How Search Committees Assess Teaching: Lessons for CTLs

This study updates and expands upon past work on how tenure-track hiring committees evaluate teaching effectiveness to provide centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) current data as they support graduate students and postdocs navigating the academic hiring process. In this study, 166 hiring commit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTo Improve the Academy Vol. 41; no. 2; pp. 46 - 77
Main Authors Walsh, Katharine Phelps, Pottmeyer, Laura Ochs, Meizlish, Deborah, Hershock, Chad
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Michigan Publishing 18.11.2022
Subjects
College Faculty
Educational Philosophy
Educational Principles
Faculty Development
Graduate Students
Higher Education
Resource Centers
Search Committees (Personnel)
Selection Criteria
Teacher Competencies
Teacher Employment
Teacher Evaluation
Teacher Qualifications
Teacher Selection
Tenure
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Summary:This study updates and expands upon past work on how tenure-track hiring committees evaluate teaching effectiveness to provide centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) current data as they support graduate students and postdocs navigating the academic hiring process. In this study, 166 hiring committee chairs from nine academic disciplines and a variety of institution types (e.g., Baccalaureate, Master's, and Doctoral) responded to survey questions addressing how they evaluate teaching effectiveness for tenure-track positions. Results indicate that hiring chairs across institution types and disciplines value a candidate's teaching effectiveness. Hiring committees use a variety of documents to gather information about an applicant's teaching, but the teaching philosophy statement is most common. The survey responses also provide greater clarity on what hiring chairs find effective in applicants' teaching philosophy statements, diversity and inclusion statements, and presentations of student evaluations. We discuss implications of these findings for scholarship of educational development (SoED) researchers, CTL leadership engaged in strategic planning, and educational developers providing consultations and workshops for future faculty.
DOI:10.3998/tia.583