Overview
The primary purpose of this page is to provide guidance to URI instructors seeking to translate their experiences teaching in the classroom into evidence of effective teaching for their portfolios and tenure and promotion packets. Secondly, this page includes information that will help instructors develop an effective teaching statement as well as supporting materials, and provides a roadmap for colleagues to use who desire to partner with ATL as they build their portfolios and align their work in the classroom with the 2025-2028 URI AAUP contract.
Unfortunately, too often we have witnessed teaching effectiveness get reduced to student evaluation scores. IDEA scores can have positive uses as a barometer or check point, but they often paint an incomplete picture at best of teaching effectiveness for individual instructors. Student evaluations may also contain biases that can skew one’s vision as to how effective an instructor is regarding teaching at the college level. The focus of this page is to serve as a resource and to provide a more holistic look into additional points of data and evidence that can narrate and present teaching effectiveness for individual instructors.
What is teaching effectiveness?
On an academic level, in higher education, teaching effectiveness is a construct with multiple characteristics, such as:
- Course design: to what extent are one’s course outcomes, content, and assessments in alignment?
- Teaching practices: to what extent do teaching activities in class support the learning of all students?
- Class climate: to what extent does the instructor cultivate a welcoming environment for all students?
- Student learning evidence: how well do you know students are learning as a result of your instruction?
- Reflective and iterative growth: to what extent do you have a growth mindset around teaching and how do you endeavor to grow continuously?
Helpful Resource – Rubric for Inclusive Teaching Effectiveness (R.I.T.E)
A working group of URI faculty put together a rubric that can be used to self-assess one’s teaching practice that has a particular focus on inclusive learning for all students. Through the use of this rubric, individual instructors can track their growth over time, and consistent use can lead to producing evidence that can be used to show effective teaching. You may download that rubric here. The criteria included in the rubric provides a range of points to consider for instructors at various stages of their teaching development.
What does the AAUP Contract say?
Appendix B of the current AAUP contract (pages 64-65) provides guidance on a range of documents and activities that you may wish to use in support of your teaching effectiveness statement. The chart below aligns some of the items from Appendix B with the elements of teaching effectiveness, so that you can see how you may begin to narrate your journey to teaching effectiveness.
Examples of how can you use the contract to guide your teaching statement?
| Item from Appendix B | Element of Teaching Effectiveness | How you may use element to show effectiveness |
| Syllabus | Course design | Use syllabi from different semesters of the same course. Illustrate changes to assignments, content, outcomes that increased alignment from one semester to another. |
| Midsemester feedback | Iterative growth | Use a feedback tool you designed and describe how you incorporate the feedback from students to tweak elements of your course. |
| Syllabus | Class climate | Show how you incorporate new readings, activities, etc. to show students the breadth of diversity of people engaged in your discipline. |
| Classroom observation | Teaching practices | Use teaching observations to show how you make use of class time to engage students in active learning strategies. |
How can ATL help?
ATL can partner with you to help boost your teaching effectiveness in measurable ways. We host many professional development opportunities and programs that align with Appendix B of the AAUP contract, and that also can enable you to chart your own course towards teaching effectiveness. (This is an illustrative chart and not a comprehensive one. If you have questions about something in your packet, please feel free to request a consultation with someone in ATL.)
| Item from Appendix B | Element(s) of Teaching Effectiveness | ATL program or resource |
| Classroom observation | Class climate, teaching practices | Classroom observation toolkit |
| Self-reflection | Reflective and Iterative growth | Tell your teaching story and Faculty Vitality Workshops |
| Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | All elements | Rhody Scholars,and other SoTL programming and resources |
| IDEA scores | Course design, reflective and iterative growth | IDEA: More than a number |
| Instructor developed student feedback | Potentially all elements | Mid-semester feedback workshop |
Resources
Rubric for Inclusive Teaching Effectiveness – developed by URI instructors in summer 2023 to help instructors narrate their effectiveness.
Ann E. Austin et al. Transforming College Teaching Evaluation: A Framework for Advancing Instructional Excellence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2025)
Simonson, Shawn R., Brittnee Earl, and Megan Frary. 2022. “Establishing a Framework for Assessing Teaching Effectiveness.” College Teaching 70 (2): 164–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2021.1909528.