Reviews

Peer review of teaching can be used for a range of different purposes. The resources on this site have been designed to support different types of peer review.

  • Formative peer reviews: The intention of formative or developmental peer review is to provide the reviewee with feedback on a range of aspects of their teaching or subject that can be used for reflection and improvement
  • Short, targeted formative peer reviews: The intention of a short formative review is to provide feedback on a specific aspect of teaching or a subject, such as design and facilitation of an online learning activity or specific assessment task
  • Summative peer reviews: The intention of summative peer review is to provide evidence about the reviewee's teaching or subject for purposes that involve judgements about teaching, including performance reviews and applications for promotion or teaching awards.

An effective peer review process involves several stages: preparation prior to the review, pre-review briefing, review, debriefing and reporting and post-review action. These stages can be simplified or expanded for different types of review, but are useful in all reviews

Preparation for peer review

Preparation before the review can enable the reviewee to gain more from the process. Preparation should include:

  1. The reviewee informing students that peer review of teaching will be taking place. It's usual to inform students if a reviewer will be observing a face-to-face class but it's also important to advise students about online reviews or reviews of materials that they may have created. This sample student information statement (doc 22kb) can be used or adapted to suit the context.
  2. The reviewee will benefit from firstly thinking about the main purpose of the review and which aspects of their teaching and subject that will be focused on. Completing this briefing template (pdf 78kb) OR briefing template (doc 53kb) prior to meeting with the reviewer was found to be important for a successful review by teachers doing reviews in this project.

The review

Reporting

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.