Office of Education Scholarship

This workbook provides detailed instruction on how to conduct an education scholarship project, from establishing clear goals at the outset, through to disseminating your work effectively. Download a copy to your computer here. (Microsoft Word .docx file)

There’s something for everyone here, from basic training in education scholarship, to graduate courses.

DFCM Courses

The Essence of Education Scholarship: A one-year longitudinal course containing monthly zoom seminars, mentorship and community support to help you take an education project from idea to implementation. Contact Course Directors risa.bordman@utoronto.ca or gurpreet.mand@utoronto.ca for information about future courses.

Master of Science in Community Health in Health Practitioner Teacher Education: The MScCH degree in HPTE is a professional graduate degree program in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. This unique graduate studies program addresses a critical faculty development need in the health professions.  

Clinical Teacher Certificate: This four module program's goal is to provide advanced training in health  professions education for interdisciplinary faculty members who want to increase their teaching, education and academic effectiveness. This program will assist the professional development of any faculty member or the future teacher who wishes to build a career portfolio in teaching or education and is suitable for part time teachers at all career levels: new, mid-career and seasoned. 

Interprofessional Applied Practical Teaching and Learning in the Health Professions (INTAPT): This course is designed to provide participants with a broad introductory overview of clinical education, teaching and learning issues in health professional training as a field of scholarly inquiry and research.

External Courses  

Centre for Faculty Development (CFD): A partnership between the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital, with resources available for teaching & education, career development, academic leadership, and research & evaluation. See upcoming workshops and events here 

• Education Scholars Program: a longitudinal leadership development program for health professional educators that fosters academic excellence, creativity and scholarly productivity in education. 
• Best Practice in Education Rounds (BPER): Held monthly throughout the academic year and offered virtually via Zoom. Freely accessible for anyone to attend.  Registration is required.  

The Wilson Centre: provides fellowships, research rounds and hosts a series of intensive workshops on education research, qualitative research, presentation skills and more.  

IHPME/PhD Program: Jointly offered by the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Wilson Centre & Centre for Faculty Development Atelier: Maximizing the rigour and effectiveness of collaborative education research. Learn to effectively collaborate in a research team. Sessions will focus on common methodologies and contemporary topics in health professions education research, delivered by researchers from across professions and disciplinary backgrounds. 

Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI): provides resources for teaching support, educational technology, and research on teaching. 

• The Temerty Faculty of Medicine offers research proposal support  including writing and editing support; ensuring applications clearly demonstrate the impact of the research; reorganizing for most effective content and structure; clarification of meaning and improvement of readability; correction of grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation; and ensuring proposals adhere to agency formatting guidelines. 
• The University of Toronto’s Writing Centre has produced a guide on conducting literature reviews 
• Compare popular reference management and citation software on this comparison chart by the University of Toronto Library

DFCM Funding Opportunities

• Art of the Possible Education Scholarship Grants are seed grants in support of proposed projects that will enhance education scholarship within DFCM programs. 2-year grants for up to $5000.  
• Faculty Development Initiative Fund provides up to four awards annually to support the creation of new educational programs.  
• DFCM Faculty Development Fund supports professional development, such as publication of scholarly papers or travel to present scholarly work at conferences.  
• Dr. Harrison Waddington Fellowship is awarded annually to enable family physicians to pursue higher education at the University of Toronto.  
• Research Publication Fee Award is awarded to support DFCM faculty who have had peer-reviewed research articles accepted for publication.  
• Research Travel Fund is awarded twice annually to support DFCM faculty to present peer-reviewed research at national and international conferences.  
• QI Publication Funding is awarded to help support DFCM faculty who have had peer-reviewed articles focused on improving quality accepted for publication.  

Temerty Faculty of Medicine Funding Opportunities

The Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Research Office offers information about funding and award opportunities. Of particular interest are the What’s New In Research Funding webpage and listserv providing updated funding information on a regular basis, and the list of available prizes and awards throughout the University. 

• Continuing Professional Development David Fear Fellowship is a $2,000 fellowship award to support Temerty Faculty of Medicine faculty who wish to develop or enhance their competence or skills in CPD, their scholarship or their professional development.  
• Comprehensive Research Experience for Medical Students (CREMS) offers funding to support a summer or in-term medical student and allows interested medical students to gain extracurricular research experiences in various structured programs without interrupting their medical studies. For faculty requiring matching funds, the DFCM runs an internal competition.  
• Instructional Technology Innovation Fund (ITIF) is intended to provide opportunities for technology-mediated teaching and learning projects that explore and implement promising practices at different stages of their development and implementation, and creates a pathway for projects from their initial inception to their full potential. Awardees have up to two years to complete their project.  
• Medical Humanities Education Matching Funding Grants support projects enhancing integration, application, and/or education within the scholarship of medical humanities and humanism in postgraduate medical education in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Maximum $5,000 from PGME + $5,000 matched funding.

External Funding Opportunities

• AERA American Education Research Conferences Program awards grants of up to $35,000 for conferences intended to break new ground in substantive areas of inquiry, stimulate new lines of study on issues that have been largely unexplored, or develop innovative research methods or techniques that can contribute more generally to education research.  
• AERA American Educational Research Association, Education Research Service Projects aims to encourage education researchers to offer their professional expertise on a pro bono basis to educational organizations, institutions, or identifiable community groups in areas where research can matter. The ERSP program welcomes applications from education researchers who seek to provide research skills, knowledge, methods, and related services to educational entities that have specifically identified and expressed a need for such assistance.   
• International Association for Medical Education (AMEE) Research Grant Awards provide financial support up to £10,000 for educational research projects. Only open to AMEE members.  
• AMS Funding Opportunities: fellowships and grants to support projects that will generate new knowledge and evidence to advance the education/training of undergraduate, graduate, and practicing healthcare professionals, and clinical health systems, and related field researchers on compassionate care and AI.  
• CAME Wooster Family Grant in Medical Education supports new and innovative scholarly projects in Health Professions Education that are not part of larger, formalized and funded education research programs. Maximum $5000.  
• Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Several grant opportunities open to CAEP members for education research.  
• Canadian Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) - Janus Research Grants support academic and community-based family physician members of the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) in carrying out research projects that meet the changing needs of their patients and communities in Canada.  
• Medical Council of Canada W. Dale Dauphinee Fellowship supports the vision of the Medical Council of Canada by supporting medical educators to enhance their knowledge and skills in physician assessment. $37,500. 
• Medical Council of Canada - Research in Clinical Assessment Grant is intended to encourage innovations in the assessment of clinical competence or performance of students, postgraduate trainees or practitioners. $37,500 maximum.  
• Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Applied Health Evidence Program generates and drives the use of data and evidence at all levels of the health system to improve patient care and health system performance. AHEP uses a flexible, responsive approach designed to ensure the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Long-Term Care and broader health sector have the evidence they need for decision making.  
• Ministry of Research & Innovation Early Researcher Award Program gives funding to new researchers working at publicly funded Ontario research institutions to build a research team. $100,000 (requires matching funds)
• National Board of Medical Examiners Edward J. Stemmler Medical Education Research Fund supports researchers in their work to develop innovative approaches for the assessment of medical education.  
• National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)/Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP). CHRP grants support focused, interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects involving any field of the natural sciences or engineering and any field of the health sciences. Proposed research projects should be innovative, with a strong focus on knowledge translation, and lead to health benefits for Canadians, more effective health services and/or economic development in health-related areas.  
• The Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education (SACME) - Phil R. Manning Research Award in Continuing Professional Development provides up to $50,000 (USD) over two years available to support scientific research.  
• PSI Foundation Educational Fellowship for Practicing Physicians supports physicians in Ontario, particularly those residing outside of the teaching centres, who wish to take a period of training to bring a needed clinical skill or knowledge to the community or to undertake training in research methodology.  
• Physicians’ Services Incorporated Foundation Funding is available for support of research designed to assess the post M.D. educational environment such as curricula, methods, and teaching resources. 
• Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Regional Continuing Professional Development Activity Grant Maximum $2,000.  
• Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Regional Professional Development Grant Maximum $4,000.  
• Royal College/Associated Medical Services CanMEDS Research Grant Special Call for Proposals: Royal College & AMS/Phoenix Call-to-Caring Funding: to fund projects that leverage the 2015 CanMEDS framework to instill and sustain compassion, empathy and professional values in the environments in which health professionals learn and work. Maximum $25,000.  
• Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Medical Education Research Grant Supports quality research in Canada that will advance the field of postgraduate medical education or continuing professional development. $5,000 - $50,000.  
• Royal College Strategic Initiative Grant supports research and scholarship that advance strategic areas of focus within specialty medical education. $1,000 - $30,000.  
• Scholarly Work in Family Medicine Education Grant  supports academic and community-based family physician members of the CFPC in leading projects in medical education. This grant funds scholarly work with the intent of advancing family medicine education broadly. Maximum $10,000.  
• Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education Research Review Synthesis Papers Proposals supports the preparation of a paper summarizing a review of the literature on a timely topic in medical education.  
• Spencer Foundation provides funding for education-focused research projects, research training fellowships, and additional field-building initiatives.  
• Spencer Foundation Conference Grants for Advancing Education Research provides support to scholars to organize small research conferences, focused symposia, or other forms of convenings around important issues in education research.  
• Tri-council funding Information from Canada’s three federal research agencies (Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR], Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council [NSERC] and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [SSHRC]) can be found on the University of Toronto Research and Innovation website.  

• The standards by which the University of Toronto’s Research Ethics Board (REB) evaluates submissions are informed by the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2). If you are unfamiliar with research ethics, the Tri-Council offers an excellent, online introductory course on research ethics. It consists of eight modules that focus on generalizable principles applicable to all research. 

• The University of Toronto outlines detailed information on research requiring Research Ethics Board (REB) review. The Research & Innovation website provides guided steps on how to submit a human ethics protocol. 

• Contact the RAISE Help Desk with questions about how to submit a human ethics protocol: 416-946-5000, raise@utoronto.ca

For a brief introduction to the spectrum of methodologies, please see the following article: 

• Turner T, Balmer D, Coverdale J. (June 2013). Methodologies and study designs relevant to medical education research. lnt Rev Psychiatry. 2013 Jun; 25(3):301-10. https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2013.790310   

Useful articles related to qualitative research include: 

• Reeves, S., Albert, M., Kuper, A., Hodges, BD. Why Use Theories in Qualitative Research. BMJ: British Medical Journal, Vol. 337, No. 7670 (Sep. 13, 2008), pp. 631-634. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a949  
• Kuper A, Reeves S, Levinson W. An introduction to reading and appraising qualitative research. Bmj. 2008 Aug 7;337. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a288   

For more information about research design, please see the following book: 

• Creswell, J. (2013). Research Design- Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. SAGE Publications, Inc. University of Nebraska, Lincoln 

Software and programs

The Licensed Software Office at the University of Toronto has agreements in place for U of T students, faculty and staff to purchase software such as SPSS and SAS. NVivo is available to UofT faculty, staff, and students at no cost.

• Open access support at UofT Libraries: UTL provide resources for researchers and faculty looking to publish OA. https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/copyright/open-access-investment

• Bookmark the OES Events page where you will find notices about upcoming dissemination opportunities.  

• The general DFCM Events page displays major academic conferences that may be of interest to researchers.  

• The annual spring DFCM Conference often serves as a valuable first step in disseminating your research in poster or workshop format. 

• DFCM City-Wide Research Rounds are an accredited, bi-monthly, two-hour interactive event focusing on primary care research and research practices. The events are open to everyone to attend, and those interested in presenting are encouraged to contact the Research Program. Guest speakers will focus on research results, methodologies, and techniques; the Research In Progress discussion will highlight new and exciting research. You will have the opportunity to network, socialize, and earn Mainpro credits.  

• JANE (Journal/Author Name Estimator) is an online resource that helps you find the most appropriate journal for your work. Just enter your title and/or abstract, and Jane will compare your document to millions of documents in Medline to find the best matching journals, authors or articles. 

• See journals and online repositories you might consider for disseminating your work.