The University of Kansas plans to restructure its methods of evaluating its faculty members’ teaching styles.

University Senate created a task force at the request of the Kansas Board of Regents this past spring. The task force was supposed to present findings by this fall, but Dan Bernstein, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and chair of the task force, said the study should be completed by December.

In the past, the University selected random seniors and interviewed them about their college experience with faculty members. This year, the University took the year off to research new ways to evaluate the quality of teaching on campus and determine which method of evaluation is the most effective.

“This year was a time to pause and reflect,” Bernstein said. “Presumably, our decision will be influenced by what we learn over the course of this reflection period.”

The task force has developed two possible methods: evaluating faculty on general education criteria based on students’ sample work and evaluating faculty based on student portfolios kept during each student’s time at the University.

Bernstein said the latter option would allow students to reflect on their work and would also benefit the professors.

“The idea is not to create extra work for the student,” Bernstein said. “There is no extra work in having a term paper they’ve written read by someone else to effectively evaluate the professor.”

Last year many students were under the impression that in order to graduate, every senior would be required to take a kind of standardized test, but Bernstein said the standardized testing was not being considered.

Rick Levy, professor of law and former Faculty Senate president, said the University was exploring every option for evaluating faculty.

“The purpose of testing isn’t to determine if students are deserving of degrees — it’s to determine teaching abilities of the teachers,” Levy said. “It’s not about doubting the students. Students are in the best position to assess faculty teaching.”

However, if a new testing system was implemented, motivation would be a key issue to address for students. Tiffany Craner, Paola senior, said she would be more motivated to keep a portfolio of her work if money were involved.

“I wouldn’t want to keep all of my work longer than I’d have to,” Craner said.

Bernstein said that the University interviewed seniors to judge their progress through college during the past 20 years. Three faculty members interviewed 100 randomly selected seniors for an hour, asking questions about how and what they learned in college. Students who participated in the interviews received $50 and the faculty members were given a free meal at the Kansas Union.

Levy said the purpose of the process was separate from the individual evaluation forms students fill out at the end of semester-long classes. He said that as a professor, he never received suggestions for ways to improve himself and his teaching. The new assessment would allow teachers to evaluate their own teaching styles and adjust the ways they teach their classes.

— —Edited by Scott Toland