2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work in Progress: Teaching Evaluation Demonstration Project

Presented at Faculty Development Division (FDD) Technical Session 12

With support from the Association of American Universities (AAU), this work in progress paper shares our development of a system for evaluation of teaching in our engineering school that integrates evidence-based evaluative data from three sources: student course assessments, peer observation, and self-reflection. Existing student course assessments will be modified to focus on observable best practices, rather than on students’ intuitive impressions of the instructor. The student numerical responses to questions about observable best practices will be considered, in aggregate form, during faculty review and promotion. Peer observations will be conducted in accordance with a consistent protocol, which will include guided pre- and post-observation sessions between the observer and observee and questions focused on behavior and teaching rather than on perceptions and content. Self-reflection will be structured to allow for personal reflections as well as public reflections (those shared with promotion and review committees), allowing each instructor to note and report on their progress toward the implementation of best teaching practices.
To design our three evaluative mechanisms (student impressions, peer observations, and self-reflections), we have pulled from existing validated instruments and collections of best practices, such as the Wieman Teaching Practices Inventory (TPI) and the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS). We have been assisted in this work by experts from our center for teaching and learning, AAU, and elsewhere. Further we have adapted a teaching evaluation rubric that we hope may be used to synthesize the information from our three sources.

A pilot of this new system is already underway. We will conduct ongoing evaluation of this pilot en route to a broader implementation of the new system in our school. The instruments and rubrics that we are using will be shared along with the results of our pilot study.

Preferred presentation format: Lightning Talk

Authors

Dr. Vicki V. May, P.E. Dartmouth College [biography]

Vicki V. May, Ph.D., P.E. is an Instructional Professor of Engineering and the Engineering Education Program Area Lead at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. Her research focuses on engineering education and K-12 outreach. She teaches courses in solid mechanics, structural analysis, and design. Prior to relocating to the east coast, Professor May was an Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
Prof. Petra Bonfert-Taylor http://orcid.org/0009-0001-0869-5439 Dartmouth College [biography]

Petra Bonfert-Taylor received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from Technical University of Berlin (Germany), was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and a faculty member in the Mathematics Department at Wesleyan University before accepting her current faculty position at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. She was elected a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics in the Class of 2020. Her mathematics research is in geometric function theory and discrete groups; she also has a strong interest in broadening access to high-quality higher education and pedagogical innovations that aid in providing equal opportunities to students from all backgrounds. This passion led her to design and create a seven-MOOC Professional Certificate on C-programming for edX for which her team won the “2019 edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning”. Previously she designed a MOOC “Analysis of a Complex Kind” on Coursera. Petra is the recipient of the New Hampshire High Tech Council 2018 Tech Teacher of the Year Award, the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching at Wesleyan University and the Excellence in Teaching Award at Thayer. She recently co-designed and piloted a Foreign Studies Program focussed on green and sustainable engineering in collaboration with the German department at Dartmouth. At Thayer she furthermore leads an AAU funded Teaching Evaluation Project to develop, implement, and document a more effective and holistic teaching evaluation system.

Petra has served as Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Thayer since 2020. In this role she plans, leads and oversees diversity and inclusion efforts at Thayer and in coordination with other organizations internal and external to Dartmouth. Thayer was recently recognized with the ASEE Silver Diversity Award for our progress in increasing diversity and inclusion of our program.
Eugene Korsunskiy Dartmouth College

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