Participate in peer observation

You will learn more about your teaching and how your students are learning through the process of peer observation.

Take some time to plan ways to improve your courses and think about great things in your teaching you can share with others. It is your observer’s role to assist you in the process of review and reflection, with the aim of improving the quality of your teaching as well as highlighting good practice for wider dissemination.

1. Prepare

What would you like observed?

Peer observation has the biggest impact when it is driven by what you want to achieve in your teaching. Take time to reflect on what you currently do and decide what aspects of your teaching you would like a peer to observe and provide feedback on.

What would you like to know about your teaching? You may wish to consider:

questioning techniques
clarity of your explanations
teacher-student, student-student interactions
discussion/activity transitions
feedback to learners
your communication with others
proficient inclusion of technology
your online interactions
managing the learning space and associated technology.

All forms of teaching can be considered for review, not just lecturing. The observation could take place in a lecture, tutorial, laboratory, clinic, workshop, practice- or work-based learning session.

Peer observers can also access your online recordings and learning materials to give you feedback on your online presence. You may even ask your observer to check how your digital resources compare with the minimum and ‘best practice’ standards described in The University’s Digital Teaching Framework. Contact itali@uq.edu.au for more information.

Organise the documentation

Look at the Peer observation proforma (DOCX, 23 KB) to see if it provides you with a suitable template to gather the information you would like to receive. You may select any of the areas of focus suggested in the document or develop your own. Change the document and remove unwanted information as desired before meeting with your observer so they will be clear on what it is you would like observed and the feedback you are seeking.

For large class sizes (over 500 students), the Active Learning Observation Tool (ALOT) may be suitable.

Choose your peer observer

Select a colleague who can observe your practice and give you valuable insights into what you would like to know about your teaching and learning. Peers can be found in your school, discipline (both within and beyond UQ), from any discipline across UQ or from the College of Peer Observers.

If your observer is based at another campus, or unable to attend your chosen class, the PIVOTAL project provides a guide to engaging in virtual observation partnerships.

If you have trouble finding someone suitable and would like help finding your peer observer, email itali@uq.edu.au and we can help.

Meet your peer observer

It is really useful to arrange a pre-meeting with your observer a few days before the observation to ensure they have time to prepare for the session. Just as importantly, it allows the observer to reflect on what he or she may gain from the observation, and how it may link to their own teaching (Race, 2009).

"It's an opportunity for the mentee [teacher] to discuss with the mentor [observer] the very specific areas where they would like feedback. For us, that process takes about half an hour." Jacqui Bond, School of Pharmacy.

Work through the relevant sections of the Peer observation proforma to ensure you and your observer are ready to make the most of the observation and the conversation.

There are many questions you might like to consider during your meeting:

What is the background?
Where are your students up to in the course? How is the course progressing? Is there anything particularly challenging or interesting you would like to focus on? Why are you engaging with peer observation? How have you been trying to improve your teaching?

How long is the session?
What do you plan to happen over the session? Does the observer need to be there for all of the session? Are any sections more important for the observation?

How do you feel about the observation?
Is this your first observation? Are you nervous?

What do you want the observer to do?
Should the observer engage in class discussion? Where should the observer sit? Will they be introduced to the class?

What do you want to achieve?
What do you want the observer to focus on in the observation? Choose with your observer a framework for identifying insights into your teaching.

Peer observation is about enhancing your teaching. There are many ways to do this, and we recommend you use what is most suitable to you. To help, we have collected a sample of pre-meeting forms and guides from other institutions and projects:

Teach/observe Next