November 2005

Lead article: KU teachers have new opportunity to demonstrate their effectiveness

In the 15 years since the report Scholarship Reconsidered (Boyer, 1990) was published, many colleges and universities have begun requiring evidence of teaching effectiveness--not only student ratings but also peer-reviewed evidence and artifacts, according to Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings in The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons (2005).

Beginning this fall, teachers at KU will have opportunities to demonstrate their effectiveness in new ways when they submit applications for promotion and tenure. Peer reviewers are asked to take a more comprehensive look at a teacher's work, rather than only observing a class or two. This new form of peer review is outlined on pages 7 and 8 of this issue of Teaching Matters. Complete information is available on the Provost's web site: www.provost.ku.edu/faculty/evaluation.shtml.

This change ultimately may lead to broader significance of the scholarship of teaching and learning at KU. It appears to be a step toward an approach that Pat Hutchings supports, where "the very methods used to evaluate teaching will actually promote a scholarly approach to practice and improvement."

This change also corroborates Huber and Hutchings' observation that "campuses are complex, living organisms where new developments occur in fits and starts, energetically in one quarter, sluggishly in another. Change is happening all the time, all over the place, but not in a neat, coordinated way . . ."

The authors further suggest that it makes sense to view higher education as a fleet of small boats: "They don't all head in exactly the same direction, but increasingly there is a sense of convergence, of being part of something larger, of rowing toward some common destination . . . "

The new ways that faculty members can illustrate their effectiveness and growth as teachers reflect a deep understanding and appreciation of the complexities of teaching. What occurs in a classroom, lab or studio is certainly an important part of it. But just as what happens with our students outside of class has an impact on their learning, the work we do outside of class has an impact on our teaching, and the new guidelines recognize that fact.

--JE

Resource: Huber, M. T. and Hutchings, P. (2005). The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.