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

One way to increase the accuracy of student TBC ratings is to explain to students the
importance of accurate and conscientious rating. All too often, teachers rush through SETs at
the end of the semester, without much explanation or guidance. Bernardin (1978) found that
students provided more accurate ratings after being trained and educated about rating errors.
Teachers can also compare their scores to a normative basis of similar courses at similar
institutions to obtain more information regarding the meaning of their scores (Keeley et al.,
2013).
The TBC is primarily intended for use in formative assessment—its focus is on improving one’s
teaching. However, it is equally useful for summative assessment, or the kind of evaluative
assessment done for promotion, tenure, quality control, and merit raises. As an example, the
TBC has been used in the teaching training program for graduate students in the Auburn
University Psychology Department for many years. As part of their doctoral training, graduate
students enroll in a teaching practicum course while simultaneously serving as a teaching
assistant. As part of that experience, students use the TBC to evaluate their performance at the
middle and end of the semester. They also provide mock lectures in the didactic portion of the
experience, which are evaluated by an experienced faculty member using the TBC as a rating
form. The behavioral anchors provide both the student and the faculty rater with direct
suggestions for how to improve areas of weakness.
Final Thoughts
The original development of the TBC took place more than a decade ago. Although it has
generated much research and has been widely used as a SET, it is possible that changes,
especially in technology and corresponding classroom practices, have occurred in the past 10
years that would change the behavioral anchors of the TBC. As such, we are currently
undergoing a revitalization of the TBC (tentatively entitled TBC 2.0) that will update the list of
qualities and their attendant behaviors.
In summary, it is crucial for all teachers—young and old, new and advanced, to utilize a variety
of available methods of evaluation in order to improve the quality of their teaching. The
development and use of the TBC provides an exemplar of how to create measures of quality
teaching and evaluate their utility. Unfortunately, such a process has only been rarely
undertaken, and most measures of teaching quality lack empirical support. However, we hope,
and indeed challenge, all teachers to adopt a rigorous and systematic approach to the
measurement of the quality of their teaching.
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