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McIntire School of Commerce

Workshop:

On Monday, January 13th the faculty of the McIntire School of Commerce conducted a one-day workshop focused on teaching development and evaluation. The recommendations resulting from the seven break-out groups and the ensuing discussion led to the identification of the following major issues:

  • Improve the process for peer classroom evaluations;
  • Develop the use of teaching portfolios;
  • Develop a new student evaluation/feedback form;
  • Develop a teaching mentor program, possibly linked to an advocacy program for reappointment, tenure, and promotion;
  • Design and recommend a reward system for excellent teaching;
  • Coordinate the annual review process with the reappointment, tenure, and promotion process; and
  • Develop a systematic, long-term evaluation process, including specification of goals and measures of "teaching excellence."

On Going Actions:

* Faculty volunteers have been invited to work on two sub-groups to address the issues identified above:

  • Teaching Evaluation Subgroup, chaired by Susan Perry (sep4v @ virginia.edu) The goal of this subgroup is to develop an improve student feedback or evaluation form.
  • Mentoring Program Subgroup, chaired by Sandy Schmidt (ss4r @ virginia.edu) The goal of the Mentoring Program Subgroup is to formalize and standardize the peer review process for developing and evaluating teaching.

*A core task force, responsible for coordination and integration of the overall effort, will be made up of the chairs from each sub-group.

* McIntire's Center for Innovative in Business Learning offers four to five seminars on effective teaching techniques each semester. During the Spring semester of 1997, the McIntire School of Commerce has offered, or will offer, the following seminars: "PowerPoint Presentations," "Case Teaching," "Group work" and "Web Pages". These seminars are open to all University faculty. So far this semester, faculty from the College of Arts and Science, Curry School, Engineering School and the Medical School have joined the McIntire faculty at these seminars.

Developing Faculty

Effective teaching is formally developed at the McIntire School of Commerce through three means. First, teaching is evaluated each semester with a standardized course feedback survey. The second formalized method of teaching development is the peer visitation program. Each semester of the first two years at McIntire, faculty members' classes are visited by a colleague within their academic area. The senior faculty member's visitations are strictly for the development of the new faculty member. No written record of the visit is seen, or kept, by any member of the administration, area coordinator or Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Committee. The senior faculty member gives his/her oral comments directly to the junior faculty member. To the extent possible, the same senior faculty member will visit the junior faculty member's class each semester until the junior faculty member becomes available for contract renewal, usually in the third year. The in-class visitation is in addition to the Teaching Resource Center's activities, which are strongly recommended to new faculty members. In addition, new faculty are required to participate in the McIntire School's three half-day new-faculty orientation seminars. These seminars were coordinated with the Teaching Resource Center's two half-day orientation seminars for new faculty.

The third formal method of teaching development at McIntire are the faculty development seminars that are held three or four times a year. Examples of these faculty-run seminars include effective teaching techniques, i.e., case teaching, group projects, grading, and experiential teaching. During some years the faculty development seminars will evolve around a theme. For example, international seminars were presented by faculty from around the Grounds (College of Arts & Sciences and Darden) during the academic years of 1993-1994 and 1994-1995.

Faculty development is planned and conducted by a faculty-initiated committee. The committee has worked hard to keep faculty development separate from the evaluation process. The evaluation of faculty members' teaching is conducted by the area coordinator, dean and the APT Committee.

Evaluating Faculty

The McIntire School of Commerce has three approaches to evaluating teaching. The first is the annual report that requires submission of the faculty's syllabi and newly developed teaching material and the student evaluation forms from the previous two semesters. This annual report is then discussed with the faculty member at his/her annual meeting with the dean and associate dean.

The second method of evaluating faculty teaching is the required "Peer Reviews" for untenured faculty members. All untenured faculty classes are visited each semester after they have taught two years at the McIntire School. The Peer Review program consists of a class visit each semester by a tenured colleague. The reviewer is assigned by the Appointments, Promotion and Tenure (APT) Committee. The reviewer submits a report to the APT Committee. The report should cover the following aspects of the faculty member's class: the organization of subject material, communication skills (voice level, eye contact, examples and explanations), student interaction and attention during the class, and the faculty member's knowledge of the subject. The report should comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the faculty's teaching.

The third evaluation of teaching is the required student evaluation ("Course Feedback Survey"). The student evaluation form has fourteen multiple choice questions about the course and four open-end questions. The open-end questions concern the strongest and weakest aspect of the course and an open-end question about the instructor. The results of the multiple choice questions are summarized and compared to other instructors who teach the same course, within the faculty member's area and in the McIntire School.