Texas A&M University Graduate and Professional School

About TAR

The Teaching as Research (TAR) Program provides Texas A&M University graduate and professional students and postdoctoral scholars the opportunity to conduct an experiment in teaching methods in a real classroom project in collaboration with a faculty mentor in their discipline. In this year long program, participants design, implement, assess, and report on innovative teaching methods.

Details

  • Conduct an experiment in teaching methods in a real classroom project in collaboration with a faculty mentor in your discipline
  • In this year long program, students design, apply for IRB approval, implement, assess, and report on innovative teaching methods tested in a classroom here at Texas A&M.
  • If accepted, you will be mentored through the entire process and graduate and professional students can receive payments for meeting project milestones. Each Fellow will need a faculty partner (typically the instructor of record for the course you will conduct your research project in).
  • Student fellows can receive a stipend of either $400 (Practitioner) or up to $1000 (Scholar) for program completion

 

Flowchart titled “Teaching-as-Research Milestones and Requirements” showing required activities, milestones, and stipends. All projects include attendance in a learning community, a faculty mentor, a teaching-as-research project, and IRB training. Milestones progress from IRB submission ($200 stipend) to Practitioner ($200 stipend, $400 total), Scholar A ($550 stipend, $750 total), and Scholar B ($800 stipend, $1,000 total), with increasing requirements such as reflections, reports, presentations, and journal submission. A sidebar notes a maximum available stipend of $1,000 and eligibility details.

 

Eligibility

Applicants must have engaged in professional development in teaching beyond department requirements. It is not required that you have a project concept, course, or faculty partner information to apply. If you do, you can share this information in your application. If you do not, we can work to match you with a faculty partner/project.

Please note this project can NOT be part of your thesis/dissertation research. TAR projects should be supplemental to thesis/dissertation research. We do not provide support or stipends to conduct thesis/dissertation research.

The TAR program is open to graduate and professional students and postdoctoral scholars at Texas A&M University (Bryan/College Station, Galveston, and Qatar campuses).

Graduate & Professional Students must be in good academic standing (3.0 GPA) and maintain full-time enrollment status during their participation. Must be a full-time student to receive stipends for successfully completing program milestones. If you are graduating during the year-long program, please contact cirtl@tamu.edu to see if you are eligible to participate.

 

APPLY HERE - Application Closed

 

Benefits of Participation

  • Develop your teaching through research in your classroom
  • Differentiate yourself as an academic job candidate
  • Get support in conducting your own research project
  • Work one-on-one with a mentor in your field
  • Receive a stipend of up to $1,000 for graduate students
  • Earn a CIRTL Practitioner or Scholar Certificate
  • Completion of the Teaching-As-Research Fellows program meets the activity requirement for a GRAD Aggies Mastery PD Certificate in Instruction & Assessment - CIRTL Certificate Programs. 

Open to graduate and professional students and postdoctoral scholars.

 

Current TAR Cohort

To find out more about current and past TAR Fellows and their projects, check out our TAR Fellows page!

TAR Fellows 

Faculty Mentor Interest Form

Faculty who are interested in mentoring, please submit form below. Check this page for updates on Spring 2027 applications.

Application Closed

Video testimonials for the TAR program.