Reporter Volume 25, No.24 April 14, 1994

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff
The basic goal of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness is to promote
and enhance faculty performance in undergraduate, graduate and
professional teaching situations through strong faculty development
programming, Frank Schimpfhauser, interim director of the OTE, told
the Faculty Senate Executive Committee last week.
	"My year as interim director has been positive and exciting,
as well as sobering and challenging," Schimpfhauser said.
	Schimpfhauser said that he has been working with faculty "who
are doing many exciting things," such as the Winter Teaching
Conference in which 12 UB faculty demonstrated methods of active
learning that they employ in the classroom. The OTE's advisory board
also has been extremely helpful, Schimpfhauser said. But he also said
that "The sobering side of teaching effectiveness is that there are
things that need more attention at a major research institution like
UB."
	Schimpfhauser listed seven particular goals of the OTE,
including integrating new faculty and graduate teaching assistants
into the university culture, creating faculty awareness of current
instructional methods, research and issues, and providing ongoing
distribution of faculty development information, including
instructional techniques. Other OTE goals include consulting with
faculty and departments to improve university instruction, maintaining
a network of individuals that supports the activities of the OTE,
supporting ongoing faculty development interests in the university
administration, and developing and working with university academic
units and administration on innovative programs for university
instructional staff.
	Norma Henderson, staff associate of the OTE, said that several
issues that keep reappearing in the current literature on teaching
effectiveness include the role of teaching portfolios, which she
defined as a chance for faculty to present evidence of their teaching
ability. Other issues in the current literature include the importance
of peer evaluation as a tool and process for improving teaching,
utilizing faculty talents and in promotion and tenure procedures.
Also important issues are mentoring to enhance the productivity of new
and experienced faculty, and active learning processes that help
students develop critical thinking skills in their classes and
disciplines, Henderson said.
	A number of important teaching needs are currently unmet at
UB, Henderson said. The need to maximize student learning so that
student retention is improved and students progress in a timely manner
is of crucial importance, she said. Needs to have ongoing reviews of
teaching, to learn innovative and effective classroom techniques, and
to expand training and professional development activities for TAs are
also currently unmet at UB, Henderson said. Other currently unmet
needs include the need to develop and support new ideas in teaching,
to support and encourage good teaching, to expand OTE consultative
services, and to increase collegiality by talking about teaching and
student learning, Henderson said.
	Nicolas Goodman, interim vice provost for undergraduate
education, said that teaching effectiveness is central to his
administrative concerns but that it is "a difficult issue. Being
precise is important to me, and I don't think we know what teaching
effectiveness is," Goodman said. Speaking of the OTE, Goodman said
"How do you improve a process when you don't know what it's for?"
	UB is not precise about what the goals of teaching are,
Goodman said. "What constitutes a successful graduateQwhat should they
know?" Goodman asked. "If we could achieve consensus on such issues,
then we could measure student performance. But it's an extremely
difficult, time-consuming process."
	Goodman said he thought it was important to connect enrollment
to the budget process so that student course needs could be met. But
potential problems, such as investing major resources on what turns
out to be temporary demand, means that such a connection would have to
be closely combined with assessment, Goodman said. "If it was known
around campus that a general approach to assessment had been
successful for the Provost, it would help us make headway on these
issues," he said.
	Dennis Malone of Engineering said that it was possible to be
"extremely precise and totally inaccurate at the same time." Malone
said he thought that the work of OTE was desirable and that they had
done good work. But Malone asked if the OTE had done before-and- after
surveys to determine the success of their programs.
	Frank Schimpfhauser responded that "People go away from our
programs feeling goodQI don't know if that's a measure. There have
also been a number of spin-off projects. I'm not sure that teaching
effectiveness can be quantifiedQI think our projects have value,
although I'm not sure we can measure and evaluate them as precisely as
some people might want."
	Charles Trzcinka of Management said that competition is an
important measure of any kind of effectiveness. "If the measure is
what produces our beating the competition, there are many variables,
but if the measure is a comparison with other schools, it could be
very helpful."
	Samuel Schack of Mathematics said "My belief is that teaching
is extraordinarily discipline specific. I would like to see incentives
to departments to improve teaching within the department."
	Kenneth Takeuchi of Chemistry, speaking as a member of the OTE
advisory board, said that the board had discussed problems of
evaluating teaching, and of tying money to teaching. But the board had
decided that teaching effectiveness was difficult to quantify,
Takeuchi said. "So we chose to give faculty access to a wide variety
of experiences in terms of ways to teach," Takeuchi said. "I think the
program is effective. The reason why OTE's activities seem so diverse
is that there is no one right answer to what makes good teaching."