Ericson Hannah C, Lemons Paula P, Dolan Erin L, Brickman Peggy, Krishnan Sandhya, Andrews Tessa C
Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2025 Mar 1;24(1):ar8. doi: 10.1187/cbe.24-07-0175.
Teaching evaluation at many institutions is insufficient to support, recognize, and reward effective teaching. We developed a long-term intervention to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) department heads in advancing teaching evaluation practices. We describe the intervention and systematically investigate its impact on departmental practices within a research-intensive university. The outcomes varied considerably by department, with four departments achieving extensive teaching evaluation reform and seven departments achieving more limited reform. We used qualitative content analysis of interviews and meetings to investigate department head readiness for change and how it related to the reforms they achieved. All department heads perceived inadequacies in their current evaluation practices, but this dissatisfaction did not reliably predict the changes they pursued. Heads only pursued changes that they perceived to have clear benefits. All heads worried that faculty might resist new practices, but heads who were most successful in facilitating change saw ways to work around resistance. Heads who led the most change questioned their own expertise for reforming teaching evaluation and delegated the work of developing new evaluation practices to knowledgeable colleagues. We discuss emergent hypotheses about factors that support heads in challenging the status quo with more robust and equitable evaluation practices.
许多机构的教学评估不足以支持、认可和奖励有效的教学。我们开展了一项长期干预措施，以支持科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）系主任改进教学评估实践。我们描述了这项干预措施，并系统地调查了其对一所研究型大学各系实践的影响。各系的结果差异很大，四个系实现了广泛的教学评估改革，七个系实现了较为有限的改革。我们通过对访谈和会议进行定性内容分析，来调查系主任对变革的准备情况以及这与他们所实现的改革之间的关系。所有系主任都意识到当前评估实践存在不足，但这种不满并不能可靠地预测他们所追求的变革。系主任们只推行他们认为有明显益处的变革。所有系主任都担心教师可能会抵制新做法，但在推动变革方面最成功的系主任找到了应对抵制的方法。推动变革最多的系主任质疑自己改革教学评估的专业能力，并将制定新评估实践的工作委托给有相关知识的同事。我们讨论了关于支持系主任以更健全、更公平的评估实践挑战现状的因素的新假设。
