As the variety of faculty development efforts expand, there is an increasing need to quantify faculty classroom teaching practices. Stakeholders may be interested in monitoring changes over time, comparing instructional practices between instructors or courses, or mapping observed behaviors to research-defined teaching practices. Although existing observation protocols (RTOP, COPUS) may address some of these goals, their applicability is restricted by certain limitations. In this presentation, we describe our method for the reliable and valid characterization of instructional practices via easily-collected observational data. This method was developed empirically via a cluster analysis using observations of 269 individual class periods, collected from 74 different faculty at 28 different research-intensive institutions. We will describe the ten basic clusters of instructional behaviors, or “COPUS profiles,” which emerged from this analysis, including their validation with RTOP scores. In addition, a detailed breakdown of typical instructional practices by course level, class size, classroom layout, and faculty teaching experience will be provided. An interpretation of our findings, implications for faculty development efforts, and a description of available tools for implementing our method will be provided.

Building a teaching profile: Using a modified COPUS observation protocol to easily and reliably measure reformed instructional practice

249th National Meeting (2015)

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