Peer review of teaching is a deliberate process through which colleagues make an informed judgement about teaching for either summative or formative purposes (Chism, 2007). It allows peers to collect evidence, provide / receive feedback and reflect on their teaching. Peer review is one component of teaching evaluation, others include student evaluations and quality assurance processes, such as audits or program reviews.
Peer review is often associated with classroom observation but is can also extend to the review of courses, teaching materials or assessment tasks (Chism, 2007; Gosling & O’Connor, 2009; Healey et al., 2014).
The literature on peer review of teaching offers a range of models and frameworks (see for instance Bell & Cooper, 2014; Chism, 2007; Gosling, 2005; Gosling & O’Connor, 2009; Harris et al., 2008; Parsell & Jacenyik-Trawöger, 2014). Each model or framework offers its own lens on Peer Review and serves different purposes.
Summative Peer Review
Summative Peer Review is no longer required for promotion or award purposes. Instead, you are encouraged to participate in Formative Peer Review. If you still wish to organise your own Summative Peer Review, you may find the Asynchronous and Synchronous Summative Peer Review Templates useful. This link will take you to the Summative Peer Review page.
Formative Peer Review
From 2023 the university wide peer review process will be implemented within faculties as a formative peer review process. All teaching staff are expected to partake in the formative peer review process as both reviewers and reviewees at least once every two years. The formative peer review process should focus on areas of improvement, producing actionable outcomes that contribute to reflective practice and myCareer plans. Your faculty will be able to assist you in proceeding with a formative peer review. For general resources, please select the link 'Formative Peer Review.'
Bibliography
Bell, M., & Cooper, P. (2014). Implementing Departmental Peer Observation of Teaching in Universities. In J. Sachs & M. Parsell (Eds.), Peer Review of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (pp. 151–164). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7639-5_10
Chism, N. V. N. (2007). Peer review of teaching: A sourcebook (second). Anker Pub. Co.
Gosling, D. (2005). Peer Observation of Teaching (C. Osborne, Ed.). SEDA.
Gosling, D., & O’Connor, K. M. (2009). Beyond the Peer Observation of Teaching (D. Gosling & K. Mason O’Connor, Eds.; SEDA Paper, Vol. 124). SEDA.
Harris, K.-L., Farrell, K., Bell, M., Devlin, M., & James, R. (2008). Peer Review of Teaching in Australian Higher Education: A handbook to support institutions in developing and embedding effective policies and practices. Australian Learning and Teaching Centre (ALTC).
Healey, M., Ambler, T., Irhammar, M., Kilfoil, W., & Lyons, J. (2014). International Perspectives on Peer Review as Quality Enhancement. In J. Sachs & M. Parsell (Eds.), Peer Review of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (pp. 201–219). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7639-5_13
Parsell, M., & Jacenyik-Trawöger, C. (2014). Peer Review of Teaching. Office for Learning and Teaching. a414_016-peer-review-web-final.pdf