APPENDIX SIX
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
PROCEDURE FOR CONDUCTING TEACHING EVALUATIONS
BY
A FACULTY MEMBER'S PEERS AT UI

[November, 1998]
 

In order to be promoted from the rank of assistant to associate professor, faculty members must solicit at least one evaluation each year from a tenured faculty member.  By the time the faculty member is considered for promotion, he or she must have accumulated seven such evaluations.  To advance from the rank of associate to full professor, faculty members must be evaluated a total of four times by another tenured faculty member over the course of at least two years.

So far as is possible, these evaluations should not be carried out solely to judge the faculty member’s competence, but also to improve that person’s teaching.

Faculty members should attempt to include courses at the introductory and the 400-level or graduate level.  The faculty member being evaluated is responsible for approaching the evaluators and arranging to be evaluated.

These evaluations should occur in two steps:

FIRST STEP:

1.       Before the class, the faculty member provides the evaluator with a written description of the day’s activities and their place in the syllabus.  (This description is incorporated into the form that the evaluator later fills out.)

2.       The evaluator then observes the class.

3.       The faculty member and the evaluator meet after the class so that the faculty member may provide a self-critique and the evaluator can offer oral comments and suggestions.

4.       The faculty member then files a peer evaluation report with the chair, which consists of answers to the following questions:

5.       What was the lesson taught?  Describe the subject, objectives, and methods used.

6.       What was the level of student interest and participation?

7.       How appropriate were the teaching techniques and content for the instructor’s goals of this class?

8.       How effective was the instructor in using these techniques?

9.       What alternative approaches, methods, or activities might you suggest that the instructor consider using?

10.   The evaluator provides a copy of the report to both the faculty member and the chair.

SECOND STEP:

1.       At a later point in the semester the evaluator, after becoming familiar with the assignment (either through written description or through discussion with the faculty member), reads selected student papers or examinations and reviews the syllabus and selection of books and other materials for the course.

2.       The evaluator files another brief report with the chair, with a copy to faculty member.  In this report, the evaluator considers the following questions:

3.       Does the instructor grade fairly?

4.       Are the books appropriate for the course content?

5.       Based on your reading of the syllabus, how would you describe the organization of the course?