title: Making the Grade: Using Instructional Feedback and Evaluation to Inspire Evidence-Based Teaching.
abstract: Typically, faculty receive feedback about teaching via two mechanisms: end-of-semester student evaluations and peer observation. However, instructors require more sustained encouragement and constructive feedback when implementing evidence-based teaching practices. Our study goal was to characterize the landscape of current instructional-feedback practices in biology and uncover faculty perceptions about these practices. Findings from a national survey of 400 college biology faculty reveal an overwhelming dissatisfaction with student evaluations, regardless of self-reported teaching practices, institution type, or position. Faculty view peer evaluations as most valuable, but less than half of faculty at doctoral-granting institutions report participating in peer evaluation. When peer evaluations are performed, they are more supportive of evidence-based teaching than student evaluations. Our findings reveal a large, unmet desire for greater guidance and assessment data to inform pedagogical decision making. Informed by these findings, we discuss alternate faculty-vetted feedback strategies for providing formative instructional feedback.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 brickman@uga.edu.
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brickman
authors.affiliation: Department of Science, Technology, and Mathematics, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC 20002.
authors.forename: Cara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gormally
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309.
authors.forename: Amedee Marchand
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Martella
mesh_terms: D004521:Educational Measurement; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D000068156:Formative Feedback; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards; D014495:Universities