Insights on Integrating the Teacher-Scholar Model into the Tenure and Promotion Processes at a Teaching-Focused Engineering College

Two surveys were conducted to gain insights about evaluating faculty work within the context of the teacher-scholar model at a primarily undergraduate engineering college that is part of a large state university system.Survey participants include college faculty and engineering deans from the system.The faculty results strongly reflect the baccalaureate mission of preparing graduates for the practice of their professions.This was evident in the responses to the question about preferred methods for evaluating faculty research.Private consulting was valued by the faculty, because it maintains disciplinary currency that is believed to support higher quality, state-of-thepractice learning environments.In many cases, the responses of the faculty and deans were similar.Both groups agree that "striking a balance between Retention, Promotion, and Tenure (RPT) standards and the teaching workload" is the most important reason for the review and revision of RPT criteria.They were in general agreement on the top four methods for evaluating teaching, including: student evaluations, self-evaluations, professional development, and peer review.They were in agreement on the methods for evaluating research and scholarship, including: self-evaluation, student participation, impact on teaching, development of new techniques, and judgments by colleagues from within the institution.Both groups disfavored evaluation by scholars external to the institution.Throughout the survey, the deans had stronger preferences than the faculty for externally validated artifacts of performance such as teaching awards, publications, and funding. Background