View source for WASC: John Hall meeting, 5 Apr 06

{{wascheader}} 
Present: John Hall, Barbara Green, RMM

Ideas for things to change
* Group that has responsibility for improving teaching at Caltech
** Need a (faculty?) group to take responsibility for this
** Goal would be to increase uniformity of good teaching
** Some faculty are great, some are not so great, and some don't even seem to prepare (poor boardwork, poor organization)
** Group should figure out how to collet information on teaching; perhaps redesign current form
** Honor system also fits within this; sometimes not well understood
* Giving new ideas for teaching methods
** Could also serve TAs
** Perhaps collect together ideas for best practices in some way 
* Rewarding good teaching
** Should we be doing something to incentivize good teaching (salary)
* How to make it happen
** Who needs to approve?  How do we get the conversation happen?
** Setting up ongoing meetings with the faculty
** Some sort of orientation
** Needs to have a mechanism by which it is sustained
* Other areas
** Curriculum committee thinks about things like option requirements
** How do we handle students that want to work in an area where we don't have a program (eg Ae)
* Should think about how to get students involved in the entire process
** Providing feedback
** Low class attendance
* A lot of students who can't complete their work on time
** Should we study this; find the root cause?
** Look at the number of courses people are taking?  Double majors?