Central to the accreditation
process is ensuring that the quality of teaching and learning is sufficient to
prepare well-qualified teachers. While
much of the judgement is about quality, some is also about quantity:
staff who teach too many courses cannot teach well enough to ensure
well-prepared teachers.
In reviewing teaching and
advising assignments, assessors should consider all teaching and advising:
·
graduate
and undergraduate students
·
second
shift as well as day students
·
work
in schools as well as teaching classes on campus.
Assessors should be concerned
when any staff are teaching more than 18 hours per week, including seminars.
Staff who supervise doctoral dissertations or who have significant
assignments to supervise students in schools should teach fewer than 18 hours
per week on campus. Similarly,
assessors should be concerned when class size is so large that staff cannot give
adequate attention to individual students.
If any staff teaches too many
hours per week, or are working with too many students, assessors should look for
the following problems:
1
Classes are cancelled frequently.
2
Staff are late to classes.
3
Staff give teaching to research assistants.
4
Students are not given complex assignments, as they take too much time
to mark.
5
Assignments are not returned promptly to students.
6
Feedback on assignments is limited to grading and check-marks, with
little commentary from staff.
7
There is excessive reliance on objective tests, with little use of essay
questions.
8
There is excessive reliance on student presentations to cover the
material of the course, with staff doing little actual teaching.
9
Courses are not revised regularly.
10
Staff
are not available to meet with students outside class.
11
Staff
are not available to work with partner schools.
12
Graduate
students may have difficulty getting help with their research or dissertations.
13
The
quality of graduate student work suffers, due to insufficient supervision.
14
Students
work less because staff work less on each class.
15
Student
work suffers because of inadequate feedback from staff.
16
Staff
do not have time for other work, including professional development, research,
and working parties.
The report should indicate how many hours staff are teaching. Where staff are teaching too much, the problems which the excessive teaching causes in the quality of the programs should be made clear.