Aligning practice to policies: changing the culture to recognize and reward teaching at research universities
Aligning practice to policies: changing the culture to recognize and reward teaching at research universities In this review, the authors highlight the gap between existing policies at many research institutions, ...

Three levels of chemistry educational research
Three levels of chemistry educational research In this editorial, the author provides a three-category typology of submissions received by the journal, based on the extent to which the submission is specifically ...

A Better Way to Evaluate Undergraduate Teaching
A Better Way to Evaluate Undergraduate Teaching In this article, the author considers current methods of evaluating teaching at research universities and proposes a new method for evaluation based on teaching ...

AAU Framework for systemic change in undergraduate STEM teaching and learning
AAU Framework for systemic change in undergraduate STEM teaching and learning Outlines framework developed by AAU to guide institutional commitment to teaching and learning, including cultural change, scaffolding, ...

Improving the Academic Climate of an R1 STEM Department: Quantified Positive Shifts in Perception
This study confirms the positive outcomes of having a practical, sustainable, and data-driven framework for affecting change within a graduate community.

Shaping the Future of Higher Education: Practical, Community-Driven Initiatives to Improve Academic Climate
In this Editorial, we present the history and details of a collaborative effort to improve the academic climate of the Department of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley.

Evaluating Discipline-Based Education Research for Promotion and Tenure
Evaluating Discipline-Based Education Research for Promotion and Tenure As the number of DBER faculty members in STEM departments grows, the purpose of this essay is to facilitate the evaluation of scholarly ...

Aligning Practice to Policies: Changing the Culture to Recognize and Reward Teaching at Research Universities
This is an article about how to align University practices with policies. It offers three examples of how institutions have begun projects to achieve this. It overlaps with the TEval resources, as two of the examples are TEval participants.Abstract: "Recent calls for improvement in undergraduate education within STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines are hampered by the methods used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. Faculty members at research universities are commonly assessed and promoted mainly on the basis of research success. To improve the quality of undergraduate teaching across all disciplines, not only STEM fields, requires creating an environment wherein continuous improvement of teaching is valued, assessed, and rewarded at various stages of a faculty member's career. This requires consistent application of policies that reflect well-established best practices for evaluating teaching at the department, college, and university levels. Evidence shows most teaching evaluation practices do not reflect stated policies, even when the policies specifically espouse teaching as a value. Thus, alignment of practice to policy is a major barrier to establishing a culture in which teaching is valued. Situated in the context of current national efforts to improve undergraduate STEM education, including the Association of American Universities Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, this essay discusses four guiding principles for aligning practice with stated priorities in formal policies: 1) enhancing the role of deans and chairs; 2) effectively using the hiring process; 3) improving communication; and 4) improving the understanding of teaching as a scholarly activity. In addition, three specific examples of efforts to improve the practice of evaluating teaching are presented as examples: 1) Three Bucket Model of merit review at the University of California, Irvine; (2) Evaluation of Teaching Rubric, University of Kansas; and (3) Teaching Quality Framework, University of Colorado, Boulder. These examples provide flexible criteria to holistically evaluate and improve the quality of teaching across the diverse institutions comprising modern higher education."

Catalyzing Institutional Transformation: Insights from the AAU STEM Initiative
Catalyzing Institutional Transformation: Insights from the AAU STEM Initiative The authors describe the development of AAU's Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, the approach AAU took to building this ...