Evidence & Feedback
The scope of evidence and/or feedback on the quality of one's teaching.
Introduction
A professional teacher collects feedback on the nature and quality of his or her teaching, in order to assess performance in the light of professional goals and to develop further. This information may also be used as evidence of achievement. The portfolio can serve both ends, formative and summative. The tasks of getting feedback on one's teaching (for oneself) thus can overlap substantially with providing evidence (for others).
As scholars, we know that evidence can vary widely in form. We need to recall that each form of evidence has both benefits and limitations. Ideally, we need to be sensitive to balancing different types of evidence and seek robust evidence from multiple independent sources or contrasting means of evaluation as a way to ensure reliability and relative objectivity. Hence, in a portfolio, one might strive to document patterns of teaching behavior or effectiveness by collecting information from a variety of sources and synthesizing it. Information from peers should likely be balanced and converge with information from students. Personal impressions or testimony from others should be further integrated with more objective measures of student performance or outcomes.
Evidence may also vary in scope or perspective (from fine-grained to very broad). Hence, effective teaching may be evident in any or all of the following:
- individual student outcomes/learning
- class outcomes (profile of population -- e.g., retention rate, grade distribution)
- teaching skills or attitudes that foster learning
- opportunities of the learning environment/relationship to students
There is a strong temptation for evaluators to rely solely on quantitative information, on the questionable assumption that it will be more objective. Teachers need to be creative about collecting textured qualitative information in ways that will limit potential perceived bias.
In addition to cataloging the evidence or information about teaching itself, teachers might discuss the forms and methods by which they monitor and assess their own teaching on a regular basis. This may range from checking in on student understanding at the end of each class period to long-term review of the progress of students several years beyond the end of a course or research degree.
Collecting and interpreting evidence (even in a context of self-evaluation) may well be facilitated or enhanced by working with a colleague or in a teaching circle.
Remember that all forms of evidence (whatever their source) need to be interpreted. A portfolio is selective, not archival.
Types of Evidence
This list is intended more as a reminder of the possiblities, than as a prescribed checklist (link to individual categories for more details):
- Feedback/Information from Peers
- classroom observation
- syllabus review
- external review
- collaboration/team teaching
- teaching circles
- letters
- Feedback/Information from Students
- course evaluations -- both summative (course-end) and formative (mid-semester)
- interviews
- letters -- both solicited and unsolicited
- student-based awards
- students registering for teacher again in elective courses
- requests for independent study, representation on committees
- Feedback/Information from Others
- employers or intern sponsors
- parents?
- teaching assistants
- Feedback/Information from Self-Analysis
- Other Forms of Evidence
- testing: pre-/post-tests; standardized achievement tests
- analysis of retention rates in large and/or introductory classes
- products of teaching
- measuring productivity