Expanding student scholarship

Texas A&M School of Dentistry prides itself as a leading research institution. Beyond studying new ways to practice medicine and to expand the horizons of dentistry, research is also being done into how to teach more effectively. To better support this mission, the Office of Academic Affairs has revived its Educational Research Grant Program.

The purpose of the faculty grant program is to help offset costs of mentored student research and to fund high quality projects that aim to improve and expand dental education scholarship, said Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Douglas Gould.

“When people hear ‘research,’ they tend to think about bench (basic science) research, wet-lab research or clinical research, but there’s a lot more,” he said. “… There many forms of scholarly activity, beyond the scholarship of discovery or traditional research: you can do curricular evaluations, assessment research, teaching effectiveness studies and more.”

The ERGP was first established in 2015, but was put on hiatus in the 2021-22 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today the grant is open to support dental and dental hygiene faculty conducting mentored student research, with an emphasis on “outcomes pertaining to improving teaching, learning and/or curriculum effectiveness,” according to a program summary provided by Gould. Examples of such project topics include, but are not limited to, interprofessional education, technology in the classroom and anagogical studies.

Funding for the ERGP comes from the Baylor Oral Health Foundation, and Gould plans to offer multiple grants of $3,000 per year. He has streamlined the application process, reducing it to two pages, and funding will be limited to “one award per faculty member, per student project.” The funding cycle will follow the school’s fiscal year, and all funding must be spent during the year it was awarded. It can be used to travel to meetings, print posters or defray other costs.

Gould said the goal is to make mentor-lead student educational research more appealing and less cost-prohibitive. It’s a situation where everybody can win, he said.

“We have a tremendous educational mission here, and like any endeavor, it can always be improved and studied,” he said. “Educational research is a very important part of any educational institution. It’s a great thing for students, it can help faculty with their promotion and tenure goals, it gets our name out there and puts our school on the map in yet another area.”

Applications are open now.  For more information and to apply, go to the Office of Academic Affairs’ SharePoint page.