Thriving in Academe

Best Practices
The Importance of Faculty Buy In

• It is crucial that the expressed needs and concerns of the faculty guide the policies and practices that encourage improved ways of demonstrating teaching effectiveness (including the creation of the portfolio) and better methods of evaluating teaching. At Dalhousie University, 27 academic departments responded to a survey designed by the Office of Instructional Development. The results of the survey were useful in deciding how best to proceed in improving campus practices.
• At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Center for Educational Development persuaded the president to offer scholarships to faculty who developed their teaching portfolios and shared their learning with colleagues.
• A department chair at a research university gives newly-hired faculty a copy of his teaching portfolio when they first meet in his office. This gesture is meant to emphasize the importance of documenting effective teaching.
• The Colleges of Worcester Consortium used collective resources to attract an educational developer to spend his sabbatical in Massachusetts presenting workshops and mentoring faculty.
• Some schools have successfully required academic departments to adopt a set of standards and criteria for the formative and summative evaluation of teaching. These published standards and criteria give clear direction to individuals creating their teaching profiles.

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