Develop tools and encourage policy to measure teaching based on student learning goals
One likely reason that instructional improvement has had such slow uptake is that neither faculty
nor their institutions have many good tools to use to measure their effectiveness. For example, in
follow‐up interviews to our web survey of physics faculty, we asked faculty how they knew their
teaching was working [7,8]. Many acknowledged they really did not have a good way of measuring their
effectiveness. Others gave very vague answers indicating they had a general sense of it from
interactions with students. Rarely did anyone have any objective measure to guide them. Further,
when we asked how their teaching was evaluated by their institution, the answer was nearly always
through student opinion. Overwhelming, faculty indicated that they felt student evaluations were not a
particularly effective way of measuring teaching quality. The political ramifications of basing job
performance evaluations on a measure that is not trusted by all parties aside, we believe the lack of
more appropriate measures significantly impedes reform. If neither instructors nor their employers are
able to assess effectiveness then there is no feedback mechanism to encourage and support reforms
which improve student learning. We are not advocating the high stakes brand of testing that has come
to dominate K‐12 education. Our studies consistently indicate that both faculty and the departments
they work in have a genuine and strong interest in improving student outcomes. Simply having clear feedback about what is working or not working is likely to go a long way toward encouraging researchbased
reform.