RATING THE PROFESSORTA & PFF Workshop– Spring 2011Artze-Vega

Workshop overview

Historical ContextStudent Evaluations

The Teaching Portfolio

HISTORY OF TEACHING EVALUATION

60s: Conducted primarily in response to student demands for accountability70s: Developmental reasons80s & 90s: Driven by administrative needsRecently: National interest in improving undergraduate education, public demand for accountability, legal demands for improved teaching evaluation, and faculty demands (Ory, 2000 )

SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT TEACHING

Source Examples

Students •Student evaluations•Interviews with students•Long-term follow-up of students

Peer Review •Classroom visits•Colleague evaluation of materials

Self Reflection •Teaching activities, reports, & self-reviews•Measures of student achievement

*From UCLA’s Office of Instructional development

STUDENT EVALUATIONS

What do you think of them?

Why?

Mark Edmundson

“Edmundson: one to five, stand and shoot” (p. 39).

Edmundson, M. (1997, September). On the uses of a liberal education. Harper’s Magazine, 39-49

Common Critiques, Thoughts, & Concerns

They rate only student satisfaction (as in customer service)

Research says: SETs are legitimate indicators of student satisfaction which is in turn linked to effective teaching

 

It’s a personality contest

Research says: “Students want instructors who know what they are talking about and who also care about them…Neither the stand-up comic with no content expertise nor the cold-fish expert with only content expertise receives the highest ratings consistently” (Ory, 2001, p.4).

Common Critiques, Thoughts, & Concerns

Related to class size & instructor genderResearch says: “Not a serious source of bias”

(Cashin, 1992); no significant relationship Not valid

Research says: This debate was over in the 1980s. (See Ory, 2001 for a succinct summary of the validity debate) Linked to instructor characteristics (rank, age, research productivity)  Research says: minimal impact

Factors Known to Influence Student Ratings

Electives vs. required courses (strongest variable)

Professor vs. TA (higher for faculty members)

Course level (higher ratings in higher-level courses)

Discipline (not large, but consistent differences). In descending order: Arts and Humanities; Biological and

Social Sciences; Business; Computer Science; Math; Engineering; Physical Science

Grades: Yes, those expecting high grades give higher ratings, but does not mean it’s because instructors are giving away grades; could be that students feel they learned a lot & thus deserve a high grade

Informal Student Evaluations

Ratemyprofessors.com

Includes more than 6.8 million ratings for over 1 million instructors from over 6,000 different colleges across the U.S.Students consider them more honest and more representativeSome evidence that poor evals. linked to poor gradesOne study found them strongly correlated with standard evals.

Informal Student Evaluations

Fast Feedback“Intended to provide some objective information about your

class and to identify areas for improvement in a quick & efficient manner” (Courter, 1994-7).

Mid-semester EvaluationsSimilar to end-of-term evals.

Sample forms of both: http://www.engr.wisc.edu/services/elc/tahand.pdf

THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Why would you

want to develop

one?

What is a Teaching Portfolio?

“A coherent set of materials that represents your teaching practice as related to student learning” (Sorcinelli, 2000).

“A description of a professor’s major strengths and teaching achievements. It describes documents and materials which collectively suggest the scope and quality of a professor’s teaching performance” (Seldin, 1997).

Common Components

Teaching experience & responsibilities

Teaching philosophy & goals

Teaching methods & strategies

Activities undertaken to improve teaching

Goals & plans for the future

Supporting documents

The Teaching Philosophy

“A self-reflective statement of your beliefs about teaching and learning. In addition to general comments, your teaching philosophy should discuss how you put your beliefs into practice by including concrete examples of what you do or anticipate doing in the classroom.”

From http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/philosophy/index.html

Another definition: “A purposeful and reflective essay about the author’s teaching beliefs and practices. It is an individual narrative that includes not only one’s beliefs about the teaching and learning process, but also concrete examples of the ways in which he or she enacts these beliefs in the classroom.

At its best…gives a clear and unique portrait of the author as a teacher, avoiding generic or empty philosophical statements about teaching. They are also effective exercises in helping one clearly and coherently conceptualize his or her approaches to and experiences of teaching and learning.”

From www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/resources/teaching_resources/reflecting/philosophy.htm

Questions to Help You Get Started

Great sample teaching philosophy statements available athttp://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/teaching/forms/Sample%20Teaching%20Statements%20(ALL).pdf

What are your objectives as a teacher?What sets you apart as a teacher?How would an outside observer describe your teaching?What specific skills and knowledge should students gain in the classroom?What teaching methods do you consider most effective? Why?How do/will you measure your own effectiveness as an educator?What motivates you to teach?How do you motivate students?

Avoiding Common Teaching Portfolio Mistakes

Including too much material Inserting it in raw form

Solution: Think of the portfolio as an argument.

*From Mues & Sorcinelli (2000)

Peer/supervisor Observations

Questions & Future Events

Questions???

Future Events:TA Development

Working with Overwhelmed College Students Thursday, March 24th, 3p.m.; location: Newman Alumni

Center Conference Room

PFFAssessment 101

Monday, April 4th & Thursday, April 7th, 3-4:30; location: Newman Alumni Center Conference Room