Teaching Tools
Evaluation and Assessment | Teaching Practices | Teaching with Technology | Resources for Funding
1. Evaluation and Assessment
1.3. Evaluation
Methods of Monitoring Your Teaching Effectiveness
With your students
- Distribute early course evaluations in the first 3-5 weeks.
- Consider in advance what kind of issues you most would like feedback on and create a response form which suits your needs. Include at least 1 - 2 open-ended questions where students can identify your strengths, raise issues you may not be aware of, and/or offer suggestions.
- Invite ongoing feedback from students through email, class web sites, after- or out-of-class discussions, etc.
- Look for opportunities to use classroom assessment techniques on key goals or tasks in the class. In addition to providing you with direct and ongoing data about students' understanding and progress, these techniques give students the information they need to self-monitor their own learning.
On your own or with a teaching consultant
- Audiotape or videotape a class.
- Check, for example, your presentation style, pace, and transitions. (See "Categories to Consider When Observing Classes" for things to look for.) Consider discussing your videotaped class with a Faculty Development staff member or another colleague to get a different perspective.
- Consider getting additional observations by a consultant to learn, for example, about student responses to your teaching. Trained peer observers are available to conduct confidential observations.
- Document your successes and efforts toward improvement in a teaching portfolio. Include student evaluations, course syllabi (complete with objectives), your best course materials and handouts, innovative and effective assignments, and possibly samples of outstanding student work.
- Review written course materials, especially when creating a new course or trying new teaching methods, to clarify key student learning objectives for the course, lecture or assignment and how best to achieve them.
With a peer or more experienced colleague
- Invite a colleague to observe your class and discuss in advance the types of observations in which you are most interested and the objectives of the class he or she will observe.
- Review written course materials, especially when creating a new course or trying new teaching methods, to identify some of the key questions you should consider.
- Discuss the development of your teaching portfolio, especially when your goal in developing the portfolio is to prepare for reappointment and tenure decisions, seeking feedback from those who are familiar with past cases is very valuable.
Adapted from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University
