Advancing Peer Observation Processes: Progress, Lessons, and Faculty Development

Abstract This work-in-progress paper discusses progress and lessons learned for an in-process adoption of peer observation processes in one unit of a College of Engineering. The University Department and Leadership Teams for Action (DeLTA), is an NSF-funded grant with the objective of advancing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs at the University. Through this grant, The College of Engineering was placed on an Instructional Action Team (IAT) where they worked to target three areas: Self-Assessment to Enhance Student Engagement, Faculty Peer Observation to Enhance Teaching, and Enhancing Assessment Through the Use of Test Blueprints source. From the target areas, faculty peer observation has been identified as an area that would be further implemented into specific disciplines at the University's College of Engineering, and therefore would need additional documentation. Student evaluations have been used to provide feedback to instructors on instructional methods and classroom structure. While this approach has been widely used, it is considered an insufficient approach to development instructional improvement due to the lack of knowledge students have on teaching techniques along with other biases source. To address this issue, peer observations are being introduced to provide instructors with feedback from other qualified faculty that can give a more insightful assessment of their teaching. This study centers on the faculty development process involving peer observation and the lessons learned from the inception to the project's current phase—the finalization of the DeLTA project and initiation of discipline-level adaptation of peer observation procedures. We discuss efforts from DeLTA project teams to develop and pilot teaching-method-specific peer observations protocols, and ongoing progress of a committee to meet leadership's charge in one unit in the University's College of Engineering to adopt peer observations more broadly. The overarching project will be a collaborative effort involving the College of Engineering faculty involved in DeLTA and a committee of faculty members from a College of Engineering unit to improve teaching and learning practices. Future observations will consist of attending committee meetings and drawing from existing peer observation models and instruments provided from the home University and other comparable institutions. This paper will serve as a guiding document for developing and executing a peer observation faculty development model. This is an overview of the process that was used to develop peer observation protocols at the College level, and it has been charged to a committee to develop the protocol at a departmental level.