Creating a Peer Review of Teaching Process to Enhance Instructor Feedback in Engineering Education
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual Conference
- Publication Date
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July 26, 2021
- Start Date
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July 26, 2021
- End Date
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July 19, 2022
- Conference Session
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Faculty Development 3: Research, Practice, and Lessons Learned
- Tagged Division
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Faculty Development Division
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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34
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--36869
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/36869
- Download Count
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494
Paper Authors
Jennifer L. Herman Ohio State University
Dr. Jennifer Herman is a senior lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education at the Ohio State University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in technical and research communication. Dr. Herman’s research interests include scientific communication, technical communication, multimedia composition, writing pedagogy, and informal learning environments. She also works with faculty and graduate students to enhance the competitiveness of their research proposals by providing writing coaching and editorial review for scientific style.
Ann D. Christy P.E.
Ohio State University
orcid.org/0000-0001-9172-0609
Ann D. Christy, PE, is a professor of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering and a professor of Engineering Education at the Ohio State University (OSU). She earned both her B.S. in agricultural engineering and M.S. in biomedical engineering at OSU, and her Ph.D. in environmental engineering at Clemson University. She worked for an engineering consulting firm before entering academia and continues to collaborate with the consulting industry. She has taught courses in bioenergy, biological engineering, capstone design, HVAC, thermodynamics, waste management, professional development, and engineering teaching. Her research interests include energy, the environment, and engineering education. She is assistant dean for teaching and learning in the College of Engineering. She is a second-generation woman engineer.
Lynn Hall Ohio State University
Lynn Hall is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She received both her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Miami University (Ohio). Her research interests include technical communication and diversity and inclusion in engineering.
David A. Delaine Ohio State University
Dr. David A. Delaine is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University Department of Engineering Education. Within this newly formed department he strives to creatively impact engineering education and society through investigating community-based learning and its potential impact on students and communities. The goal of this research is to establish knowledge in how STEM CBL can support broadening participation and promote social justice and citizenship through evidence-based approaches.
William Cohen Ohio State University
William Cohen is a Lecturer for the Fundamentals of Engineering program at The Ohio State University: a 2 semester course sequence for first-year engineering students focusing on programming in MATLAB, computer aided drawing in SolidWorks, and a semester long design-build-test project. William has also received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Ohio State.
James Edward Toney Ohio State University
James Toney earned the Ph.D. in physics from Carnegie Mellon University in 1998 and the B.S. in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1984. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State and Senior Research Scientist at SRICO, Inc. in Columbus, OH, where his research focuses on electro-optics. He is the author of the book, Lithium Niobate Photonics (Artech House, 2015).
Lisa Abrams Ohio State University
Dr. Lisa Abrams is currently the Associate Chair for the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University (OSU). She received her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and PhD degree in Industrial Engineering from Ohio State. She has seven years of industry experience in the areas of Design and Consulting. Her research focuses on the recruitment, retention, and success of undergraduate students, especially those populations who are under-represented in engineering. She has developed and taught a wide variety of engineering courses in First Year Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Ohio State. She has received numerous teaching awards in the last five years at both the College and the Departmental level at OSU.
Alan Kalish Ohio State University
Alan Kalish, Ph.D., Assistant Vice Provost, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Educational Studies, The Ohio State University, works to support faculty efforts on academic program assessment, implementation of a revised general education program, and institutional accreditation. He also oversees the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in University Teaching and chairs the Student Evaluation of Instruction Oversight Committee.
Previously, he directed the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Ohio State for 18 years, as well as founding the Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University, Sacramento, and servicing as associate director of Teaching Resources Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, where he earned his Ph.D. in English.
His research includes transitions from graduate school to faculty life, teaching and learning in higher education, and course and curriculum design. A leader on peer review of teaching, preparing future faculty, scholarship of teaching and learning, course and curriculum design, and assessing academic support units, he co-edited Teaching & Learning in the College Classroom, 3rd Ed. (2010), and Mapping the Range of Graduate Student Professional Development. (2012). Studies in Graduate and Professional Student Development 14. and has been PI or Co-PI on many grants, including U.S. Department of Education Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education and Ohio Board of Regents.
Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo Ohio State University
Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo, Ph.D., is associate director for strategic partnership and operations at the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University, where she supports the future growth, stability and productivity of the institute. Her responsibilities range from instructional/policy creation support and initiative management. She is charged with contributing to and promoting the inquiry and scholarship mission of the institute. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Higher Education Curriculum and Instruction and has served as a director of teaching and learning at Ohio State's College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Cincinnati's Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, as well as a faculty member at various private liberal arts, community college, and research universities.
Toni M. Calbert Ohio State University
Abstract
Peer review of teaching is an intentional observation process where faculty are encouraged to engage critically with their own and a colleagues’ teaching practice. Faculty who use peer review find that both reviewer and reviewee benefit and are able to identify areas for improvement. At least part of the growing emphasis on peer review is the recognition that student ratings are a necessary, but incomplete, method of evaluating instruction. Student evaluations are an unreliable measure for teaching effectiveness and can be heavily influenced by gender and racial biases. The problems with existing methods of assessing instruction demonstrate the need for a system of formative and summative peer review focused on instructor development. By drawing on existing models, the co-authors propose a system of formative options for reviewing instruction (across all faculty ranks) to empower faculty to identify and address gaps in their abilities as instructors, while supporting promotion and tenure, and lastly strengthening student learning outcomes. This system is comprised of multiple options which include the following:
• Attend workshop on some aspect of teaching • Have a faculty member with a similar area of content expertise review the course syllabus and schedule, course materials, or course-related website materials • Develop/refine teaching philosophy • Observe another teacher • Have a class period video recorded • Have a class observed • Publish scholarly textbooks, chapters in books used as texts, and other publications designed primarily for classroom and instructional settings • Mentor advisees and other students on teaching • Engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning, publishing best practices and/or pedagogy
This paper describes the process of developing and piloting a peer review system offering faculty professional development opportunities for varied, robust feedback on multiple aspects of teaching. The goal is to enhance teaching effectiveness and serve as a model for other engineering departments.
Herman, J. L., & Christy, A. D., & Hall, L., & Delaine, D. A., & Cohen, W., & Toney, J. E., & Abrams, L., & Kalish, A., & Rhodes-DiSalvo, M., & Calbert, T. M. (2021, July), Creating a Peer Review of Teaching Process to Enhance Instructor Feedback in Engineering Education Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36869
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