TEACHING EVALUATION



Characteristics to be Evaluated

Exemplary teaching is complex, creative, and intellectually challenging. Drawing upon summaries of prior research, Eastern has identified eight broad characteristics of instruction that are to be evaluated:

  1. Good organization of subject matter and course

  2. Effective communication

  3. Knowledge of and enthusiasm for the subject matter and teaching

  4. Positive attitudes toward students

  5. Fairness in examinations and grading

  6. Flexibility in approaches to teaching

  7. Appropriate student learning outcomes

  8. Effectiveness in advising

Course Reaction Surveys

Faculty are to obtain student evaluations in all courses with enrollments of 3 or more and to do so all terms. Courses taught "in-load" and "out-of-load" are included as are campus-based and off-campus courses, using the University's approved forms and procedures developed for residential and for extended courses. Faculty may choose to supplement these forms with other ways to obtain student evaluations of instruction but these efforts would be supplements and not substitutes.

Each term, the overall student evaluation data will be tabulated with campus-wide norms being reported to faculty when they receive their individual reports. This provides a comparative frame of reference for interpreting student evaluation results.

Faculty around the country differ on the extent to which they view course reaction surveys as actual measures of teaching effectiveness or as simply measures of student satisfaction. What is certain is that such surveys will, by default, carry more weight than, perhaps, they should if additional means of assessing teaching are not used. Eastern does require varied and complementary means of systematically evaluating teaching; the remainder of this Handbook section presents those means.

The Teaching Portfolio

All Instructional faculty undergoing personnel evaluation reviews (tenure; promotion; third- and fifth-year reviews; continuation; and full post-tenure reviews) will assemble a portfolio that is a collection of material depicting the nature and quality of an individual's teaching and students' learning. Faculty will assemble systematically collected data from a number of sources so that their teaching can be evaluated fairly and given the emphasis it requires. This portfolio must be modest in size and limited to information that is relevant and current. The following materials are to be included in the portfolio to document performance in teaching and advising.

  1. Framing Statement -- Faculty provide a "framing statement" indicating the individual's teaching roles and responsibilities along with a reflective statement focusing on teaching philosophy, important educational outcomes, instructional strategies, activities engaged in to improve teaching, and future goals. This statement creates the conceptual framework that will help members of personnel committees to understand diverse faculty intentions, goals and teaching practices. Faculty diversity in approaches to the instructional mission will be respected; but this can only been done to the extent that the Framing Statement provides an internally coherent and complete articulation of the faculty member's pedagogical assumptions and approaches. The intent is to evaluate faculty within the context of their unique approach taken to teaching and goals pursued, which can vary widely depending on individual temperament and the demands of their discipline.

  2. Student Evaluations -- Student evaluations for all courses taught with enrollments of more than three in the most recent two years, including courses taught in load and out-of-load, will be included in the portfolio. At a minimum, Eastern's standard student evaluation form and standard evaluation procedures are to be used for each course; faculty may elect to supplement these evaluations with approaches of their own design.

  3. Course Syllabi -- Faculty will include three representative course syllabi from those taught in the past two years, including lower and upper division or graduate courses.

  4. Academic Advising -- The portfolio will include evidence that faculty members make valuable contributions in the area of student advising. Data on advising caseloads will be reported on a term-by-term basis for the past two years. When the Advising Coordinator has developed a system for evaluating each advisor's ability and effectiveness, the results of these assessments are to be included in the portfolio.

  5. Institutional Records and Descriptive Information -- Faculty are to assemble the following institutional records and descriptive information:

    1. List of classes taught, course delivery mode (on campus, Weekend University, Ed-Net, etc.), and enrollment numbers in the past two years

    2. Grade distributions in all classes taught in the past two years

    3. Service on capstone committees, both in the capacity of advisor and/or reader

    4. Curriculum development activities either at the program or University-wide level

    5. Programs, summaries of field trips, other experiences used to broaden students' knowledge beyond the classroom context

    6. Optional items -- Faculty members' inclusion of optional items is strictly limited to those that will represent a picture of some significant aspect of their teaching that is not revealed in the required portfolio items.


Promotion and Tenure Reviews

In addition to maintaining a Teaching Portfolio as specified in the preceding section, faculty being considered for promotion and/or tenure shall be observed and peer-evaluated directly in the classroom and have personnel committee interviews of select ed alumni who have taken courses from the professor.

  1. The direct classroom observations will take place in the year prior to the promotion or tenure decision. At a minimum, two unannounced classroom visits are to be made by three different individuals: the School Dean, a faculty peer selected by the person being evaluated, and a faculty peer selected by the School Dean.

    The following standardized items are to be used to guide classroom observations. The report of each peer reviewer should address each of the items.

    1. COMMUNICATION SKILLS AS OBSERVED

      1. Projected voice to be heard easily

      2. Listened to student questions and comments

      3. Presented examples to clarify points

      4. Commanded attention

    2. WHAT WERE THE MOST AND LEAST HELPFUL THINGS THE INSTRUCTOR DID TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY?

    3. KNOWLEDGE OF AND ENTHUSIASM FOR SUBJECT MATTER AND FOR TEACHING

      1. Presented material appropriate to the stated purpose of the lesson

      2. Demonstrated command of the subject matter

      3. Encouraged student involvement

    4. WHAT CONTENT APPEARED TO BE THE MOST AND THE LEAST SUITABLE TO THE LESSON?

    5. ATTITUDES TOWARD THE STUDENTS
      1. Encouraged student discussion

      2. Encouraged students to answer difficult questions

      3. Used questions to determine if students were having difficulty

    6. HOW DID THE INSTRUCTOR SHOW INTEREST IN STUDENTS AND THEIR LEARNING?



    7. COMMENTS ON OVERALL TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

      The individual reports of peer reviewers are available to the faculty member being reviewed and are to be included in the promotion and/or tenure dossier being reviewed by personnel committees, the dean, the provost, and the president.

  2. Alumni will be interviewed either face-to-face or via telephone. The following set of standardized questions are to be utilized to focus the interview.

    The faculty being evaluated will provide a list of eight graduates who have taken at least two courses from them. School Personnel Committee members will interview at least three alumni from this list.

    The individual reports of the alumni interviews are to be included in the promotion and/or tenure dossier being reviewed by personnel committees, the dean, the provost, and the president.

  3. Faculty being reviewed for promotion or tenure will include in their portfolios copies of all previous personnel review recommendations made during their career at Eastern (School Personnel Committee recommendations, Assembly Personnel Committee recommendations, School Dean's recommendations, Provost recommendations, and the President's recommendations).

    School Procedures

    Schools are encouraged to develop supplemental procedures. For example, a professional program may wish to invite practicing professionals to offer comment on course syllabi; other programs might wish to systematically survey majors and include questions about instructional and advising quality as well as about instructors and advisors.

    Schools may also seek to change or perfect components of the University policy. For example, a School may find that a particular approach to peer evaluation or to the questions asked of alumni is better suited to the situation and objectives of the School. Development of improved and tailored approaches is encouraged; however, any departures from or amendments to the University policy must be approved by the School faculty, the School Dean, and the Provost prior to implementation. Some changes are likely to be minor: e.g., the wording of questions asked of alumni. If, however, the Provost judges the School policy to depart from the principles and high expectations set by University policy, then she/he will require Assembly approval before acting on the proposal. Such approved school-level modifications will be noted in this section of the Faculty/Staff Handbook. So far, none have been proposed or approved, and the preceding University policy on Evaluation of Teaching applies to all teaching faculty undergoing personnel reviews.

[Responsible for Accuracy: John S. Miller, Provost - Last Verified: 7/28/00]





From Faculty/Staff Handbook