A COMPENDIUM OF SCALES for use in the SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

each school year, CPWG participants submit a completed course portfolio. The last session of
Xavier’s CPWG is devoted to reviewing each other’s work and providing supportive feedback
and suggestions on how to improve the teaching process in order to best benefit students.
Course portfolios can be a tool with which to breathe new life into a course by consulting
different colleagues and thinking critically about positive and feasible changes (Schafer et al.,
2012).
Syllabus and Teaching Philosophy Review
Unfortunately, peers are not always readily available to review one’s teaching practices, and
work groups akin to CPWG at Xavier University do not exist at every institution. Similarly,
sometimes students do not respond to evaluation requests or there is not enough class time to
allot for teaching evaluations. However, the practice of self-reflection is possible at any time
throughout the year, as it only requires the course instructor’s participation. Teachers, like
students and peers, have a unique perspective on their teaching practices and how
improvements may be made. Therefore, it is worthwhile to frequently reflect over one’s
teaching through a course syllabus and materials review as well as a teaching philosophy
review.
Other aspects of a course, besides simply time spent teaching, may contribute to the overall
effectiveness of one’s teaching. A systematic review of the course syllabus may provide a
wealth of information regarding class goals and direction, which often changes throughout the
semester. In addition to reviewing the course syllabus, a review of one’s teaching philosophy
can be beneficial in ensuring congruence between one’s personal philosophy of teaching and
current course related activities. If course activities and goals do not align with one’s teaching
philosophy, changing specific elements within a course may be warranted.
Development of the Teacher Behaviors Checklist
We now turn to the specific case of the TBC as an illustrative example of how to develop,
investigate, and utilize an effective measure of teaching quality. The TBC is a SET that can be
used in several ways to benefit one’s teaching. Unlike most investigators who develop SETs, we
did not set out to develop an evaluative instrument of teaching. Instead, our original aim was to
conduct an exploratory investigation of the key behavioral attributes of excellent teachers. Our
idea was that if we could identify such attributes, then perhaps we could teach these behaviors
to others, particularly new faculty and graduate students who aspire to the professoriate. Our
review of the vast college and university teaching literature at this time (circa 1998) revealed
list after list of global teacher traits that researchers linked to outstanding teaching, for
example, being approachable, caring, enthusiastic, interesting, and knowledgeable (e.g.,
Baiocco & DeWaters, 1998; Eble, 1984; Feldman, 1976; Lowman, 1995). Unfortunately, such
lists do not lend themselves well to teaching others to teach—after all, what does it mean to be
approachable or enthusiastic or knowledgeable? How do teachers actually demonstrate such
traits? Thus began our search for concrete and demonstrable behaviors that comprise master
teaching.
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