Research and Clinical Psychology supervision

The supervision of student research is an integral part of the workload of Faculty members in Psychological Sciences and properly serves as an important area in consideration for tenure and/or promotion.  The number of students attracted to a particular Faculty member can serve as a rough index of how well he/she performs this function, as long as differences in "popularity" of research areas are taken into account.  Perhaps even more important is the level and quality of supervision.  When students publish their work or go on to make a reputation for themselves, this reflects favorably on the Faculty member who trained them.  For clinical psychologists on the Faculty who engage in practicum supervision, the teaching of professional skills to Clinical Psychological Science students is an important part of their teaching function, and is an area of consideration for tenure and/or promotion.

Teaching evaluation will be conducted by a two-person ad hoc committee.  The committee members will be appointed respectively by the: (a) the Department Chair, in consultation with the Ad Hoc Promotion and Tenure Committee, and (b) the candidate.  This committee is chaired by the member selected by the candidate.  The duties of this committee are as follows:

1.  The committee will review all the available student evaluations from all courses taught during the review period.  The most recent course evaluations are considered most relevant, and should be summarized by the candidate.  The Department will provide copies of the statistical summaries of the Student Survey of Instruction provided by Computer Services for the candidate’s promotion file; however, the candidate should include all forms having written narrative comments in his/her supplementary materials.

2.  The committee will review course syllabi and other appropriate materials and make a judgment about the quality of the course content.

3.  The committee will ordinarily attend lectures in at least two different courses, if schedules permit, and make a judgment about the candidate's classroom effectiveness.

4.  The committee will interview at least three students who have taken individual research courses with the candidate and form a judgment on his/her ability to supervise research.  [This point may not apply to all Regional Campus Faculty.]

5.  If the candidate is a member of the Clinical Psychological Science Training Committee, the committee will solicit information from both graduate students and Clinical Psychological Science Faculty on the candidate's effectiveness in the field of professional training.

The committee will write a brief report to the Ad Hoc Promotion and Tenure Committee summarizing their findings on the candidate's overall teaching ability.