Perception of teaching excellence by faculty and administrators in the Engineering Schools of the West Initiative

The faculty development sub-committee of the Engineering Schools of the West Initiative (ESWI) developed and administered a pair of surveys for faculty and administrators. We constructed the surveys with four objectives in mind: (1) to collect descriptive benchmark data about perceptions on issues related to the scholarship of teaching; (2) to understand if there was a difference between engineering faculty and administrators´ perceptions; (3) to explore how the respondents´ own values, in regard to teaching excellence, aligned with their perception of the values of their institutions; and (4) to articulate some implications as to how excellence in teaching is valued and evaluated in the academic community. The results indicate there are many misalignments between the perceptions of administrators and faculty. We also discovered many misalignments between faculty values and the perceived reward system. However, faculty and administrators did agree on several measures of teaching excellence, such as teaching awards. The final outcome of this project was the development of a revised survey that addressed the shortcomings identified and will be administered in 2009-2010.