Tyler Blake Davis & Ziad Zaghrout PhD Students Evans School of Public Affairs

1. Striving for Excellence in Teaching:A Case-Study of the Multi-Strategy Approach at the University of Washington Tyler Blake Davis & ZiadZaghrout PhD Students Evans School of Public Affairs University of Washington

2. Outline: • Introduction • Theory and Research Agenda • Context and Validity • Research design & methods • Findings • Conclusions

3. I. Introduction and Terms: Many universities have developed institutional mechanisms to aid in providing quality instruction Institution: Norms, rules, traditions that govern behavior (Ostrom 1990, 1994) Mechanism: Systematic method for achieving output

4. I. Two advantages of this topic: • Institutionalized mechanism facilitate replication • Clear rules and/or norms • Mechanisms are often replicable • A case study allows one to identify strengths and weakness of several methods • Identify appropriate norms to adopt • Identify appropriate mechanisms for context

5. II. Theory and Research Agenda: Education theory: • Multiple intelligence theory : Individuals have diverse intellectual strengths (Gardner 1993) • Suggests that providing diverse types of instruction is superior to a single type of teaching (Armstrong 2009, Coreil 2003).

6. II. Theory and Research Agenda: Education theory: • Leadership skills theory: identifies skills within teaching approaches (Waters, Marzano, and McNulty 2003) • Suggests leadership skills are key for success in teaching to types of intelligence

7. II. Theory and Research Agenda: Education theory: 3. Ordered change theory: typology of learning (Waters, Marzano and McNulty 2003) • “First-order” change is consistent with prevailing values and norms and uses existing knowledge and skills. • “Second-order” requires people to learn new approaches, or it conflicts with prevailing values and norms.

8. II. Theory and Research Agenda: Research Agenda: Our research goal is to identify types of institutional mechanisms that acknowledge multiple intelligence theory and promote first and second order learning.

9. III. Context: • The University of Washington (UW) in Seattle is a Tier 1 research institution • Annual operating budget of over $3.1 billion and an annual research budget of $1.15 billion • In 2009 the UW had 43,000 students comprised of 32,000 undergraduate students, and 11,000 graduate students • 3,900 full time faculty equivalent positions teaching over 6,000 different courses every year in three different campuses

10. III. Context: External Validity? • The UW has many resources for research agendas • Research advantages may not imply teaching advantages • To address these challenges the UW has created institutions with mechanisms for improving teaching

11. III. Context Voluntary and mandatory review of instruction • Professional Teaching Improvement Consultation (voluntary) conducted by the UW Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR). • Professional Evaluations (voluntary) conducted by the UW Teaching Academy. • Student Evaluations (mandatory) conducted by the UW Office of Educational Assessment (OEA).

12. IV. Research Design: • Our research goal is to identify types of institutionalized mechanisms within the UW and to explore how those are used. • Our conceptual research question is: How does the University of Washington promote excellence in teaching?

13. IV. Research Design: Systematized research questions: • What mechanisms does the UW provide for evaluating teaching that may be replicated? • In what replicable way does the UW use the data from the mechanisms to improve teaching?

14. IV. Research Methods: • Key informant interviews: targeted informant interviews with both participants and administrators • Background interviews • Semi-structured interviews • Review of public documents • Physical documents, reports • Web-pages, online resources

15. Teaching is a complex activity involving multiple intelligences Necessitating multiple methods to assess teaching Students’ perceptions comprise only one dimension

16. This holistic approach can be systematized into a source of data for evaluation of instruction Each Dimension will become even more useful when considered in light of other sources.

17. The Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) at the University of Washington approach to improve instruction

18. V. Findings: Instructor Self-Assessment a) Developing a Teaching Portfolio A teaching portfolio is a coherent set of material that represents an instructor’s teaching practice as related to student learning. Teaching Practice: extends beyond activities that go into teaching a course to include all activities that enrich student learning

19. V. Findings: Instructor Self-Assessment b) Reviewing a Video of their teaching • Microteaching: is a group process involving several instructors. In microteaching instructors view and discuss videotapes of each other giving 3-5 minute presentations. • Video-Critic :an instructor reviews a videotape of a class she/he is or has been teaching with a consultant or colleague.

20. V. Findings: Instructor Self-Assessment c) Reviewing and Assessing academic courses Assessment can take place at three stages of a course: • while an instructor designs his/her course • during the course • at the completion of the course

21. V. Findings: Instructor Self-Assessment d) Faculty fellows program • Program is a week-long retreat for new faculty and is guided by senior faculty. • It includes the preparation of mock lessons which forces participants to reflect upon their strengths and objectives.

22. V. Findings: Student Perceptions • Discussing Students’ Ratings (confidential time series analysis) • identify patterns and themes • distinguish between student comments • offering perspective on the effectiveness of changes made • compare median scores

23. V. Findings: Student Perceptions b) Designing a Customized form for collecting students’ feedback • collecting in-class written feedback, getting feedback online, and using classroom assessment techniques. • to inform decisions about what to address in subsequent class sessions, see how students are experiencing the course, and to help students judge their own progress in learning the course material

24. V. Findings: Student Perceptions c) Arranging for a midterm class interview • an open-ended, mid-course oral interview process • students discuss their perceptions of the effectiveness of a course, including both its strengths and potential areas for change • helps instructors in making decisions about their teaching during the remainder of the quarter

25. V. Findings: Student Perceptions d) Office of Educational Assessment (OEA) • OEA utilizes one of 13 different multiple choice forms for most classrooms on the UW campus. • The OEA prepares statistical analysis on student responses to provide information on the course and the instructor

26. V. Findings: Teaching & Learning a) Consulting in Teaching and Learning • customized, confidential services for UW departments, faculty, and teaching assistants who have questions related to teaching and learning.

27. V. Findings: Teaching & Learning b) CIDR resource collection (Reading Room) • CIDR provides research materials in a centralized reading room that includes a collection of books, periodicals, and videos on teaching and learning. • It includes materials on teaching in specific disciplines such as math, science, engineering, and the humanities.

28. V. Findings: Teaching & Learning c) Scholarship of Teaching and Learning • engages the instructor in fundamental questions about learning and challenges them to approach instruction with the same dedication as research • It encourages instructors to systematically examining the phenomena of learning

29. V. Findings: Administrative Perspective • Teacher efforts are assessed within the general strategic objectives of the department. • teaching effectiveness is a two-way process that involves both the instructor finding ways to demonstrate his teaching effectiveness and the department leadership developing ways to promote more effective teaching in the department

30. V. Findings: Administrative Perspective a) Administrative guidelines and resources for evaluating teaching • In a confidential consultation, CIDR offers to clarify and interpret departmental guidelines on teaching standards.

31. V. Findings: Administrative Perspective b) Evaluative teaching portfolios (promotion and tenure) • Instructors present these portfolios to their dean to provide evidence for a decision about their careers.

32. V. Findings: Administrative Perspective c) Program or curriculum assessment • CIDR consultants are available to consult with departments on the assessment of academic programs and curriculum to: • develop overall program assessment strategies • identify sources of evidence for demonstrating program effectiveness • provide help in gathering program assessment data

33. V. Findings: Peer or Colleague Review • a form of assessment in which instructors give feedback to one another • Instructors share leadership skills and identify strengths of their peers • share strategies to approach diverse learning styles, and share learned leadership skills • New faculty members can tap this wealth of resources to develop their own skills and approaches

34. V. Findings: Student Learning a) Consult on course, syllabus, or assignment design • consultants help teachers in systematically think through their priorities for a course and articulate those priorities in their syllabus in a clear and compelling way • help in crafting assignments • work with teachers to devise appropriate and efficient strategies for giving students feedback

35. V. Findings: Student Learning b) Learn more about diversity and inclusive teaching practices • Inclusive teaching “begins with the premises that learning starts where the students are, and that effective teaching is responsive to the various experiences, backgrounds, and identities that students bring to the classroom” (CIDR)

36. V. Findings: Student Learning • Inclusive teaching means “intentionally bringing student experiences into the classroom, and recognizing the different experience, power, and privilege of diverse populations in relation to the subject matter being taught”.

37. V. Findings: Student Learning c) Using writing as a teaching strategy CIDR helps instructors in : • designing writing assignments • responding to student writing • assessing student writing • creating alternatives to papers

38. VI. Conclusions: • The use of multiple methods of communicating to instructors is superior to a single feedback mechanism. • individual institutions within a university may specialize in one or more of the six feedback mechanisms, but not all.

39. What are the specific challenges to replicating U.S. strategies in Palestine? The Palestinian academic environment has its own unique characteristics that may inhibit the application of some of the methods presented in this paper: - lack of administrative polices and guidelines for ensuring teaching excellence - Lack of funding

40. Yet, the current situation is not that gloomy • many of the previous identified mechanisms do not require huge sums of investments • The availability of local professionals and the widening pool of PhD graduates

41. Questions