College of Veterinary Medicine |

Teaching Academy

---

_{Healthy Animals, Healthy People, Healthy Planet}

Background:

A primary goal of the WSU CVM Teaching Academy initiative for Peer Observation of Teaching is to develop a culture of teaching improvement within our college. This culture would welcome peer observations and interactions, individualize faculty development of instruction, support educational innovations, and generate community-wide conversations about best teaching practices.

The evaluation of teaching in the WSU CVM is currently limited. These processes:

• Do not provide sufficient formative input to improve an individual’s teaching effectiveness
• Do not support experimentation and innovation (risk taking)
• Do not stimulate sharing of teaching experiences or otherwise create a comfortable environment for exploring new teaching practices
• Do not provide complete and balanced summative feedback, as is needed for annual review and promotion portfolios

Overview:

After an initial phase of recruitment, a spectrum of current faculty, tenured and non-tenured, are being trained to observe, discuss and actively reflect with CVM instructional faculty. This will provide constructive interactions with a group of at least three trained faculty following observations of the individuals’ teaching activities (including lectures, laboratories and clinical instruction). The interactive process follows transparent guidelines. Interactions will be designed to offer relevant and insightful opportunities for reflection by the instructor, and to provide an alternative source of formative and summative evaluations to department chairs and promotion committees.