Peer review of teaching

Peer review (including observation) of teaching and curriculum is under-utilised in universities. In many cases, this is because teaching is largely seen as a private activity. Inviting a trusted colleague into your classroom to observe your teaching, can in many cases, affirm your good teaching practices. In other circumstances it can be a way of sensitively identifying weaknesses. Your colleague’s feedback can provide opportunities for you to refresh what you do in the classroom as well.

Observing someone else’s teaching, or having your own observed is not the only way to participate in the peer review of teaching. You might try inviting a colleague to review your Subject Learning Guide, to read over an assessment task and offer you feedback, or to sit with you and review the data from student feedback surveys in order to develop a set of actions. Others seek wider review through publishing and documenting their work on sites such as Wikiversity. All these forms of activity are aspects of the peer review of curriculum.

Resources

 * Wikipedia article: Peer review
 * Peer Review of Teaching for Promotion Purposes: a project to develop and implement a pilot program of Peer Review of Teaching at four Australian Universities – housed at the University of Adelaide (funded by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council, ALTC).
 * Harris, K., Farrell, K., Bell, M., Devlin, M., & James, R. (2008). Peer Review of Teaching in Australian Higher Education: A handbook to support institutions in developing effective policies and practices. An Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded project with the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne and Centre for Educational Development and Interactive Resources, University of Wollongong.
 * Peer review of teaching in blended learning environments – a project housed at the University of Technology, Sydney (funded by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council, ALTC).