An effective teacher establishes an environment conducive to learning and uses appropriate instructional and interpersonal skills to produce educated students who are motivated to continue learning. Instructional skills include knowledge, communication, evaluation, and organization. Personal traits include commitment and caring. Knowledge includes a thorough understanding of the subject being taught and a familiarity with current literature on the subject. Evaluation includes appropriate testing techniques and standards of grading, as well as fairness in grading.
Organization includes appropriate planning and student assignments.
Commitment includes execution of professional responsibilities and professional development for improvement of teaching and broadening of the knowledge base. Caring includes responsiveness to students, fostering responsibility, treating students impartially, respecting divergent viewpoints, and enhancing self-esteem. The University of North Texas should have a comprehensive approach to enhancing and evaluating teaching effectiveness. This approach should include administrative support for the teaching effort, improved student evaluation procedures and instrumentation, peer and chair evaluation, and a teaching portfolio prepared by the individual faculty member . Faculty agreement is essential to changes in procedures for evaluating teaching.