Replacing Course Evaluations as Measures of Teaching Effectiveness

Each year faculty are reviewed for merit and promotion, a component of which often includes student evaluation of teaching (SETs). However, recent analyses of SETs by have raised major concerns as to the validity of using SETs to determine teaching effectiveness. What are alternative means of determining teaching effectiveness? In this seminar, Mary Pat Wenderoth will present how PORTAAL (Practical Observation Rubric to Assess Active Learning) was developed and show results that indicate PORTAAL can distinguish a wide range of active learning implementations, thus providing an evidence-based and objective alternative to the use of SETs. 

Wenderoth is a principal lecturer in the Biology Department at the University of Washington (UW) where she teaches animal physiology courses and conducts biology education research on how students learn biology. Her main research interests focus on assessing implementation of cognitive science principles in the classroom, particularly those associated with conceptual change, use of first principles in constructing conceptual frameworks in physiology and student metacognition. 

Lunch will be served.

This presentation is part of the Evidence-Based Teaching in STEM Seminar Series. For more information and coming events, go to: http://links.asu.edu/TeachTech