The Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) is pleased to announce a call for applications for its 2016 Educational Starter Grants dedicated to supporting educational research. A generous donation from Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., has provided funding for this year’s grant program.

ASCO’s Educational Starter Grants have been awarded in each of the past five years with the goal of encouraging and supporting research focused on optometric education. According to the American Educational Research Association, education research is defined as:

“Education research is the scientific field of study that examines education and learning processes and the human attributes, interactions, organizations, and institutions that shape educational outcomes. Scholarship in the field seeks to describe, understand, and explain how learning takes place throughout a person’s life and how formal and informal contexts of education affect all forms of learning. Education research embraces the full spectrum of rigorous methods appropriate to the questions being asked and also drives the development of new tools and methods.”

Securing one of ASCO’s Educational Starter Grants provides faculty with a great opportunity to get involved in doing educational research, which can impact teaching, student learning and the profession.

Check out information about our past Educational Starter Grants here.

To apply for a 2016 Educational Starter Grant, submit a completed application via e-mail to Sara Lau. The deadline for applications is midnight, Aug. 8, 2016. Confirmation of received applications will be sent via e-mail within 36 hours of receipt.

Click here for the 2016 application form.

Final decisions will be made and notifications to applicants will be completed by Aug. 22, 2016.

 Save article as PDF