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Most faculty members do not begin their careers as polished teachers. They become more effective as they gain experience, develop effective teaching strategies, build knowledge, and learn to be more effective mentors. Faculty members are expected to take seriously the constructive feedback from their chairs, peers, and students. As faculty members move through the ranks, they are expected to mentor newer faculty members. In many disciplines, tenure-track faculty members will be engaged in graduate education. Assistant professors involved in Ph.D. programs may find that they recruit students in the second or third year of service and that these students may not complete their degrees before promotion and tenure review of their mentoring faculty member. One would expect, however, that such professors would have evidence of successful graduate mentorship. As faculty members in Ph.D. programs achieve higher rank or longer service, their graduate students should complete graduate degrees in a timely fashion. Promotion or tenure requires a high level of performance in teaching, appropriate to the rank, discipline, and degree level of the program.
Typically, these standards apply in the first three years of the tenure probationary period. Faculty should have:
- Student and peer evaluations that, in the aggregate, indicate effectiveness near national norms for the discipline.
- Student commentary that generally speaks to a positive learning experience.
- Teaching that is current in content and pedagogy appropriate to the discipline and to the mode of instruction.
- Attention to course management through design of appropriate and informative syllabuses that adhere to university and system standards, the administering of effective tools to evaluate student learning, the provision of timely and constructive feedback to students, and on-time submission of grades at appropriate points in the semester.
- Teaching that makes effective use of scheduled class time and in which the faculty member participates with enthusiasm, respect for students, professionalism, and civility.
- Teaching at multiple levels or a diversity of courses, as assigned, to meet university needs.
- Providing appropriate feedback to the student and the student’s advisor through use of the university’s early alert system.
- Advising that is effectively carried out in the context of the unit needs.
- (Note that teaching is evaluated differently for library faculty.)
Typically, these standards apply in years four to six of the tenure probationary period. Faculty should have:
- Student evaluations that, in the aggregate, indicate effectiveness near or above national norms for the discipline and student commentary that generally speaks to an inspiring and intellectually challenging experience.
- Teaching that makes use of the most recent content available, reflecting ongoing innovation in pedagogy and providing evidence for continual re-examination of teaching effectiveness.
- Ongoing participation in course-development activities designed to improve teaching and learning.
- Engagement of students in and out of the classroom, including mentoring and advising.
- Teaching that clearly advances the mission of the unit and the university.
- Successful mentoring of graduate students to promote progression toward degrees, when teaching in programs that offer graduate degrees.
- Effective mentoring of other faculty members in their teaching roles.
Relevant instructional activities are listed below. The list is not exhaustive, and participation in these activities, by itself, does not constitute an acceptable level of performance for promotion, tenure, or annual evaluation. The outcome or impact of that participation will be examined, according to university and national standards.
- Teaching undergraduate or graduate-level courses.
- Developing new, or modifying existing, undergraduate or graduate courses.
- Advising students.
- Teaching in programs outside the immediate discipline, including such signature programs as the Honors program, First-Year Experience program, and similar programs.
- Teaching in a distance setting credit or non-credit offerings, including courses, workshops, and institutes.
- Supervising internships or other off-campus learning situations, including field trips, study abroad, or industrial experience.
- Teaching of individual undergraduate, graduate, or professional students through independent study.
- Supervising and mentoring students in research or scholarly activity, including guiding students through the preparation of presentations.
- Thesis or dissertation supervision at the undergraduate or graduate level.
- Serving on graduate committees.
- Experimenting with instructional methods and strategies.
- Developing teaching and learning assessment strategies.
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