Teaching Academy Grants

What motivated you to apply for the grant?
I applied for this teaching grant:

1. For professional development—to evaluate the effectiveness of the community-centred pedagogy I use in my teaching and to benchmark my practice within the engineering education community at an international level through peer-reviewed conference paper and presentation at AAEE 2024.
2. Another key motivation was the potential benefit to students. Enabling them to step beyond the everyday university setting to present their projects at an international level offers a transformative learning experience. It enhances their confidence and communication skills and also creates a memorable and meaningful moment in their academic journey.

What did you learn during the application process for this teaching grant?
During the application process, I learned the importance of clearly articulating the significance of the project—why it matters and why it should be done. I had to critically reflect on the potential impact of the project, not only on my own teaching practice, on student learning but also how this project benefits the broader engineering education community. That was why I chose to submit the outcomes of the project to be peer-reviewed and presented it at an international conference to encourage conversations of community -centered pedagogy.

This required me to think deeply about what could be improved, what gaps existed in using community-centered pedagogy, and how this project could address them. The process sharpened my ability to justify the project’s value and align it with broader educational goals, making my proposal more focused and compelling.

What are your top tips for success when applying for a teaching grant?
As with any grant application, it’s essential to have a clear vision of your project from start to finish. This includes detailed planning for implementation—defining team members' roles, timelines for data collection, and plans for quantitative and/or qualitative analysis. Be specific about the budget and how outcomes will be disseminated, whether through a conference, seminar, workshop, or another tangible format.

Strong time management and early feedback are key to a successful application. Mentoring can also be invaluable—engaging experienced colleagues can strengthen your proposal. Finally, you need to have a contingency plan to address potential challenges, even if this might not be required in the application.

Can you share any outcomes or impact you've had since receiving your teaching grant?
I presented my peer-reviewed paper “Evaluating and Enhancing the Efficacy of the Community-Centered Learning and Teaching Pedagogy in an Engineering Course” at AAEE 2024 in Christchurch, NZ. The presentation connected me with four like-minded engineering educators from Denmark, the UK, and the USA—we are now collaborating on a joint project for AAEE 2025.

The grant also supported a student team to attend the national Engineers Without Borders showcase, where they won “Most Outstanding Design Project” (Cambodia context) for a rainwater catchment solution addressing UN SDGs 3 and 6. Judges praised their empathy, innovation, and use of Khmer.

See the CSU news post here: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/central-west-engineering-students-win-2024-engineers-without-borders-uni-student-challenge

Dr Miao Li
Course Director / Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering
School of Computing, Mathematics and Engineering
Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences

Received in 2024