Preface:
In general, faculty performance is based on the factors described in the Faculty Performance Evaluation Guidelines for the Faculty of Science. This addendum describes factors that are specific to the School of Pharmacy or emphasized by the School. Faculty members are encouraged to review Waterloo’s Policy #77 (Tenure & Promotion of Faculty Members) and Memorandum of Agreement (Section 13.5: Member Evaluation).
1. Evaluation Process
It is the responsibility of the Director to render faculty performance evaluations. The Director will be assisted with performance evaluations by a 4-member faculty advisory committee elected annually by faculty in the School of Pharmacy.
2. Performance Expectations
a) Scholarship:
- Broadly defined, scholarship includes articles in refereed journals, research monographs, textbooks, expository articles, conference presentations, reports, reviews, keynote and invited addresses, professional/learned awards, patents, and innovative clinical or professional practice.
- At its highest level, scholarship carries an inference of the creation of new knowledge and is best demonstrated through the publication of original works in top calibre, peer-reviewed journals.
- While collaborative research is valued, it is expected that all faculty members will be engaged in research in which they are the primary driving force behind the research.
- Regarding grant support, the competitiveness of the program from which the grant has been received is a factor and the position of principal investigator is weighed more heavily than co-investigator or consultant status. The same criteria apply to contracts.
- Evidence of innovative professional practice constitutes scholarship. This may include, but is not limited to, establishing a new clinical service, increasing its scope and documenting improved outcomes. Systematic evaluation of the impact of the clinical practice or service and dissemination through presentations or publication in peer-reviewed journals is expected.
- Innovative scholarship in pharmacy education includes, but is not limited to, the presentation and publication of research findings related to techniques to enhance student learning, methods of student assessment and the impact of curricular innovation.
- Authoring a textbook is considered to be a unique and valuable contribution. Generally, authoring such a textbook is ranked higher than editing. The impact of a textbook can be indicated either by sales or by numbers of programs adopting the text for use.
b) Teaching:
- Assessment of teaching includes consideration of:
- Teaching activity (e.g., quantity, comparative information to other instructors, accessibility to students),
- Teaching quality (e.g., student feedback, evidence of communicative or pedagogical techniques, teaching awards), and
- Educational innovations (e.g., curricular development and design, contributions to external educational evaluations).
- Mitigating factors that may be considered in weighing student evaluations are whether the instructor is teaching a course for the first time, and/or in an area not aligned with the instructor’s area of expertise.
- Recognizing that many undergraduate pharmacy courses involve team-teaching, course instructors should indicate the number of hours of the total course time that they taught, rather than a percentage, so that the contribution of co-instructors can be interpreted accurately. Courses with unusual amounts of prep time should be indicated.
- Effective co-ordination of a team-taught course is an important factor in enhancing the learning experience and is assessed under Teaching.
- Supervision and mentoring of students engaged in research (graduate and undergraduate) is assessed as teaching activity.
- Invitations from other educational organizations and institutions to teach are valuable contributions to the reputation of the School.
c) Service:
- Service to the University is an essential duty of faculty members and is normally treated preferentially to external service. This includes contributions to committees in the School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science and University of Waterloo. Typically, chairing a committee is more highly valued than serving as a committee member.
- Service that enhances the reputation of the University or the School to external constituencies is valued. Examples include, but are not limited to, scientific organizations, professional societies, funding agencies, journals, editorial boards, government agencies and community organizations. All other things being equal, positions with international bodies are ranked above national, and national above provincial.
- The provision of care to patients as a licensed pharmacist is considered to be an appropriate form of service.
- Service includes participation in School, Faculty or University strategic initiatives. Such initiatives include, but are not limited to, student mental health; equity, diversity and inclusion; and environmental sustainability.
- Service also includes ‘citizenship’, which includes, but is not limited to mentoring new faculty members, being available to students and colleagues, willingness to share space, equipment or other resources, and willingness to take on additional assignments to help meet the needs of the School.