Plan for evaluation teaching effectiveness

Graduate students in history at Georgia State University are given complete control over teaching their assigned courses. During my time at Georgia State, my first instructional experience was as a graduate teaching assistant. I operated this capacity for three sectional survey courses in three areas: World History to 1500, World History from 1500, and general U. S. History. As of summer 2008, I began operating as sole instructor for World History to 1500, a survey course. At that time I began to document my teaching effectiveness on a course by course basis. Utilizing principles devised at Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University and adapted by the Office of the Provost for the University of Florida, I implemented the following three (3) techniques:  
 

1.  Utilize the students

•  Issue course evaluations early, within the first 3 to 5 weeks.

•  Determine in advance what issues I need feedback on and create a response form which addresses them. The form shall contain at least 1 – 2 open-ended questions where students can identify my strengths, flag issues I am unaware of, and/or offer suggestions.

•  Solicit and encourage ongoing feedback from students through email, class web sites, after- or out-of-class discussions, etc.

•  Seek out opportunities to utilize classroom assessment techniques on key goals or tasks in the class. In addition to providing me with direct and ongoing data about students' understanding and progress, these techniques give students the information they need to self-monitor their own learning.

2.  Employ self-reflection and consultation
 

•  At least once a course session, record an instructional exercise.

•  Evaluate my presentation style, pace, transitions, etc. Discussing my findings with a Faculty Development staff member or another colleague for an alternate perspective.

• Get additional feedback through the observations of a consultant in order to interpret and analyze how students respond to my particular style of teaching.

•  Document my successes and efforts toward improvement in a teaching portfolio. I shall include student evaluations, course syllabi (complete with objectives), my best course materials and handouts, perceived innovative and effective assignments, and 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.

3.  Solicit the opinion and advice of peers and senior staff members

•  Invite colleagues to observe my classes. I shall determine and discuss with them (per #2) the types of observations which are most useful to achieving the objectives for the class he or she will observe.

•  Review written course materials, especially when creating a new course or trying new teaching methods, to identify key questions to consider.

•  Discuss the development of my teaching portfolio, especially during times of reappointment and tenure, seeking feedback from those who are familiar with past cases.

By incorporating all these factors into my instructional goals and plans, I am able to monitor and further develop my teaching effectiveness. Without such evaluation and introspection, I would argue that any instructor shall stagnate, and thus become ineffective by default.

In addition to this procedure, I receive feedback through GSU student evaluations. To date, my overall effectiveness is 4.6 out of 5.0, which I am told is quite high. However, until it is a pure 5.0, for me personally, it is not high enough.