What Is the Critical Teaching Behaviors Project?
The Critical Teaching Behaviors (CTB) Framework defines instructional practices to create a shared understanding of good teaching by providing a concise synthesis of research-based teaching behaviors proven effective for improving student learning. It consists of six defined categories, representative behaviors, and documentation an instructor can collect as evidence of engagement in these behaviors. Aligned peer observation and student feedback instruments allow instructors to create narrative coherence across their teaching materials.
This framework provides the foundation for our book, Critical Teaching Behaviors: Defining, Documenting, and Discussing Good Teaching. We designed this book to work for graduate students and new faculty who want an overview of good teaching practices they can immediately implement as well as mid-career faculty who need guidance on how to capture the good work they're doing in the classroom for external audiences. Administrators who offer guidance to instructors on what materials to collect as evidence of effective teaching and evaluate those materials will also find this work valuable.
The CTB serves as a comprehensive system that helps instructors and administrators know good teaching when they see it.
The CTB defines six overarching categories of effective teaching behaviors based on extensive analysis of research on teaching and learning: align, include, engage, assess, integrate technology, and reflect.
For each category we identified specific behaviors instructors can implement and provide suggestions for evidence and artifacts they can collect to document their teaching practices.
To help instructors develop focused and cohesive narratives, we developed aligned peer observation and student feedback instruments to gather multiple perspectives on their teaching.
Feedback on teaching gathered with these materials is grounded by a common language that clarifies expectations and makes it easy to compare and contrast feedback from diverse audiences and reflect on professional growth over time.