Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63421
The Top Criteria In general, deans and administrators tend to look most close- ly at a professor's depth of knowledge, student evaluations, technical ability, and teaching skill when evaluating teaching ness is the professor's current knowledge of the field. Of all respondents, 61 percent found this to be extremely impor- tant; 33.8 found it somewhat important. ■ Stakeholder feedback is also crucial—when it comes effectiveness. The survey suggests that: ■ The single most important element in faculty effective- many people think. In fact, survey respondents ranked them seventh in importance, behind being current in the field, stu- dent evaluation scores, student written comments, chair's ■ Intellectual contributions are not valued as highly as recent years—is not the best measure of teaching effective- ness. Just over a quarter of respondents called it extremely evaluation, teaching awards, and peer evaluations. ■ The teaching portfolio—though gaining popularity in from students. Of the 20 items listed in this category, student evaluation scores and student written comments ranked as the uation, but less important than the chair's evaluation. ■ According to the majority of respondents, evaluative most important elements. ■ Peer evaluations are more important than a dean's eval- classroom visits by administrators or faculty are only some- what important or not important at all. important; half said it is somewhat important. ■ Administrators do not appear to be especially concerned about class enrollments, grade distribution, or drop rates. Only 5.2 percent of those who responded think the drop rate of a class is an extremely important factor in determining use of technology as a more important factor than colleagues' opinions, grade distribution, course notebooks, course level, course type, class enrollment, and drop rate. About 56 per- teaching effectiveness. ■ It pays to be tech-savvy. Respondents rated a professor's BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 37