Holistic Evaluation of Teaching Initiative Welcomes New Cohort

As instructors strive to uplift student success through innovative instructional practices, it is critical that the teaching evaluation process also recognizes such efforts. Responding to this need, the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center’s (TLC) Holistic Evaluation of Teaching (HET) initiative supports departments in ensuring instruction aligns with broader learning outcomes and incorporates effective teaching methods while also recognizing instructors’ dedication to teaching.

“Excellent teaching happens at UCLA every day, and HET is a platform for recognizing it,” explained Valeria Dominguez, postdoctoral researcher for the initiative. “The value of HET lies in enabling faculty to reflect on their teaching practices, showcase their strengths, and even document their efforts to improve.”

Looking to elevate excellent teaching practices and further support instructors’ professional development, two schools at UCLA – the Anderson School of Management and the Samueli School of Engineering – became the latest cohort of academic departments to participate in HET. This includes the Samueli departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

For the leadership of the schools, adopting HET provides the opportunity to spotlight instructors’ dedication to continuously developing excellent teaching methods.

“The Samueli School of Engineering has been excited to engage with HET as soon as we learned about the program because it provides important guidance to our professors about what it means to be an excellent teacher and, critically, what specific actions they can take to improve their teaching,” shared Richard Wesel, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs at Samueli.

Similarly, HET participation will allow the schools to achieve personalized goals of gaining a broader view of overall student success alongside other existing evaluation tools at UCLA.

“[The Anderson School of Management] was already examining ways of reducing our reliance on Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) surveys to try to more closely align our teaching with students’ short-term and longer-term career outcomes,” noted Noah Goldstein, Ho-Su Wu Chair in Management and Department Chair at Anderson. “There is already a lot of excellent and dedicated teaching within Anderson, but a relatively narrow focus on SETs makes it hard to assess how effective that is in the longer term.”

In working to adopt the initiative’s principles, a faculty work group will collaborate with HET facilitators to create an evidence-based model for evaluating teaching tailored to their disciplines. Following a review by faculty, the model will then be adopted in their review of teaching.

HET facilitators believe that these collaborative models provide instructors and evaluators with a clear roadmap for evaluation that goes further than student feedback or what might be captured through classroom observations.

“We hope that, over time, faculty will perceive the value in using HET and that it will uplift the teaching culture within the schools,” explained Dominguez.

Anderson and Samueli will join the three previous cohorts of HET participants across 11 academic departments at UCLA. More broadly, these schools’ adoption of HET underscores the initiative’s growing impact on how teaching excellence is recognized on campus. 

“We have seen a real eagerness among faculty and departments for a teaching evaluation process that allows faculty’s efforts to shine and supports them in developing their instructional strategies,” observed Adrienne Lavine, Special Assistant to the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning for HET and a professor emerita in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The TLC’s leadership also voiced enthusiasm at the program’s ongoing expansion.

“It is exciting to see the HET model expand beyond the departments,” shared Kem Saichaie, Executive Director of the TLC. “With Samueli Engineering and Anderson School of Management actively engaged in the integration of HET, it further signals the shift in thinking and practice of teaching evaluations at UCLA.”

Leaders at both schools ultimately hope that by adopting HET their instructors will feel empowered throughout their careers and inspired to continuously evolve their teaching methods.

“My hope is that Engineering instructors view the HET rubrics that our faculty has established as a set of signposts that guide them on their career-long journey of improving their teaching,” noted Wesel. “What is really wonderful about the HET system is that each professor can find within the rubrics the teaching practices that match their style; there is a wide range of ways that an instructor can achieve excellence.”

Additionally, the adoption of HET will offer instructors the freedom to more thoughtfully address student needs in their courses.

“We hope to enable faculty, especially junior faculty, to be able to take more risks and further align their teaching with students’ short-term and longer-term career needs, while simultaneously finding teaching more enjoyable and less stressful, by reducing the emphasis on the immediate end-of-quarter SETs and providing a more holistic view of teaching,” shared Goldstein.