Teaching Excellence at OHIO

Demonstrating Teaching Excellence

While there are many ways to demonstrate teaching excellence, the CTLA has outlined eight criteria or characteristics for how teaching excellence shows up in OHIO's classrooms and learning contexts.

The weight given to each criterion may vary by discipline, context, expectations, stage of faculty/curriculum development and/or teaching assignments. Academic units are encouraged to refine each criterion based on disciplinary expectations, expertise, context and student populations served.

Preparation

An educator’s efforts to plan for teaching such as effectively:

• Learning teaching tools, techniques or methods
• Learning theory-driven teaching practices
• Creating learning outcomes
• Creating syllabi meeting department, school, college and/or University standards for compliance, content and rigor
• Designing course(s) including schedule, organization and content
• Developing content, structures, activities, etc.
• Preparing to adjust teaching/learning as needed

Engagement

An educator’s teaching process such as effectively:

• Delivering courses and content
• Integrating high-impact experiences such as active learning, experiential learning, serving learning, etc.
• Communicating with learners
• Adapting flexibility to learner needs
• Enabling peer-to-peer teaching and learning
• Developing/enabling community engagement
• Advising/mentoring students inside and outside the classroom

Inclusion

An educator’s ability to serve the needs of all students such as effectively:

• Creating a welcoming, productive class environment
• Offering multiple ways to learn
• Providing support for all learners
• Integrating diverse examples
• Limiting biased language
• Promoting respectful and empathetic interactions among students and between the student and educator

Subject Expertise

An educator’s subject knowledge such as successfully:

• Publishing subject-related peer-reviewed research, case studies, chapters/texts, essays, blogs, etc.
• Training or professional development in subject-related field
• Having current knowledge about the latest research in the subject-related field
• Achieving or maintaining professional certifications
• Subject-related awards, honors, grants or recognition

Pedagogical Expertise

An educator’s pedagogical knowledge such as successfully:

• Publishing teaching-related peer-reviewed research, case studies, chapters/texts, essays, blogs, etc.
• Presenting teaching-related research, insights
• Mentoring peers
• Participating and sharing knowledge as a peer reviewer of teaching
• Earning teaching awards from department, college, university or external organizations
• Creating a teaching philosophy or portfolio
• Being recognized in a published article, podcast, blog, etc. for teaching
• Teaching-related awards, honors, grants or recognition

Outcomes

An educator’s ability to achieve desired results such as effectively:

• Assessing student achievement of learning outcomes
• Achieving desired course learning outcomes
• Achieving desired course outcomes (e.g., retention rates, DFW rates, preparation for subsequent courses, instructor evaluation ratings, etc.)
• Achieving a desired level of student engagement metrics (e.g., participation, use of materials, etc.)
• Contributing to desired program outcomes (e.g., learning outcomes, licensure rates, placement, reported curiosity, continued learning, etc.)
• Reducing opportunity or achievement equity gaps

Improvement

An educator’s efforts to develop or innovate teaching such as successfully:

• Using outcome data, peer evaluations, student evaluations, etc. to revise curriculum, courses, modules, and/or lessons
• Innovating teaching practices through experimentation
• Reflecting on teaching, learning, and/or assessment
• Demonstrating improvements in the quality of instruction
• Collaborating with peers
• Participating in teaching-related conferences, workshops, training, etc.