Apply to become an Engaged Teacher-Scholar (ETS) with the Center for Faculty Innovation.
The Engaged Teacher-Scholar (ETS) program supports faculty scholarship examining issues of teaching and learning. Scholarly work that consists of evidence-based explorations of teaching and learning activities is known as discipline-based research, teaching inquiry, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
In the ETS Program, faculty develop and implement an inquiry project addressing their teaching and/or their students' learning. As a learning community, faculty meet during the academic year to expand their knowledge base, support progress on their projects, and connect with colleagues. Faculty projects are expected to result in a scholarly product.
The 2026-27 ETS program will focus on the theme of dialogue in the classroom. Issues of dialogue can take many forms, including developing students' interpersonal skills, supporting difficult and/or meaningful discussions, and creating connections beyond the classroom.
The ETS program is a year-long commitment. Faculty accepted into the program will receive a $500 stipend for their engagement in the ETS program, disbursed in payments of $250 at the completion of the fall and spring semesters.
Participants who complete the first year of the ETS program are eligible to continue into the second year to conduct and share their SoTL projects. They may also receive up to $1,000 in professional development funding, awarded at the end of the year. These funds are intended to support completion of the SoTL project, including expenses such as conference travel to present the work.
APPLICATION PROCESS: The program runs from September (fall 2026) through May (spring 2027). Refer to the CFI events feed to learn about the application process.
Benefits to being an Engaged Teacher-Scholar include:
- Being recognized for evidence-based teaching and learning scholarship
- Serving as a liaison between CFI and department/college on ETS initiatives
- Being a part of JMU's Community of Engaged Teacher-Scholars
- Receiving professional development funds to support personal ETS efforts (i.e. disseminate ETS work, attend ETS Professional Development opportunities, travel to ETS conferences, workshops, etc.)
During the academic year, Engaged Teacher-Scholars will:
- Make progress on their evidence-based teaching and learning scholarship project(s)
- Participate in a community of Engaged Teacher-Scholars
- Attend CFI-organized or other professional development opportunities
Program Outcomes
Faculty participants will make progress toward:
- Advancing a scholarly project
- Examining issues of teaching and learning
- Developing pedagogical understandings and skills
- Creating a community with colleagues
Scholarship Programs & Resources
Publications & Accomplishments of ETS Scholars related to their program research
- Castaneda, D. I., and Merritt, J. “Research Initiation: Infusing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) at the Start of the Engineering Mechanics Curriculum.” Submission to PFE:RIEF NSF: Awarded: $200,000.
- Castaneda, D. “Exploring critical consciousness in engineering curriculum through ill-structured problems.” In IEEE 2019 Frontiers in Education (FIE). Cincinnati, OH.
- Connolly, A. J. & Mutchler, L. A. (2021) "A Course Plan for Principles of IS Programming to withstand COVID-19" Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 48.
- Connolly, A., J, Rush, D., & Mutchler "Using Role Play to Teach Complexity in IT Project Management" (2020). AMCIS 2020 Proceedings. 3.
- Lang-Rigal, J. and Galaretta-Aima, D. "Improving students' confidence in speaking a second language". 2018-2019 Accelerating Creating Teaching (ACT) grant winner.
- Lang-Rigal, J. & Galaretta-Aima, D. "Improving students' confidence in speaking a second language: using TalkBoard [video conference with native speakers] in Spanish course" ICERI2019 Proceedings, pp. 1744-1753.
- Larsson, C. & Williams, R (JMU Undergraduate, Class of ‘18) “Jackpot! A cost-benefit analysis of prize-linked savings accounts”, case study forthcoming at Journal of Financial Education, (Winter 2020 issue)
- Larsson, C. Financial Management Association (FMA) Annual Conference; Innovation in Teaching Award Finalist; October 2020.
- Larsson, C. SEDSI conference; Charleston, SC, February 13, 2020.
- Larsson, C. One of three finalists for FMA Innovation in Teaching Award; winner will be announced October 20th, 2020
- Lyons, C.W., Baker, S.C., Reis-Bergan, M.J. (2020, Oct 4th – 10th) "How to use observational behavioral measures in the scholarship of teaching and learning", Society for Teaching of Psychology Annual Conference on Teaching, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Rush, D. E. & Connolly, A. J. (2020). "An Agile Framework for Teaching with Scrum in the IT Project Management Classroom. Journal of Information Systems Education", 31(3), 196-207.
- Scialdone, M. J. & Connolly, A. J. (2020). "Teaching Tip: How to Teach Information Systems Students to Design Better User Interfaces through Paper Prototyping." Journal of Information Systems Education, 31(3), 179-186.
- Sawyer, A., Dredger, K. & Myers, J. (2019). "Developing Teachers as Critical Curators: Investigating Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Inspirations for Lesson Planning." AACTE Journal of Teacher Education, October 19. 2019.
Engaged Teacher-Scholar Program Liaisons
Current Liasons
- Robyn Kondrad, Psychology, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Melanie Shoffner, Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education, College of Education
Former Liaisons
- Tim Ball, Communication Studies, College of Arts and Letters
- Dayna Henry, Health Sciences, College of Health and Behavioral Studies (2018-2021)
- Ray Rodriguez, Education Programs, College of Education
- Anthony Tongen, Math & Statistics, College of Science and Mathematics
- Ashley Taylor Jaffee, Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education, College of Education
Previous Engaged Teacher-Scholars
- Ahmad Salman, Integrated Science and Technology, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Alexis Stevens, Math & Statistics, College of Science and Mathematics
- Amanda Sawyer, Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education, College of Education
- Amy Connolly, Computer Information Systems & Business Analytics, College of Business
- Ana Abad-Jorge, Health Professions, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Angela Webb, Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education, College of Education
- Ben Riden, Educational Foundations and Exceptionalities, College of Education
- Bisi Velayudhan, Biology, College of Science and Mathematics
- Budimka Uskokovic Tenney, Foreign Languages, College of Arts and Letters
- Carl Larsson, Finance and Business Law, College of Business
- Cassie Williams, Math & Statistics, College of Science and Mathematics
- Christa Berthiaume, Nursing, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Christine Toh, Engineering, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Cindy Hunter, Social Work, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Cindy Klevickis, Integrated Science and Technology, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Claire Lyons, Psychology, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Daniel Castaneda, Engineering, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Danielle DeRise, Writing, Rhetoric, & Technical Communication, College of Arts and Letters
- David Shonk, Hart School of Hospitality, Sport & Recreation Management, College of Business
- Diana Galarreta, Foreign Languages, College of Arts and Letters
- Elise Barrella, Engineering, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Emily York, Integrated Science and Technology, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Erika Metzler Sawin, Nursing, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Eva Strawbridge, Math & Statistics, College of Science and Mathematics
- Gilpatrick Hornsby, Hart School of Hospitality, Sport & Recreation Management, College of Business
- Heather Griscom, Biology, College of Science and Mathematics
- Hui Zhao, Nursing, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Joe LeBlanc, Graduate Psychology, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- John Guo, Computer Information Systems & Business Analytics, College of Business
- Joseph Harsh, Biology, College of Science and Mathematics
- Katie Dredger, Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education, College of Education
- Katya Koubek, Education Programs, College of Education
- Kim Slekar, Biology, College of Science and Mathematics
- Krisztina Jakobsen, Psychology, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Mark Lewis, Literacy Education, College of Education
- Mollie Godfrey, English, College of Arts and Letters
- Natasha Miller, Social Work, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Rachel Palkovitz, Integrated Sciences, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Robyn Kondrad, Psychology, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Samy El-Tawab, Integrated Science and Technology, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Shana Meganck, Communication Studies, College of Arts and Letters
- Shannon Conley, Integrated Science and Technology, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Shraddha Joshi, Engineering, College of Integrated Science and Engineering
- Sombo Muzata, Political Science, College of Arts and Letters
- Tiara Saufley Brown, Education Programs, College of Education
- Tiffany Hornsby, Graduate Psychology, College of Health and Behavioral Studies
- Yiran (Kevin) Liu, Hart School of Hospitality, Sport & Recreation Management, College of Business
- Zareen Rahman, Middle, Secondary, and Math Education, College of Education
Center for Faculty Innovation
