Tools and Resources

Best Practices in the Evaluation of Teaching, by Stephen L. Benton, The IDEA Center and Suzanne Young, University of Wyoming
Effective instructor evaluation is complex and requires the use of multiple measures—formal and informal, traditional and authentic—as part of a balanced evaluation system. The student voice, a critical element of that balanced system, is appropriately complemented by instructor self-assessment and the reasoned judgments of other relevant parties, such as peers and supervisors. Integrating all three elements allows instructors to take a mastery approach to formative evaluation, trying out new teaching strategies and remaining open to feedback that focuses on how they might improve. Such feedback is most useful when it occurs in an environment that fosters challenge, support, and growth. Rather than being demoralized by their performance rankings, faculty can concentrate on their individual efforts and compare current progress to past performance. They can then concentrate on developing better teaching methods and skills rather than fearing or resenting comparisons to others. The evaluation of teaching thus becomes a rewarding process, not a dreaded event.
Keywords: Evaluation of teaching, summative evaluation, formative evaluation, mastery orientation

What the Best College Teachers Do
Ken Bain, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (2004)
The publication, What the Best College Teachers Do, is based on a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers from various fields and universities. Author Ken Bain tries to “capture the collective scholarship of some of the best teachers in the United States, to record not just what they think, but most of all, to begin to conceptualize their practices.” In this book, you will find insights on how to engage and challenge students

Overview of biases faced by individuals from marginalized groups and strategies to interrupt bias in evaluations and hiring committees. People from groups stereotyped as less competent regularly have to prove themselves over and over. Others walk a tightrope because acceptable workplace behavior falls within a narrow range for women, people of color, and class migrants, and immigrants. Parent bias can affect mothers, fathers, and those without children. Bias such as tokenism, a loyalty tax, and higher standards also exist among people from underrepresented groups.

This is a bibliography compiled by the University Libraries' Daniel Mack in 2009. It lists many resources on the topic of interdisciplinary teaching in higher education.

An easy to use graphical representation of updated Bloom's Taxonomy congitive domain, including definitions.

Bloom's Taxonomy Handout distributed in Schreyer Institute workshops and courses. Contains a list of active verbs for use in crafting learning objectives.

Handout contains prompts for reflecting on one's syllabus, a class, an assignment, and student learning. Reflective prompts that support brainstorming ideas for the portfolio support the early stages of the development of a teaching portfolio.

Case study about a disability rights issue in a classroom.

This document provides suggestions for thinking about addressing diversity in the classroom and incorporating those thoughts into your teaching portfolio.