These notes are based upon two presentations I made to untenured faculty members in the fall semester of 1999 and are intended neither as a substitute for the Faculty and Staff Handbook nor as a contract with faculty members.
Teaching is a craft that occasionally borders on being an art.
Not everyone can master a craft of any kind, much less teaching, and certainly artistry is limited to only a few. We seek faculty members who can master the craft, and therefore we expect a high level of teaching from all instructors. Perhaps the greatest requirement is a person's desire to teach well. We assume that people who want to teach well can master the elements of good teaching. At Berry, as at other good colleges, we evaluate good teaching through use of student evaluations of courses, peer evaluations, annual performance reviews, and the self-evaluation of faculty members.