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Texas Tech University

The Teaching Evaluation Initiative

 

As we strive to improve and build upon a culture of excellence in teaching and learning at Texas Tech, the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center, the Teaching Academy, and the Office of the Provost and many other organizations, councils, committees, departments, and individuals have partnered together to consider how we might define, reflect upon, and evaluate teaching at Texas Tech University. This effort is called the Teaching Evaluation Initiative.

The goal of the Teaching Evaluation Initiative is to shift our campus culture to a three-voice teaching evaluation process that includes student feedback, self-reflection of one's own teaching, and peer evaluation of teaching. In particular, we strive to make the way in which we evaluate teaching transparent and multifaceted. The Teaching Evaluation Initiative is a collective project that builds upon a history of teaching excellence at Texas Tech. It is not our intent to mandate teaching practices, technologies, or strategies but rather we seek to collectively create shared resources and tools that faculty and departments can choose to adopt or adapt.

This project reflects our value and love for teaching. For more information, please contact Suzanne Tapp.

Project History and Timeline

In Fall, 2020, representatives from Texas Tech University were accepted to an invitation-only workshop convened by the Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and the TEval Project with support from the National Science Foundation (IUSE 1524832, DRL 1725946, 1726087, 1725959, and 1725956). Attendees were divided into action planning campuses (Rutgers, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, University of California Los Angeles and University of Missouri) and Advisory Campuses (University of Colorado, University of Kansas, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Southern California, and University of Oregon). As we learned from other institutions and observed the ways in which they had improved their institutions' teaching cultures, the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center partnered with the Texas Tech Teaching Academy to being a similar project at Texas Tech. The timeline on this page summarizes our progress to date.

A project of this nature is only possible with support from many individuals and stakeholders including the TLPDC, Teaching Academy, Office of the Provost, Office of the President, Office of Faculty Success, Faculty Senate, Chairs Council, Academic Council, Student Government Association, and many others. We acknowledge that our continued participation in TEval workshops and mentorship from Dr. Ginger Clark, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs (USC), as well as Dr. Noah Finkelstein, Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, have provided significant guidance in our initiative. Many Texas Tech faculty members, staff, students, and administrators have devoted time to this project and without our shared work, our progress would be impossible.

Please click on the headings below to learn more about efforts in each of these areas:

Subcommittee Information:

TLPDC (Organizing Structure) Partners: Teaching Academy Faculty Senate NSF ADVANCE Grant Office of the Provost Office of the President; Peer Review Subcommittee  Mitzi Ziegner Karen Alexander; Teaching Quality  Definition Subcommittee Courtney Meyers Lisa Low; Departmental Teaching Plans Subcommittee Angela Lumpkin David Roach; Self-Reflection Subcommittee Lisa Garner Santa Dom Casadonte; Student Evaluation Subcommittee  Suzanne Tapp Michael Serra

The 3 Voice Model: Student Evaluations, Self Reflection, and Peer Evaluation

Resources and recorded sessions from the 2021 Advancing Teaching & Learning Conference (ATLC), focused on teaching evaluations at TTU.

Teaching, Learning, & Professional Development Center

  • Address

    University Library Building, Room 136, Mail Stop 2044, Lubbock, TX 79409-2004
  • Phone

    806.742.0133
  • Email

    tlpdc@ttu.edu