C. Roland Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard Business School
Instructor Performance
The discussion provided under Judging Success provides a useful starting point for assessing the performance of a case method instructor. Much of the instructor's impact on student learning takes place in the classroom. Although students bear co-responsibility for their learning, the instructor's effectiveness in motivating and guiding participants is often a critical determinant of success. Ironically, the case instructor's performance in the classroom often depends significantly on activities outside the classroom, including pre-class preparation and external interactions with students via office hours, e-mail, and other means.
Instructors can draw on multiple sources of feedback to assess their performance and receive developmental input. Feedback may come from students, in the form of non-verbal signals and direct comments, mid-course surveys, and end-of the-term student evaluations. Useful feedback may also come from class observations by faculty colleagues and from teaching and learning specialists. (See "Guidelines for Effective Observation of Case Instructors").
The most relevant indicators of success as a case method teacher may only be available several years after the course has ended, as students apply what they have learned in the classroom in their professional lives. In the meantime, instructors can continue to develop their teaching effectiveness through openness to feedback, and learning by doing in an on-going process of experimentation.
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Meeting Class Objectives (1:59)
Professor Garvin describes three criteria for assessing whether class objectives are met.
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Feedback from Students (3:39)
Professor DeLong talks about gains to be made by allowing students to give feedback earlier in the semester.
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Peer Support and Review (0:54)
Professor Heskett discusses how important informal peer support and review in improving the way you teach.
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How Do People Experience You? (4:58)
Professor Delong explores why it is important to know how people experience you, whether you are a student, a teacher, or a manager.
Resources for Download
CCTL Tip Sheet "Guidelines for Effective Observation of Case Instructors"Suggested Readings
Austin, James with Ann Sweet and Catherine Overholt. "'To See Ourselves as Others See Us': The Rewards of Classroom Observation." Chapter 12 in Education for Judgment, ed. C. Roland Christensen, et al., 215-230. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1991.
Lynn, Laurence E. "Evaluating Your Success." In Teaching and Learning with Cases, 93-95. New York: Chatham, 1999.
Machina, Kenton. "Evaluating Student Evaluations." Academe, May-June 1987: 19-22.
Van Fleet, David, and Tim Peterson. "Increasing the Value of Teaching in the Academic Marketplace: The Creation of a Peer-Review Infrastructure for Teaching." Academy of Management Learning and Education 4:4 (2005): 506-514.