Instructional Profiles: Exploring Peer-Observation at an Engineering College

This evidence-based research paper explores engineering faculty’s instructional profiles emerging from COPUS observations based on the work of Stains et al. (2018). Multiple peer-observations of instructors teaching undergraduate classes within a College of Engineering at a large, Midwestern research-intensive institution were conducted. Faculty and graduate student paired teams conducted the observations. Upon completion of the classroom observations, researchers conducted exist interviews during which the results of the TPI, COPUS, and instructional profiles were shared with faculty. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with instructors to explore their experiences with the COPUS protocol, ascertain their perceptions of a new teaching evaluation system, and to gain insight into the instructional profiles of engineering faculty. Our analysis holds important and timely implications for how engineering courses are structured, evaluated, and viewed by faculty and administrators.