every year.

At most one award for each category, two total, shall be awarded per year. Nominations for the Distinguished Educator Award shall be considered valid for three successive competitions unless withdrawn by the nominators. Nominators of unsuccessful candidates should be asked annually to add, replace or update recent contributions related to the award criteria, changes to biographical information and updated letters of reference as appropriate.

The SSC values and encourages Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in all of its nominations and awards. Please see the SSC guidelines on implicit bias (pdf).

Awards

Early Career: A certificate, suitably inscribed and framed, to be presented at the SSC Annual Meeting banquet together with the other major SSC awards, and a cash prize of \$1000.

Distinguished: A certificate, suitably inscribed and framed, to be presented at the SSC Annual Meeting banquet together with the other major SSC awards, a cash prize of \$1000, and an invited talk at that year’s SSC Annual Meeting, as one of the four Statistics Education Section designated sessions.