The teaching culture perception survey (TCPS) is aimed at examining the perceptions of individuals at an institution with regards to the culture of quality of teaching. This assessment helps develop a profile of the institutional culture, and allows for comparison between different stakeholders’ perceptions, as well as track change over time.
Questions of the survey were designed to identify and validate indicators of quality teaching culture on campus.
Indicators are signals that reveal the progress or lack of progress towards a specific objective. These indicators may be giving us information about the quantity or quality of teaching culture quality, and they may be input, output, outcome or process indicators.
Input indicators focus on resources involved in supporting an institutional program, activity or service. Such indicators include data such as enrollment rates, resources & infrastructure, support services, expenditures etc.
Output indicators reflect the quantity of outcomes, including measurable results and direct consequences of the activities implemented. Retention rate, success rate, graduation rate, graduate full-time employment etc are some of the output indicators.
Input and output indicators together, provide us quantitative information about quality teaching.
Outcome indicators focus on the quality of educational program, activity and service benefits for all stakeholders. For instance: graduate satisfaction, employer satisfaction, graduate competencies, learning outcomes, student literacy level are all quality indicators focused on the outcomes of a processes implemented.
Finally, there are process indicators, which are quality indicators of the means used to deliver educational programs, activities and services within the institutional environment; for instance student experience, professional development, teaching and learning plans and policies, appointment and promotion criteria, assessment and feedback policies etc.
Indicators themselves provide signals related to the quality of teaching; however in the teaching culture perception survey the are used to examine perception, and to profile the institutional culture. In the survey, there are sets of questions based on indicators. Participants were asked to what extent they agreed with the statements at their institution (agreement rating), and to rate the importance of the statements (importance ratings).
Snapshot of a section from the Teaching Culture Perception Survey
Example:
Statement from the survey: “There is an office on campus where instructors get resources and support to help improve their teaching.”
The existence itself of an office on campus that supports teaching, is an input indicator of quality teaching. However, asking individuals to rate the importance of this indicator (importance ratings), as well as examining the perceived existence of this indicator (agreement ratings), allows us to validate indicators and develop a profile of the culture within the institution with regards to the culture of quality teaching.
Upon the collection of data and assessment of the perception, the next step would be triangulating the perception with actual facts and data from indicators at each institution, in order to determine deviation between perception and facts.