A faculty supervisor training program to assess faculty performance: a community college case study
Abstract
Many faculty in higher education simply do not value their supervisor’s
assessment of their performance. The reasons are many-fold; among them is a lack of
confidence in the supervisor’s ability to assess performance. While policymakers
require institutions to conduct faculty performance evaluations and external
stakeholders believe that the institution should be held accountable for student
learning, there is often a disconnect between faculty performance and student benefit.
Both faculty and faculty supervisors believe the primary outcome of faculty
evaluations should be student benefit.
Therefore, this qualitative case study was designed to create a model by which
to base a faculty supervisor training program to assess and improve faculty
performance. The study design addresses the (a) developmental process of creating a
faculty supervisor training program, (b) organizational culture, and (c) participants
perspective. This community college study was participant driven through the use of
an Interactive Qualitative Analysis methodology with separate faculty and faculty
supervisor focus groups. By describing their experiences with getting and giving
evaluations, clustering their descriptors into affinity groups, and determining how
they relate to one another, a model of each group’s experiences was created. Each
group had eight affinities, four of which were in common. Both noted student benefit
as the primary outcome of faculty evaluations. However, faculty said their main
experience drivers were consistency/inconsistency and evaluator competence.
Supervisors said their main experience driver was communication. This information
formed the basis for developing a training program that shifted from a multi-college
district perspective to an individual college. Training was offered on portfolio
assessment, role playing/coaching skills, interpretation of assessment instrument
rating scale and components, and legal aspects for documenting performance issues
around faculty members with disabilities.
The study 1) provides solid research on a topic for which there is little
published information, 2) develops a model for faculty supervisor training programs,
3) builds grounded theory on the topic, and 4) offers a framework through which
faculty and faculty supervisors can focus on student learning through assessing
faculty performance and continually improving performance.
Department
Description
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