Just as learning assessments provide useful insight into student learning, teaching assessment can help guide teaching development efforts.
The Centre for Teaching Excellence has compiled this extensive list of Tools for Reflecting on your Teaching using input from your students, your colleagues, and using your own observations.
Self reflection
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.
~Margaret J. Wheatley
Teaching squares are an excellent way to reflect on your teaching by observing your peers' teaching. It requires a bit of coordinating to find four teaching members who want to participate, are teaching in the same term, and whose schedules align, but CTE's Monica Vesely works to overcome these barriers and establish an effective group.
Teaching dossiers are another great tool for reflecting on teaching, and they have the added bonus of preparing you to speak confidently about your teaching during merit and promotion activities.
Student feedback
Midterm feedback can be used to gather student feedback before the course is finished.
Course Critiques contain two parts: numerical data and written comments. While it's easy to skim over the numerical scores and have an idea of the students' perceptions, the written comments can be incredibly useful in guiding future teaching development. In 2012, the Teaching Portfolio developed an approach with templates and examples showing how to use course evaluations to improve teaching. And we are available to assist any faculty member looking for support as they work through this process.
Peer observation
Peer observation of teaching can be a valuable method of gathering feedback about your teaching from colleagues. In 2014, the Teaching Portfolio undertook a project in which we developed and tested a template for use in recording notes during a classroom observation; for more informtion, visit the Peer observation of teaching blog post.