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Department of Physics -- Arts & Sciences

The following is a summary of teaching conversations in the physics department. Submitted by Ralph Minehart:

The consensus of the physics faculty is that overall it is doing a good job of teaching. The number of students taking physics courses has risen greatly during the past 5-10 years. We believe there are a number of factors that enhance the level of teaching in the department.

In our own department several steps have been taken over the years:

  1. Experiments with new teaching techniques have been encouraged.
  2. Incorporation of new technology into the class room has been encouraged.
  3. The importance of effective teaching has been made part of the climate in the department. It has been made clear that good teaching is appreciated and that bad teaching is not unnoticed.
  4. Specific mechanisms have been in place for a long time to encourage good teaching.
    1. A departmental teaching committee plays a very active role in the life of the department. This committee assigns faculty to the various courses, matching the skills of the teacher to the demands of the course. The committee can and does take quick and independent action to solve occasional teaching problems as they arise. The teaching committee evaluates the course review questionnaires filled out by students in each class at the end of a term, folding into the responses the special features of each course to arrive at a teaching grade for every professor and graduate teaching assistant.
    2. All courses are evaluated by the students through questionnaires handed out at the end of the term.
    3. Part of the merit pay increase is based on teaching evaluations.
    4. A handbook for TA's has been developed, and all new TA's attend a teaching workshop. The department offer prizes each year to the outstanding graduate teaching assistants.
    5. The department has begun making an award for excellent teaching to a faculty member selected by the Teaching Committee each year.
    6. The department has a vigorous program of USEM's, with a goal of offering 4 each semester.
    7. Making our resources available to people outside the university has been fostered. In particular the Physics Department is taking an active role in improving the quality of science teaching at the primary and secondary level, through courses for school teachers managed jointly with the Curry School.
    8. Over the last decade the amount of time devoted by each faculty member to teaching has certainly increased. While this presumably represents a corresponding reduction in time devoted to research, the faculty generally feel that the rewards of good teaching make up for the loss in research. A number of people in the department have expressed a worry that teaching may become overly emphasized relative to research. We think this is an important question, since science is as much a process as it is a body of knowledge. Without faculty who are actively engaged in the process of doing science, it is difficult to imagine that good teaching in science could be going on. In general, however, we don't think the danger is presently too high - creation of new knowledge through research remains an important goal of our department.