Definition of Inclusive & Effective Teaching
At the University of Missouri, effective and inclusive teaching fosters student learning through evidence-based, relevant, organized, and engaging instruction. Effective educators promote diversity by creating inclusive and equitable learning environments with instruction that is student-focused. Sustained teaching effectiveness requires continual refinement through deliberate reflection and professional development, and it is supported by institutional resources and programs.
Summative Peer Review
The Task Force to Enhance Learning and Teaching (TFELT) invites community input on the current draft of the Summative Peer Review recommendations. To learn more about the proposed system and provide your feedback, please complete this Qualtrics Survey.
New Videos
(Added January 31, 2021)
Peer Review
January, 2021 brief update on the work of the TFELT Peer Review Working Group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8AMqwJLStU
Student Feedback
Stephen Klein presents a summary of the Student Feedback Working Group’s progress over the past year.
Self-Assessment
Jonathan Cisco presents a draft of the Teaching Self Reflection component.
TFELT’s charge involves making policy recommendations on five primary components related to promoting effective teaching for learning on the MU campus. On this page you can access the Task Force’s work in progress in each of these areas, as well as related resources that have informed its work.
This page is a developing work in progress itself, updated regularly.
- TFELT Meeting Agendas
- Process to Determine Definition and dimensions of Effective Teaching
- Formative and summative assessment of teaching
- Supporting teaching at the college and unit level
- Recognizing and rewarding teaching at the university, college and unit level
- Assessing outcomes of TFELT’s policy recommendations
TFELT Meeting Agendas
2019
- September 9, 2019
- September 27, 2019
- October 10, 2019
- October 25, 2019
- November 7, 2019
- November 22, 2019
- December 5, 2019
2020
- January 23, 2020
- February 7, 2020
- September 29, 2020
- October 27, 2020
- November 17, 2020
- December 15, 2020
2021
TFELT Process to Determine Definition and dimensions of Effective Teaching
- External definitions of “effective teaching” (discussed at the September 27, 2019 TFELT meeting)
- “Excellent/Effective Teaching” brainstorming word cloud results (generated at the September 27, 2019 TFELT meeting)
- Description: After reviewing past MU task force reports and external definitions of “excellent teaching,” task force members brainstormed key terms associated with effective teaching. This exercise replicated similar exercises that took place at the 2019 Celebration of Teaching and meetings of the Teaching For Learning Center’s (T4LC’s) Advisory Board during summer 2019.
- After subsequent conversation, TFELT decided to shift the definition from “excellent teaching” to Effective Teaching, as it establishes baseline expectations for MU teaching rather than characterizing “above and beyond” teaching.
- Key Terms (“Chocolate Eclairs”) Activity (October 10, 2019 TFELT meeting):
- Description: Task force members were joined by a number of invited undergraduate and graduate students for this activity. In small groups, participants were provided stacks of post-it notes with key words and phrases concerning effective teaching. These “chocolate eclairs” (borrowing a metaphor for the “tastiest bits” from the available artifacts, courtesy of T4LC Associate Director Jonathan Cisco’s mother) were drawn from previous MU task force reports, external definitions from peer and aspirant peer institutions, and brainstorming sessions conducted on campus between May and September 2019. Small groups sorted and categorized the key terms in order to construct and prioritize emerging dimensions of effective teaching (results attached here).
- Qualitative Analysis of Key Terms (presented at the October 25, 2019 TFELT meeting)
- Description: The resulting group sorts from the Key Terms Activity provided the basis for subsequent qualitative coding and analysis by members of the T4LC staff. This coding identified emerging dimensions of “effective teaching.”
- Models of “Effective Teaching”: (Version 1; Version 2)
- Description: Following the results of qualitative data analysis, the TFELT Support Team constructed a model of “Effective Teaching” that is both a direct outgrowth of MU community inquiry, brainstorming and dialogue as well as a research-informed reflection of what the relevant literature in the scholarship of teaching and learning tells us about effective teaching. The model has primary defining aspects of effective teaching at its center. These defining aspects are surrounded by a number of distinct yet interrelated dimensions of effective teaching practice that are concrete and observable when assessing teaching practice. The first version of the model was revised following input from Community Engagement Sessions.
- Version 1 (presented at the October 25, 2019 TFELT meeting and the October 31, 2019 Community Engagement Session)
- Version 2 (presented at the November 22, 2019 TFELT meeting)
- Definitions of Effective Teaching: (preliminary drafts; second-round drafts)
- Description: TFELT members used the emerging model of teaching dimensions to compose drafts of an “effective teaching” definition (attached here). These drafts were then sent for feedback from a Community Engagement session and an internal survey of TFELT. Following receipt of this feedback, TFELT composed three revised definition drafts (attached here). These definitions will form the basis of a final definition of Effective Teaching.
Formative and summative assessment of teaching
- Formative assessment of teaching
- Formative peer review pilot program, Spring 2020
- Description: Led by Dr. Bethany Stone, T4LC Faculty Fellow for Formative Assessment, the Teaching For Learning Center is conducting a pilot for a formative assessment program for faculty and other teaching staff in selected academic units. The pilot will provide formative assessment of teaching with two primary components:
- Peer observation of teaching that involves trained observers, a three-stage observation procedure (pre-observation consultation; teaching observation; post-observation consultation), and a pilot version of a teaching observation instrument based on Effective Teaching dimensions that apply across disciplines while being adaptable to particular, unique teaching contexts. Feedback on observed teaching will be held confidentially between the observer and the observed.
- Early student feedback on teaching through administration of the Missouri Cares About Teaching (MOCAT) online survey in pilot classes between the 4th and 6th weeks of the semester, in order to give teachers an opportunity to respond to student feedback in a timely fashion.
The end goal for the pilot is (a) to develop a sustainable program through the development of a cross-disciplinary network of “teaching partners” across campus that can be trained to participate in mutually beneficial formative peer assessment of teaching by their colleagues, and (b) to develop instruments and procedures for ongoing formative assessment of teaching that is potentially accessible to all faculty, staff and graduate students who teach on campus who seek such assessment.