SIRS questionnaires will be distributed in each class of a faculty member during the Fall and Spring semester of each academic year. The results will be returned to the faculty member involved for information and guidance. A copy of the results should be placed by the faculty in his or her FEC Folder.
The FEC (or a teaching evaluation committee designated by FEC) will conduct classroom visitations during the Fall and/or early Spring semester for faculty members selected by the FEC. A faculty member whose classroom is visited will be evaluated by at least two faculty members designated by the FEC using visitation schedules which meet the guidelines of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Written evaluations of the classroom visitation will be made using a faculty-approved teaching evaluation instrument. These evaluations will be submitted to the faculty member, but are not required to be part of the FEC folder.
The department acknowledges that there are no effective means of quantifying some of the most important aspects of good teaching: those having to do with instillation of insight, imagination, mental discipline, and positive emotions in students. Accordingly, the SIRS data, along with all other information in the FEC folder related to teaching, any written evaluations of classroom visitations submitted by the faculty member, the complete summary (averages and distributions) of Exit Interview data, as well as the considered opinion of the members of FEC based on experience from direct observation (such as in seminar talks) and direct feedback from students, should be used in evaluating an individual faculty member's teaching performance.