In 2014, the teaching champions from the departments/units worked to build knowledge and skill in the peer evaluation of teaching. As part of this process, we observed and summarized each other's classes with the goal of providing the Faculty with tools to:
- Capture observations and immediate comments in the classroom; and
- Summarize findings to guide improved teaching and inform hiring and promotion decisions.
The group considered a variety of methods for collecting classroom observations, from free form to checklists, and unanimously settled on the Classroom observation notes document (docx), as the most useful template. We are sharing this resource so that it might help guide anyone undertaking a classroom observation.
While the group found a universal template was useful for capturing classroom observations, we were not able to develop a similar template to guide the summarization process. We found this part of the peer evaluation process to be highly dependent on the context in which it is applied:
- Purpose of the peer review
- Instructor background and needs
- Peer reviewer's attributes
However, we did find that all of us were following a set of common guiding principles which we have collected into the POT summary guidelines (PDF) document.
Support for those wishing to learn more about using Peer Observation/Peer Evaluation of Teaching is available and may be provided through individual meetings or workshop-based activities. If you are interested in discussing these options, please contact Kathy Becker.