The IDEA Center

Form Type: Diagnostic Form
Areas of Best Practice: Faculty Evaluation, Teaching Improvement, and Faculty Buy-In.

Faculty Evaluation

IDEA results are used primarily to facilitate discussions about improving teaching and learning, but it is also used in the annual evaluation system when individual faculty member summarizes his or her results. IDEA is viewed to be comprehensive and deep enough to help teachers improve their teaching, which in turn helps administrators make better decisions.

During the Fall semester, faculty prepare and submit a plan for the subsequent year (e.g., personal and professional goals, courses they plan to teach, conferences they would like to attend, possible publications, etc.). At the end of the summer, they then prepare a summary of their work in teaching, advising, research, and service. In part, the teaching summary is based on their reflection about what was discussed in the peer consultations, including their strengths and areas for improvement as provided by IDEA results.

Teaching Improvement

IDEA is administered in at least two courses per year for each faculty member. The faculty, with agreement from the Dean or Chair, identifies the courses to be surveyed. IDEA results are used in conjunction with a peer observation and syllabus review and rating conducted by a peer (i.e., another faculty member or Dean). Following the observation/syllabus review, the faculty and peer meet to discuss the peer’s impressions. At the end of the semester, IDEA is administered to the class. Once the results are available, there is a second faculty/peer consultation to review and discuss IDEA results and compare how they are consistent, or not, with the earlier observations. The consultations typically begin with a discussion of strengths, which are highlighted on page 5 of the IDEA Diagnostic Form Report. Then, ideas for improvement can be discussed. The IDEA report provides a mechanism to facilitate the initial discussion about strengths and improvement.

As a result of using IDEA in the above way, observable teaching improvements have been noted in a number of faculty members who were initially struggling and receiving poor student evaluations. For the willing faculty, the use of IDEA provided a mechanism for a peer or mentor to suggest some specific things to try. This process generated semester-to-semester reflection and stimulated questions about his or her own contributions to the success of the classroom, which, with consistent use and feedback, eventually developed strong teachers. The process outlined above provides the opportunity for focused discussion about the quality of teaching and learning. IDEA provided the mechanism to facilitate the conversations with enough detail to provide specific information about strengths and areas to consider improving.

Faculty Buy-In

As with any new process, faculty members were initially suspicious about the use of a new student ratings instrument and were fearful that the administration would use the results to “catch them.” Faculty buy-in came from the practices implemented and faculty involvement in the process, especially through the consultation process. Faculty buy-in and trust is also enhanced through the requirement of a holistic summary prepared by the faculty and the policy of returning all original student surveys (which contain student comments) to the individual faculty members. Consistent use of the process helped faculty to see that the results are primarily used as a mechanism to facilitate discussion about improvement. The evaluation process does not focus on the “numbers,” but rather the faculty member’s interpretation of the results and continued plans for improvement.