Hauser Grants

HILT aims to be a catalyst for transforming students’ educational experiences across the University and to expand Harvard’s leadership in the research, application, and assessment of innovative pedagogy in Cambridge and around the world.

One dimension of this initiative is a 2012-2013 Hauser Fund Grants program that awards support to cultivate pedagogical innovations across Harvard’s schools. The goal is to promote effective learning and teaching across the University by funding activities – or documentation of those activities – that might not otherwise occur, that are innovative, and that are evidence-based. These first-year grants are understood as an initial phase in a multi-year grant program. Applications and awards will be used to inform and prepare for subsequent elements of the larger grant program and the Initiative overall.

This past fall, a broad range of proposals were received from across the University that aimed to:

• address the changing needs and expectations of students
• develop instructional methods, tools, and assignments that contextualize learning in real-world and global situations
• develop connections between research and teaching
• promote the retention and transfer of learning
• creatively capture a broad range of educational outcomes
• gauge the intellectual, civic, professional and/or economic impact of instruction on students at the course, curricular, or programmatic levels
• develop courses or programs that are at the intersection of, or work across, boundaries (curricular, disciplinary, programmatic, and administrative)
• integrate pedagogical scholarship into pedagogical practice
• effectively incorporate technology and social media into teaching and learning activities

Invitations to develop full proposals and final award decisions were deliberated by a selection committee comprised of faculty from across the University.