WTFS 2026-27 Program Description | Call for Applications

Scholarly teaching is what every one of us should be engaged in every day that we are in a classroom, in our office with students, tutoring, lecturing, conducting discussions, all the roles we play pedagogically… But it is only when we step back and reflect systematically on the teaching we have done, in a form that can be publicly reviewed and built upon by our peers, that we have moved from scholarly teaching to the scholarship of teaching [and learning].

– Lee Schulman, President Emeritus
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

This quote by Lee Schulman reminds us that our teaching flows into multiple spaces and is rarely absent from our everyday lives. It is through the mindful act of reflecting that we can transform a knot of messy experiences into a stream of clarity, knowing, and understanding. Yet reflecting and reflection do not come easily when one is juggling the teaching of multiple classes, advising, grading assignments, squeezing in research and scholarly work, and providing service to the department, university, community, and discipline. The demands of teaching necessitate a clearing.

OPID’s Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars (WTFS) Program is designed to provide the time, space, and support to systematically reflect with UW peers in a stimulating and open-minded community and, ultimately, to move from “scholarly teaching” to the “scholarship of teaching [and learning].” Administered by the UW System’s Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) and directed by UW faculty, the WTFS Program is grounded in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We welcome projects that consider the intersection of equity, high-impact practices (HIPs), and SoTL.

This is a call to faculty and instructional academic staff throughout the Universities of Wisconsin to submit applications to their Provost’s office for the 2026-27 WTFS Program.

Universities provide a $4,000 summer stipend (paid before the Fall semester), and cover travel, lodging, meals, and incidentals for their WTFS participants. Each participant also receives $500 in Supplies & Expenses from OPID. We seek participants who demonstrate a commitment to excellence in teaching and learning, as well as intellectual curiosity, spirit of collegiality, and commitment to the success of all students.

Common Questions

Who can apply to the WTFS Program?

We are seeking participants to join a community of educators to design, develop, and implement Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL), preferably with a focus on equity-minded high-impact practices. This equity-minded theme is consistent with OPID’s professional development programs. Participants may be seasoned educators with 10+ years of teaching experience (Scholars) or earlier in their teaching careers (Fellows). In keeping with our equity-minded lens, we are moving away from making distinctions between Fellows and Scholars based on tenure status. Faculty and instructional academic staff are welcomed and encouraged to apply.

Common characteristics of successful WTFS participants: intellectual curiosity, openness to new ideas, ways of thinking, and problem-solving, collegiality and commitment to a learning community, willingness to engage with an interdisciplinary group of diverse peers, and an underlying commitment to equity-minded teaching and high-impact practices.

Your institution will ask you to complete an application template answering questions about your interest in the program, understanding of SoTL, and questions or curiosities about improving student learning. You will also be asked to provide your teaching philosophy. Participants will engage with fellow WTFS members to conceptualize and implement SoTL throughout the WTFS year-long program. Although you may enter the WTFS Program with a research question in mind, we encourage you to suspend your assumptions until experiencing Faculty College and the WTFS Summer Institute. We have found that engaging in discussions with WTFS participants and guest speakers often deepens understanding of SoTL and generates new questions about teaching and learning.

What is SoTL?

SoTL involves systematic inquiry into student learning in higher education by moving educators from scholarly teaching to publicly shared scholarly exchanges. These exchanges promote engagment and build understanding with the goal of advancing teaching knowledge and practices. The UW System was an early adopter of SoTL, partnering with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (CASTL) in 2000. Former UW faculty Tony Ciccone, Lisa Kornetsky, Bill Cerbin, and Nancy Chick held (or still hold) prominent positions in the international community of SoTL. Their legacy continues today with OPID’s WTFS program. WTFS is a year-long learning community of SoTL practitioners who represent the Universities of Wisconsin. Collectively they form a vibrant interdisciplinary community with multi-faceted dynamic discussions and career-enhancing experiences for participants.

What does it mean to be equity-minded?

The WTFS Program adopts its equity-minded definition from The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching (2023):

Educational  equity is both an aspiration and a commitment to action. It means recognizing that each student is starting from a different place and that many of the teaching practices that may have worked for us when we were students are not serving our current students equally well. Equity-minded educators work to ensure that every student has the opportunity to learn, succeed, and thrive. This work involves making adjustments to account for the imbalances in students’ experiences and access to resources. Equity-minded educators strive to prepare students for active engagement, success, wellness, and joy in a world still characterized by injustice. When will we have achieved educational equity? When students’ identities and social histories do not predict their academic outcomes. (p. xxi).

Equity-minded teaching and learning has been an aspiration and commitment of OPID, WTFS, and Wisconsin educators for several years, and we sustain our efforts into the future.

We welcome SoTL projects that explore the intersection of equity-minded high-impact teaching practices with culturally response teaching, indigenous and embodied ways of knowing, generative artificial intelligence (AI), alternative grading and other current issues and interests in higher education.

What happens in the WTFS Program?

The WTFS Program models and promotes effective teaching and learning through creating a community of learners. Fellows and Scholars are guided through the process of designing a SoTL project with input from participants and the program co-directors through year-long activities and interactions. The culmination of the WTFS program involves a SoTL public presentations at OPID’s Annual Spring Conference on Teaching & Learning in Madison. During our group meetings at Faculty College, Summer Institute, and Winter Institute, participants complete relevant readings and activities before the meetings, engage actively in reflective practices, participate in supportive small group work, and steadily make progress on their individual or collaborative SoTL projects. Participants are asked to make a full-time commitment during these meetings. While the process of a SoTL project helps participants explore a question about learning in depth, we also spend time together discussing approaches and other opportunities for enhancing teaching and learning.

Requirements

Willingness to travel to four events throughout the year:

• Faculty College – May 26-29, 2026 – The Osthoff Resort, Elkhart Lake
• Summer Institute – June 15-19, 2026 – The Pyle Center, Madison, lodging at The Graduate
• Winter Institute – January 3-5, 2027 – The Fluno Center, Madison
• Final meeting & Spring Conference on Teaching & Learning – April 15 &16, 2027, Madison

Participation in an online progress meeting in August

Submission of an IRB proposal prior to starting SoTL project data collection, ideally by August

Consultation and recording of SoTL project’s progress throughout the program year.

Submission of SoTL project abstract to UW system.