Presidential Chair Fellows Program

Program Details

This program provides an opportunity for a team of two or more faculty members from a department, or across departments, to develop, improve, transform, and examine core areas of the undergraduate curriculum. The grant program fund projects up to $20,000 over the one-year grant period. Funds may be expended any time between the start of the Fall 2014 semester and the start of the Fall 2015 semester.

The purpose of this grant program is to make available funds to carry out curriculum enrichment efforts that are meaningful and achievable. Funds are intended to make curriculum enrichment projects possible at the department/program level that may involve curricular revision or the introduction of new curricular components that address a specific need or opportunity. The grantees will be able to “close the loop” on their curriculum planning and innovation in the program, supported by gathering evidence of student learning and experiences across courses or at the end of a degree program, and guide further improvements in the curriculum by using the evidence gathered. The grant program will also focus on developing strategies that lead to a sustainable enrichment process to be continued by the department or program, and will lead to an examination of genuine questions about curriculum through these one-time, “start-up” funds. For the work involved, the budget must include funding for at least one Graduate Student Research Assistant; up to 20% of the total award may be used as research stipends for the faculty team supervising the project. In order to seed the broadest number of sustainable efforts, we will provide no more than one grant per department.

A unique aspect of the Curriculum Enrichment Grant program is its foundation of scholarly exchange in the form of a learning community. Hence, Presidential Chair Fellows grant recipients take part in a peer cohort comprised of other grant recipients and focused on curriculum re/design. Every department/program will have an individual focus and plan for curriculum enrichment that broadens the discourse around curriculum across the learning community. Fellows will meet in workshops and seminar sessions eight times (once a month) during the course of the award period, between August 2014 and May 2015.  Meetings will include presentations and discussions by Berkeley faculty and staff with expertise in areas of curriculum enrichment and program evaluation, as well as by the Fellows themselves. The seminars will be co-facilitated by Richard Freishtat and Yukiko Watanabe (Senior Consultants in the Center for Teaching and Learning). The final selection of session topics will be determined in consultation with the peer cohort and informed by their grant projects.

The Curriculum Enrichment Grant will also provide a pathway for graduate students to refine and hone skills in conducting evaluation and participating in program level curriculum dialogue. To this end, the grant monies are intended to fund at least one Graduate Student Research Assistant (GSAR) during the award period to work on the project. As part of the program, GSARs will participate in a seminar on educational program evaluation that will take place in Spring 2015. The seminar will provide a grounding in assessment and evaluation theory and practice, designed to support their specific projects.  Departments who do not have a graduate student in mind for the program will be offered assistance in identifying suitable candidates.

Monthly Seminar Dates for 2014-2015

Information: If you have questions or would like further information on the Presidential Chair Fellows Program, contact teaching@berkeley.edu.

2013-2014 Recipients

Five teams from across four colleges developed the following projects as the first round of recipients of the 2013-2014 Presidential Chair Fellows Curriculum Enrichment Grants:

College of Chemistry

Development of a Teacher-Scholars Development Program Create a community of undergraduates responsible for facilitating scientific discussion, the Teacher-Scholars Program, in both non-majors and majors in introductory, general, and organic chemistry courses, which are required for students in many or most STEM majors.

• John Arnold, Professor, Chemistry
• Anne Baranger, Director of Undergraduate Chemistry, Lecturer SOE and Adjunct Professor, Chemistry
• Peter Marsden, Lecturer, Chemistry
• MaryAnn Robak, Lecturer, Chemistry

College of Environmental Design

Design, Cities and Ecology: Innovations in Undergraduate Education Undertake research into innovative pedagogy within the CED disciplines in order to pilot new approaches to teaching undergraduates about the built environment and work collaboratively across the three gateway courses to coordinate themes, assignments, and evaluation. 

• Kristina Hill, Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning
• Ronald Rael, Associate Professor, Architecture
• Carolina K. Reid, Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning

College of Letters and Science

Introductory Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences Develop one or more new courses in introductory quantitative methods for undergraduates across the social sciences.

• Cathryn Carson, Associate Dean of Social Sciences, Associate Professor, History
• Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Associate Dean of Social Sciences, Associate Professor, Sociology and Demography

Interdisciplinary Studies Field (ISF) Major             

Data Collection for Curricular Improvement A preliminary project to collect the quantitative and qualitative data that will serve as the basis with which to develop an overall revision and reform of the ISF Major.

• Rakesh Bhandari, Instructor, Interdisciplinary Studies Field major(ISF)
• Peter Sahlins, Professor, History, and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies Field major (ISF)

College of Natural Resources

Flipping the Classroom: Revitalizing Gateway Environmental Science Courses in ESPM Revamp and enhance ESPM’s gateway environmental science education to better align course content with ESPM’s evolving vision and more importantly to provide students with an experimental learning experience.

• Inez Fung, Professor, ESPM
• Mary Firestone, Professor, ESPM
• Allen Goldstein, Professor, ESPM
• Matthew D. Potts, Assistant Professor, ESPM
• Rob Rhew, Associate Professor, Geography