NC State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox is co-author of a report released Nov. 13 by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences calling for improvements in how colleges and universities evaluate teaching in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology.

Dr. Norman Hackerman, Rice University president emeritus and distinguished professor emeritus of chemistry, currently with the Robert A. Welch Foundation of Houston, co-authored the report with Fox. They serve as co-chairs of the NRC committee charged with recognizing, evaluating, rewarding and developing excellence in teaching undergraduate science, engineering, mathematics, and technology.

The report says that while "academia and government have established rigorous peer-review systems to evaluate faculty research in science, engineering, mathematics and technology…the evaluation of teaching in these fields has been haphazard and less exacting." Faculty members and administrators sometimes believe that it's difficult, if not impossible, to objectively gauge the effectiveness of teaching skills, according to the authors, "but fair strategies for evaluating undergraduate teaching and learning…do exist, and they deserve wider appreciation and use."

Acknowledging that scientific disciplines, as well as colleges and universities, vary considerably, the report emphasizes that "no single path to high-quality evaluation of professors or academic departments is clearly superior." But both teaching and program effectiveness should be judged by the extent of student learning, say the authors, and too often "evaluations leave this key variable out of the equation."

The report suggests combining a broad range of evidence about student learning - including such assessment tools as quizzes, standardized tests, portfolios, presentations of research and student journals - with ongoing feedback from students and colleagues as a "useful approach for judging and boosting teaching skills and departmental curricula."

Other avenues for improving teaching in the more technical fields include support centers for faculty professional-development; focusing on teaching methods based on scientific evidence about how students learn; and recognizing - through endowments or other rewards - faculty members who make significant contributions to teaching.

Fox, a noted organic chemist, is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The report was sponsored by the National Research Council, the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Posted November 14, 2002

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