MU-Middle States Self-Study: Chapter 4: Faculty

Chapter 4: Faculty
Teaching: The Faculty's Primary Responsibility

Teaching excellence and maximizing student learning are the chief foci of our faculty and are characterized as such in the mission and CBA. Teaching effectiveness is assessed through the faculty evaluation process. New faculty are evaluated every semester during their five year probationary period; tenured faculty are evaluated once every five years. The process includes evaluations of teaching by peers, chairs, and students, along with evaluations of scholarship and service by peers and chairs. Peer and chair evaluations of teaching are generally favorable, although the criteria for these reviews have not been standardized across departments, so they yield little quantifiable information. Student evaluations are also very positive; the overall 1998 average was 3.4 of a possible 4.0, up from an average of 3.2 in 1994.

These evaluations are corroborated by several surveys.

In a 1998 survey of Millersville sophomores conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 51% of our undergraduates agreed strongly and 94% at least somewhat that the quality of instruction in most classes is excellent. Nearly two thirds were satisfied with the help they received from faculty outside of class and 46% felt respected by faculty, both significantly higher than national averages.
In a 1998 survey of 926 graduate students (see Chapter 8), 46% agreed strongly that faculty offer academic assistance and 90% agreed at least somewhat.
In a 1996 State System survey of 400 Millersville undergraduates, 95% said Millersville met or exceeded their expectations in providing knowledgeable faculty.
In a 1995 Career Services survey of 1290 recent graduates on their educational and employment experiences, to which 43% responded, 35% characterized the quality of academic instruction as excellent and 96% as at least good; only 1% characterized it as poor.

Other indicators of teaching excellence are our outstanding student retention and graduation rates (see Chapter 2), which would not be possible without our faculty helping to foster student success.

Our faculty nurture student learning in many ways beyond their activities in the classroom. The many new and revised programs and other innovations documented in Chapter 3 are almost entirely the work of our faculty. The Virtual University (see Chapter 7) is an excellent example of faculty innovation in bringing new academic opportunities to students who might otherwise not have access to them.

Many faculty take the time to work individually with both undergraduates and graduate students on research projects and independent study. The success of this work is reflected in the number of students who present scholarly work at our annual student research conference, which has grown from 23 participants in 1989 to over 100 today. Faculty also work actively with students undertaking internships and cooperative education placements, helping them gain valuable "real life" experience that relates to their studies.

Our faculty work continually to strengthen their teaching skills and to help their students learn more effectively, and we are committed to offering opportunities to help them do so. In late 1998, we established the Center for Academic Excellence to support faculty in teaching enhancement, curriculum development, information technology, and collaborative inquiry. The Center fosters discussion and reflection on innovative pedagogy and provides instructional design services. It also helps faculty incorporate new software, course Web sites, electronic mail discussion, and teleconferencing into their courses. The Center offers teaching and learning forums, technology training, grant writing seminars, and a professional library.

Our commitment to fostering teaching excellence predates the Center, of course. Each summer at least two faculty members learn new teaching techniques at the State System's Summer Academy for Teaching and share what they have learned with colleagues. Our faculty have also participated in opportunities to learn about cooperative learning, classroom climate, and critical thinking. Many other professional development opportunities of which our faculty have taken advantage are discussed in Chapters 3, 7, and 8.

New teaching techniques require practice and refinement, and a faculty member experimenting with them may initially have poorer evaluations than he or she did previously. Our evaluation, promotion, and tenure policies and practices do not take this into consideration and may discourage some faculty from risking changes to their teaching practices.