TFELT Charge
In Fall 2019, the Task Force to Enhance Learning and Teaching (TFELT) was convened by the MU Faculty Council at the request of the Office of the Provost. The task force was charged with three primary goals:
- To propose a campus-wide multi-measure approach to the evaluation of teaching;
- To propose a system to support, recognize, and incentivize teaching excellence;
- To establish a plan to measure the long-term impacts of these changes on student learning and success.
The complete TFELT charge may be viewed here.
TFELT Process
Excerpted from the TFELT Report, June 4, 2021:
Building on [the work of the University of Missouri’s teaching scholarship task force in 2013-14 and the UM system intercampus faculty council task force in 2017-18], the Office of the Provost charged Faculty Council with the task of convening a 12-person campus faculty-led task force, TFELT, related to teaching effectiveness and stipulated that our recommendations should include both formative and summative evaluation recommendations. Faculty Council’s Chair made recommendations as to the task force’s membership, which drew from as many colleges or schools on campus as possible and also drew upon scholars with expertise in teaching, learning, measurement, assessment, college students, and higher education. TFELT was asked to “seek input from all constituents including but not limited to students, graduate teaching assistants and instructors, faculty, department chairs, associate deans and deans.” TFELT was charged with reviewing past task force documents, the MU strategic plan, the intercampus faculty council report referenced above, as well as developing recommendations that draw upon student feedback, peer assessment, and self-assessment data in alignment with the research on measuring teaching effectiveness, all of which we have done. Our efforts at seeking collaborative input and engagement over the past two years were recognized by MU Faculty Council in March 2021, with the awarding of their Group Shared Governance Award.
Click here to access TFELT’s pages on the Campus Committees website for providing background information and reports on its work-in-progress during 2019 to 2021, as well as reports from previous task forces.
TFELT Report and Related Documents
In Summer 2021, TFELT concluded two years of work by submitting a proposal with recommendations for improving teaching evaluation on campus, supporting and rewarding effective teaching, and assessing the impact of adopted recommendations after implementation.
Of particular note are two significant sets of recommendations: a definition and model of Inclusive and Effective Teaching, and a multi-measures system to evaluate teaching. This system was designed to align the use of student feedback, peer review and self-reflection mechanisms for evaluating teaching in a consistent, synergistic manner with the overarching definition and model of Inclusive and Effective Teaching.
Click here to access the TFELT report and proposal from June 4, 2021.
Click here to access an executive summary of the TFELT report and proposal.
Click here to access the response from the Provost’s Office on July 15, 2021.