Improving college teaching begins with an examination of the systemic issues that prevent faculty from doing and receiving recognition for their best teaching. The College + University Teaching Environment survey is a large-scale, national assessment of faculty teaching environments, needs, and supports, available for instructors of both undergraduate and graduate student populations. Findings from this project can help institutions looking to improve the ways in which they support faculty as well as promote discussion to improve inequities within the professoriate.
The survey instrument, which was successfully pilot tested in 2020, focuses on four components of a healthy teaching environment embedded within an institution’s climate for diversity: 1) processes and policies related to teaching; 2) teaching values of colleagues, self, and others; 3) use and availability of teaching-related resources, and 4) perceptions of respect, belonging, stress, and motivation.
Results from this assessment can assist institutions in their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts by examining the extent institutions are satisfying faculty teaching needs, inspiring positive motivations for teaching, providing adequate teaching resources, creating environments conducive to collegial teaching interactions with peers, and fostering productive interactions with students. Institutions will be able to identify groups of faculty that experience more supportive environments for teaching and pay attention to traditionally marginalized groups of faculty or those who may be experiencing inequitable treatment.
Administration of the survey happens early in the fall so that institutions can assess faculty’s teaching environments as the academic year begins, allowing for institutions to provide additional support as faculty prepare for and conduct their courses. Participating institutions will receive a data file of faculty responses as well as access to interactive dashboards of results to allow for disaggregation of findings. You can find details about survey administration, including discounted pricing for first-time administrations, on our project website.
Formal registration will begin later this spring, but we encourage institutions interested in participating to fill out our interest form or email cutesurv@iu.edu. Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope that we can be part of your efforts to improve college teaching and faculty support.