Peer Appraisal of Teaching

Rationale

Peer appraisal is a core part of our quality control it provides a mechanism for:

• monitoring the quality of our educational provision and performance of the instructor(s),
• professional recognition of the variation of modules in innate difficulty and presentation,
• identifying alternative approaches to delivery of material,
• the identification of good practice.

Peer Group discussion, informed by observation, provides:

• a forum for constructive discussion of alternative teaching methods,
• informed feedback to teaching staff,
• a means of the disseminating and formulating best practice, both within the group and to the School as a whole.

The system is based on the University Guidelines: Review of Teaching and Evaluating Teaching.

It is desirable that the lessons learned through the Peer Appraisal process should be disseminated to all staff within the School. Taking into account that some level of confidentiality assists the Peer Appraisal process, the following procedure is to be followed. It must be emphasised that this should be a constructive exercise at all levels.

Participants

All teaching will be monitored by peer observation: staff who, for example, give only tutorials, will observe tutorials but not lectures; staff from other establishments, employed to give specialist courses, will not normally be required to observe others or participate in the group discussions.

Procedure

1. Coverage
   The aim is to ensre that within the academic year each member of the with teaching responsibilities is observed in all aspects (lectures, tutorials, problems classes, etc.) at least once during the year, with at least one observation in each semester. The allocation of observations will be prioritised and assigned by the Chair of Teaching Committee on a random basis. Reciprocal (i.e. A does B, and B does A) observation should be avoided if reasonably practical.
    
2. Timetable
   Observations will normally take place during weeks 5 and 6 in Semester-I and weeks 19 and 20 of Semester-II except where an aspect of teaching can only be observed outside these periods.
    
3. Observation
   Observers will give notice of their observation which should be recorded on, and follow the protocol indicated by, the Class Observation Record form [pdf]. [This is described in more detail in the University Guidelines: Peer Review of Teaching.] Note that this scheme requires that the subject briefs the observer before the session.
    
4. Feedback and Reflection
   Observers will discuss the observation report with the staff member involved. Reflections on the observations by the staff member comprise the last section of the observation report.
    
5. Peer Group Discussion
   The reports will also be discussed and evaluated within the framework of the Monitoring of Modules process.
    
6. Reports
   Individual observation reports will be held in the School Student Services office in conjunction with the student questionnaires and will be treated as 'reserved' documents; they will form part of the confidential School records, e.g. for Subject Review and similar Quality Assurance purposes. Module decriptions should be updated (by notifying the Handbook Editor) to record the date of the most recent observation, the initials of the reviewer (and instructor if the module is delivered by more than one).

See also: Annual Monitoring of Programmes and Modules.