Continual Improvement of Courses and Teaching

The Center for Civic Excellence supports excellent teachers who are committed to creating an outstanding general education experience for students. The Civic Center is equally committed to supporting those teachers with professional development, collaboration with colleagues, and relevant data to continually strengthen our teaching and courses.

Teaching in the Civic Center includes a shared commitment to continual improvement. Civic Teaching Fellows are expected to meaningfully contribute to student learning assessment, collaborative course revision, and professional development relevant to the courses they teach. These activities help teachers understand student learning, reflect on their teaching, learn from their colleagues, and make intentional, thoughtful improvement to CIVC courses over time.

Collaborative Teaching and Course Improvement

Each semester the Civic Center organizes collaborative workshops to support the continual improvement of teaching and courses. Since no single measure can provide a complete picture of teaching or learning, these workshop conversations will center around the following:

  1. Student learning of program and designation-area outcomes, measured through Signature Assignment shared rubrics in Canvas. Instructors will participate in a guided process of second scoring to support consistency in rubric interpretation across sections.
  2. Student perception of learning, measured through IDEA Objectives1 and custom questions2 aligned with program and designation-area outcomes.
  3. Student perception of teaching, measured through IDEA questions associated with the teaching practices expected in CIVC courses3.
  4. Teacher reflection and context, including instructors’ observations about their students, teaching experiences, and substantive changes they have made or would recommend for the course.

Individualized Teaching Support

When assessment data suggests that individual teachers may need additional support to meet the Civic Center’s teaching and learning goals, the Associate Vice Provost of the Center for Civic Excellence (currently Matt Sanders) will begin a conversation with the Civic Teaching Fellow(s) to better understand the context. The purpose of this conversation is to better understand the teaching and learning environment and identify what, if any, additional support will help the teacher(s) succeed.

The Civic Center approaches these conversations with a presumption of professionalism, excellence, and good faith, as well as a mutual understanding that all Civic Teaching Fellows are committed to using a growth mindset for their students and themselves. Variation in student learning or feedback may occur for many reasons and will not automatically be interpreted as evidence of ineffective teaching. Depending on the circumstances, additional support might include professional development, mentoring, or focused instructional coaching.

The Civic Center does not expect that every course or instructor will produce identical results. Instead, the Civic Center has a culture of welcoming reflection and feedback as opportunities to grow.

Note: While the Civic Center will provide feedback to Civic Teaching Fellows and their department heads, departments retain sole responsibility for annual review and promotion and tenure decisions.

Notes

  1. The IDEA Objectives most closely aligned with student learning can be found in Section 1 of the Preview of IDEA Learning Essentials instrument customized for CIVC courses.
  2. The custom questions aligned with student learning can be found in Section 5 of the Preview of IDEA Learning Essentials instrument customized for CIVC courses.
  3. The teaching practices and associated questions can be found in the Center for Civic Excellence’s Best Practices for Teaching and Learning. The custom questions associated with teaching practices can also be found in Section 6 of the Preview of IDEA Learning Essentials instrument customized for CIVC courses.