Documenting Teaching Excellence
Promoting the university’s vital mission
Karin deJonge-Kannan, PhD, & Travis N Thurston, PhD
Showcase your teaching impact with Documenting Teaching Excellence, the definitive open‐access guide for college instructors at every career stage. Anchored by real‐world case studies, practical strategies, and insightful frameworks, this volume demystifies the art of curating compelling evidence of your pedagogical achievements. Whether you’re a tenured professor, adjunct lecturer, or other VITAL instructor, you’ll discover how to transform reflective practice into persuasive teaching narratives that elevate your professional profile and enrich your institution’s culture of teaching excellence. Dive in today and join a community of instructors committed to celebrating and advancing the vital role of teaching in higher education!
Table of Contents
Book editors
Karin deJonge-Kannan
Karin deJonge-Kannan, with a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University, is Emeritus Principal Lecturer of Linguistics in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University, where she taught in the Master of Second Language Teaching program for 23 years, serving as its co-director for 13 years. Dr. deJonge-Kannan has worked with school teachers and university instructors in Chile, China, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, in addition to designing and organizing professional development programs at Utah State University for teachers from around the world, with funding from the US Department of State. She is a two-time Fulbright award recipient, has presented regionally and internationally on a wide range of teaching-related topics, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Empowering Teaching Excellence.
Travis N. Thurston
Travis N. Thurston is the founding director of the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence at Utah State University. He holds a Master of Educational Technology degree from Boise State University and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Utah State University. He brings 16 years of experience as an educator in the United States including classroom teaching, instructional design, and professional development programming and consulting across multiple institutions. He has also worked with school teachers and university instructors internationally in Ecuador and Turkey with funding from the US Department of State. Dr. Thurston’s scholarly work includes a focus on teaching documentation utilizing digital badges to support reflection and ongoing professional development toward teaching excellence. He has presented at multiple local and international conferences on teaching and leadership topics, and publishes interdisciplinary studies on the scholarship on teaching and learning, and is the production editor for the Empower Teaching Open Access Series.
About Empower Teaching Open-Access Series
The Empower Teaching Open-Access Book Series features a variety of peer-reviewed books focused broadly on the multi-disciplinary work of teaching in higher education. Books in the series align with the mission of the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence (ETE) to bolster the culture of teaching excellence for students, staff, faculty and administrators. The books in this series share insightful and innovative perspectives on teaching and learning, and through a partnership with USU Libraries the books are offered in an online and open-access format to amplify the voices of authors and contributors in the series.