Teaching Practices Inventory Provides Tool to Help You Examine Your Teaching

November 19, 2014

By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog

Here’s a great resource: the Teaching Practices Inventory. It’s an inventory that lists and scores the extent to which research-based teaching practices are being used. It’s been developed for use in math and science courses, but researchers Carl Wieman and Sarah Gilbert suggest it can be used in engineering and social sciences courses, although they have not tested it there. I suspect it has an even wider application. Most of the items on the inventory are or could be practiced in most disciplines and programs.
The article (in an open access journal and available on the website above) provides a detailed account of how the inventory was developed and has been tested so far. Carl Wieman is a Nobel Prize winner in physics who in recent years has been working on a variety of STEM projects. This article illustrates the high caliber of his work, completed with a variety of colleagues.
The inventory takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete (53% of the research cohort took it in 10 minutes or less) and is designed for use by individual faculty. It is a self-report inventory, with the power to promote a comprehensive review of and reflection on teaching practices. Inventory items are organized into eight categories: 1) course information provided to students; 2) supporting materials provided to students; 3) in-class features and activities; 4) assignments; 5) feedback and testing; 6) other (such as pre-post testing); 7) training and guidance of TAs; and 8) collaboration or sharing in teaching.
Of course, the insights provided by the inventory are a function of the truthfulness with which it’s completed, but if you’re using it on your own, there is no reason to be less than candid. The article reports on efforts to test the validity of faculty responses and researchers found high levels of consistency between individual answers and those provided by external reviewers.
The inventory comes with a scoring rubric that gives points (of varying quantity) for practices documented by research to improve student learning. Not all practices on the inventory merit points. It would be best to first take the inventory (a clean copy is available here), score it using the rubric in Appendix 1 of the article, and then read the article, which explains and justifies the point values with references to the relevant research. The article also contains the scoring results from 179 inventories completed by faculty in five different science and math departments. Those data are not normative but do offer something against which individual scores can be benchmarked.
The article explains how completed inventories can be used to look at practices within a department or across several of them. The inventory only indicates whether a practice is being used. It says nothing about the quality of the implementation. There’s an interesting discussion in the article about how the research team tried to look at quality and how difficult they discovered it was to ascertain.
Should teachers be doing (or have their students doing) all 51 of the research-supported practices and feel guilty if they aren’t? The authors point out that lots of the items are routinely used. And although the practices are listed individually on the inventory, many are related, overlapping and mutually reinforcing. If some of the practices are not being used, they can be implemented incrementally.
How strongly can I say that you really ought to take this inventory? At the very least, spend time looking at it. The data it provides is such a contrast to the normally judgmental, summative feedback provided by end-of-course student ratings. The inventory is predictive only in the sense that it identifies practices that research has shown help students learn—and who among us wouldn’t want to use those kinds of practices? Practices are things teachers do and they involve concrete actions, which is why an inventory like this can effectively guide the improvement process.
The authors say that the inventory “provides a rich and detailed picture of what practices are used in a course.” (p. 562) Normally, that’s a claim I’d read with some cynical suspicion, but it’s an apt description in this case.

Reference: Wieman, C., and Gilbert, S. (2014). The teaching practices inventory: A new tool for characterizing college and university teaching in mathematics and science. Cell Biology Education—Life Sciences Education, 13 (Fall), 552-569.

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Tags: Effective Teaching Strategies, reflections on teaching, teaching practices, teaching techniques

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Five Ways to Maintain Instructional Vitality

November 10, 2014

Climbing the Stairs: Observations on a Teaching Career

By: Patty H. Phelps, EdD in Teaching Careers

My office is on the first floor of the education building. I have spent 27 years in this building. Unless I have a meeting in another department, I rarely go upstairs. Recently, however, I started a daily routine of climbing the four sets of staircases in the building. Trying to slow the progression of osteoporosis in my right hip, I go up one set and down another three times as I make my way around the building. This physical activity has given me a chance to engage in some mental reflection. Here I will briefly share five observations on a career spent teaching in higher education with an eye toward encouraging newer faculty to achieve longevity in the profession.

1. Adaptability is key.

On the first day of stair climbing, I passed by the classroom where I taught my very first class as a newly “hooded” faculty member. As I looked in the room, a smile came across my face as I thought of those thirty graduate students—most of whom were older than I was. While I remained at the university, they went on to become school principals, district superintendents, and curriculum coordinators. Seeing this classroom now made me think about the changes in my teaching. The large chalkboard once mounted on the wall is long gone. Even though I always liked using chalk (and had a special stainless steel holder for it), other tools have definitely replaced the infamous dust producer. Technology has been the greatest change in my delivery of instruction. Yet no matter what the innovation or new requirement (e.g., reporting assessment data, using iPads in the classroom, etc.), maintaining flexibility and being open to alternative approaches will serve faculty well over time.

2. Become resourceful.

As I walked the hallways, I noticed the office directories at the main entrance to each department. So familiar, these are easily ignored. Actually looking at them each day reminded me that people are the most valuable resource available to us as faculty. Whose expertise complements ours? Whose interests are similar to ours? With whom can we bounce off ideas for teaching a new class preparation?
Furthermore, a large part of being successful in any professional endeavor is knowledge of whom to call for which dilemma. Aging in the profession reinforces that knowing where to get help surpasses knowing all the answers. Sometimes teaching faculty must let pride subside and not hesitate to find out where to get assistance. As we seek out and use the multitudinous resources that surround us on a college campus, we can become more effective faculty members.

3. Connect across departments.

On my fifth day of stair climbing, I saw two colleagues from another department on the second floor. I had last seen them on campus the previous semester. From the brief hallway encounter, they asked me to help with a research project. Had I not been upstairs, this opportunity may have not been extended. My simple exercise strategy prompted me to realize (again) how isolation within one’s own department may stifle growth and development. This incident also reminded me of the need for faculty to be visible and available. On several other recent self-guided building tours, I have seen past and present students in the halls or on the stairs. This too strengthens our connections and enhances efficacy.

4. Be observant.

On each stairwell there are bulletin boards. Opportunities abound for campus involvement. In the deluge of email messages, it is easy to overlook some of these options that are available to us on campus. Even if not personally interested, sharing posted information with students is a possibility. Additionally, the content of stairwell bulletin boards contains significant clues about what is currently relevant to students. Flyers with information on upcoming comedy acts and anxiety support groups serve to remind us of the lives outside the classroom that our students lead. We can then incorporate this information into lesson planning and perhaps better reach students.

5. Take regular breaks.

The whole stair-climbing experience has reminded me of the importance of building in short breaks during the workday. After each stair climbing endeavor, I have returned to my office and computer in a more refreshed state of mind. I gained a new perspective on my work. As faculty we must try not to spend all our time in our office. Leave the building at lunch or mid-afternoon. Breaks offer a chance to recharge.
I believe that longevity for teaching faculty boils down to risk-taking and resilience. Be willing to try new things, say “yes” to opportunities, and aim to bounce back after disappointments. Taking these factors to heart, perhaps I could step it up a notch by enrolling in a tap dance class as a way to combat my deteriorating hip!
Now it’s your turn, please share your advice for maintaining instructional vitality throughout your career.
Patty H. Phelps, Professor, Teaching & Learning, University of Central Arkansas.

Tags: instructional vitality, mid-career faculty, reflections on teaching\

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