Departmental Policy For Teaching Evaluation And Improvement

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) has recently adopted a new policy for evaluating faculty members’ teaching contributions to the department and college. The MU promotion and tenure policy requires that all candidates submit two forms of evaluation for their educational efforts, one of which must be student course evaluations. In response to this requirement, and with the ultimate goal of improving teaching in the department, a committee was formed to evaluate the current situation and recommend improvements. In consultation with the Program for Excellence in Teaching on campus, the department is implementing a requirement that the second method of evaluation be an external peer review of the teaching portfolio, with particular emphasis on whether the content, rigor, and expectations in courses taught are appropriate. Reviewers of teaching portfolios may or may not overlap with those asked to evaluate research contributions. It is anticipated that the materials sent for review, in addition to the typical teaching portfolio contents, will include materials similar to those required for an ABET review – syllabus, assignments, exams, notes, and samples of student work.