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Department of Religious Studies -- Arts & Sciences

This report is based upon a meeting of the full department faculty, a follow-up luncheon discussion (with a smaller group), and additional suggestions made via e-mail.

The Department resolved to appoint a Teaching Committee to work out a set of proposals to improve teaching, for approval by the department as a whole. Four faculty members volunteered to serve on the Committee: Larry Bouchard, Esther Menn, Benjamin Ray, and Heather Warren.

Suggestions were made under the following categories:

Evaluation of Teaching

Course evaluation form:

Revise the current student course evaluation form, with reference to forms used by other departments; implement this form so that the results are electronically readable; separate out large lecture courses from small ones (as two different categories); determine a department teaching mean score for purposes of comparison with individual members of the department; interview randomly selected students; create separate forms for discussion sections, graduate teaching, and language courses taught in the department.

Peer Review:

Set up a peer review program that clearly divides mentoring and evaluative functions; establish a two-year moratorium on written evaluative reports for new faculty.

Development of Teaching:

Mentoring program should relate both to teaching and research aspects of the profession, also help with networking in professional organizations. Reconsider the higher teaching load (by one course) currently assigned to junior faculty. Set up guidelines for teaching T. A.S. and review how faculty members are performing this task. Establish a Pro-Seminar for TAs on teaching. Make use of Teaching Resource Center workshop offerings, and request the TRC to provide some special help relating to specific pedagogical concerns, such as effective use of writing assignments in lecture courses.

Incentives for Improvement of Teaching:

There should be some incentives for faculty members who serve as mentors, perhaps with some form of time compensation; generally, any requirements involving additional time to improve teaching must be accompanied by a clearly defined set of benefits to the faculty, e.g., concerning the comparative weight given to teaching and research for purposes of tenure, promotion, post-tenure review, salary raise decisions. As classroom preparation time and teaching loads are heavier for junior faculty, the University should provide one paid conference opportunity per year for junior faculty members, regardless of their presenting a research paper or formal participation, for the sake of professional networking which is vital at this early stage of their careers.