Peer Review of Teaching

Peer review processes are multifaceted, must be thoughtfully constructed, and include several considerations. However, when done well, research indicates several benefits of peer review, including, but not limited to: 

• It provides another perspective on teaching effectiveness beyond student opinion of teaching surveys. Unlike learners, peer reviewers are often experts in the faculty member’s discipline and/or pedagogy (Berk et al., 2004). 
• It helps faculty better recognize areas of teaching strengths and weakness and determine how to improve (Al Qahatani et al, 2011). 
• Faculty report that participating in peer review is useful and helps them improve their teaching (Bell & Mladenovic, 2008; DiVall et al. 2012) and that the benefits outweigh the effort of participating (DiVall et al., 2012).
• Peer observations benefit the observer as well as the faculty member being observed (Bell & Mladenovic, 2008; Hendry & Oliver, 2012; Swinglehurst et al., 2008). 
• Observers have reported that observations help them learn about new teaching strategies and increase their confidence in their abilities to perform new teaching strategies themselves in class (Hendry & Oliver, 2012).