My name is Tiffany Steele and I was a graduate research associate for the University Institute for Teaching and Learning (UITL). Over the summer, I was tasked with the duty to begin the research for UITL on the topics of faculty peer evaluation and the use of teaching portfolios within the appointment, promotion, and tenure process. Through my research of best practices across the country and within The Ohio State University, I have found commonalities but also room for growth when it comes to both supporting faculty undergoing review and faculty responsible for conducting reviews of their peers.
In this second year of the University Institute for Teaching and Learning, we are beginning to see the contours of President Drake’s vision for a research university deepening its commitment to teaching come into sharper focus. The Institute’s Faculty Fellows are working across the university’s campuses to tap current expertise and to create synergies around pedagogical strategies, teaching perspectives, and evidence-based practices that advance our communal understanding of both “what is” and “what works” in teaching. This convergence of expertise and wisdom can now start to point us toward “what can be” on the larger question of what it means...
