This annual journal's premier issue features the work, thoughts, adventures, and musings of distinguished and respected teachers. An introduction reports that the journal was born of the desire by faculty to recognize college teaching as a profession and to bring to it its own language and traditions and to establish an academic culture for…

Describes seven principles for developing a workable system for evaluation of college teaching, and provides both process and decision matrixes for groups interested in building such a system for their own evaluation. Argues that the system must be safe, explicit, manageable, formative, and satisfy environmental demands for accountability and…

Examines military and industrial research on peer assessment and discusses relevance to peer review of college teaching. Gives special attention to practical issues in assessing reliability and validity of peer evaluations, and discusses three characteristics of academic institutions (personal teaching styles/definition of "peer"/nature of…

Discusses problems with summative peer evaluation of college teaching, looking at conflicting interests and mixed metaphors of faculty evaluation that obscure its process and principles. Issues related to five kinds of evaluation (judging, critiquing, assessing, appraising, rating) are examined. Argues that peers can contribute to faculty…

Examines use of collaborative college faculty peer review for instructional improvement. Establishes rationales for formative evaluation of teaching, peer review in instructional improvement, and comprehensive faculty evaluation that includes peer review. Examines roles faculty might play in assessing colleagues' teaching; describes five methods…

Proposes a broader concept of college faculty peer evaluation, in which perspectives of teacher, learner, and observer are considered. Argues that three basic principles (intention/interpretation, advisement/appraisement, acceptability/accessibility) must necessarily and minimally guide peer evaluation. Presents a four-part, multidimensional peer…

Describes the peer observation program developed by faculty at California State University, Dominguez Hills, its structure and adaptations, outcomes, and recommendations for development of formative peer observation programs. The program helps reduce faculty professional isolation by providing an informal structure for discussion of teaching and…

After preparing their own teaching portfolios, four Georgia Southern University instructors designed a study to investigate what happens when neither follow-up workshops nor mentoring are provided by the institution. Results indicate that without institutional support, especially mentoring, faculty use teaching portfolios primarily for tenure and…

Research with 96 undergraduates investigated interpretations of a global-evaluation item common to student evaluation forms. Through narratives and semistructured interviews, students described classroom experiences, beliefs about good teaching, and aspects of the evaluation process that influencing their ratings. The item produced multiple…