Practical things to try

If you are wanting to get started with peer observations, either in a formative or evaluative capacity, here are some of the things that we recommend that you try. First of all, establish clarity. When I say clarity, we want clarity for the roles of the observer. We want clarity for the roles of the observed. And we want clarity in terms of the process. What’s going to happen when and what can everybody expect in their role in this process. Why is clarity important? In the previous section, when I talked about research-based benefits as well as potential issues research has found with peer observations, we talked about confusion and how confusion can be one of the things that leads to a negative culture around peer observation of teaching. When we establish clarity in terms of roles, this ensures that we’re on the same page and it limits the confusion that might otherwise lead to a negative peer observation culture.

Now, Claudia has talked a lot about the importance of a common language in which to ground peer observation of teaching, and I will return to that concept here when we talk about clarity. Clarity also means that we have a common understanding of what good teaching means. Maybe your campus has already done this work and you have a framework on campus that you’re working with. Yay. If you do, that’s great, and use it. If you don’t, we’ve done some of that work for you. The critical teaching behaviors framework can help you establish what good teaching looks like on your campus. When you start from that common foundation and that common understanding of what good teaching is, your observer and your observed faculty know that we have a shared definition. What that means is that your observer can provide feedback that’s going to be meaningful to the observed faculty. It means that your observer will know what good teaching practices look like, even if that’s not the way they teach. So, when we introduce this kind of clarity, we set our pure observation programs off on the right foot.

The next thing to consider when establishing an effective peer observation process is to frame that process with reflection. We know from the research that reflection on teaching is one of the benefits that can come from peer observations of teaching. You can do that by ensuring that you start the process with a conversation. Have your observer talked with the observed faculty to figure out what the observed faculty hopes to gain from the experience. What questions do they have? What in their teaching feels tired or old? What are they struggling with? What are they hoping to learn from this experience that they can change or innovate?

Having that conversation establishes trust between the observed faculty and the observer. It also ensures that the instructor’s voice is incorporated throughout this process. Starting with reflection sets you off on the right foot. Now we know that time can be an issue. So if that’s the case for you and your feeling time-crunched trying to fit in yet another conversation, we recommend that you take a look at our teaching observation instructor worksheet. Page three of the overview document has some reflection questions in writing. And if you provide this to your faculty, they can start that process on their own and you can review what they’ve written to start the observation process.

Now, is it as good as a conversation? No, probably not. We want to build trust in this process, but depending on where you are in your peer observations of teaching, you might be to a point where your faculty have built trust and you’re ready to move to something that’s in written form. I recommend, however, if you’re just starting and you’re trying to build this trust culture, don’t jump ahead. Make sure that conversations are part of the process if you’re just starting with peer observations on your campus.

After the observation, we do recommend including space for the instructor reflections in your final report. Why? Oftentimes, peer observation reports are used in tenure, promotion, annual review portfolios. When we provide that report, and it’s only the voice of the observer, the faculty are stripped of agency in telling their story. So not only have you removed an opportunity for faculty to productively reflect on their teaching, you’ve also removed their voice from the process of evaluating teaching. It’s something to keep in mind if you’re thinking that peer observations could become evaluative at your institution.

This is also just a great way to incorporate yet another perspective when you are giving feedback to a faculty member. I know personally that when I read instructor reflections before I write my report, I can write a much richer, more valuable report because I’m able to address directly questions that the instructor had. I can provide resources and links ’cause I know they wanna know more about that topic. I can address a concern that they had and say, “You had this concern. I didn’t see that happening. I think you’re actually doing just fine.” Or, “I did see that happening, and here’s an idea I think you could try to help you with that.” When you incorporate instructor reflections before you write your report, you are able to engage in a written conversation that makes the observation process that much richer. Opening and closing with instructor reflections enhances the benefits all way around of peer observation.

The final practical strategy that I recommend trying is simply to develop your skills as an observer. Quite frankly, if we didn’t receive training in how to be good teachers in the first place, we definitely didn’t receive training in how to observe other people in being good teachers, right? Or how to give feedback on that. Like anything else, this is a skill that can and must be practiced if we want to get good at it. So the first thing you should do in terms of developing your skills is familiarize yourself with what good teaching is in the first place. Not to sound like a broken record, but I do recommend that you review the Critical Teaching Behaviors framework if you don’t already have an institutional framework you’re working with to define what good teaching is. These six categories are going to help you identify what matters in a teaching context. They may also introduce you to strategies that you haven’t tried yet. That doesn’t mean you have to change the way you teach if what you’re doing works for you, but it does mean you’ll be ready to see what works when someone else might be doing it.

Once you establish this foundational understanding, you need to go out and practice your skills as an observer. If you ever sit through a class period as an observer, you will see things flow very quickly. It can be hard to stay on top of taking notes. To help you do that, we recommend that you try doing this virtually before you go do it live in a classroom. Harvard’s Graduate School of Education actually has a raw clips library. You can watch three to five-minute segments of a class, or you can watch entire class periods. They also have a great variety of class types, ranging from small seminars to large lecture halls, and you will see people using a variety of teaching techniques as well. If you go out and practice watching these videos and taking notes, you’ll be much more prepared for when you go into a classroom and you see things happening in real time.

We recommend that in terms of taking notes on teaching, you break that into three different areas. You do an environmental analysis to see how the classroom is set up, what technology is available, things like, is it loud, is it cold? Are the seats uncomfortable? All of that matters when we’re talking about the cognitive load related to teaching. The next thing we recommend is, of course, that you’re taking notes on instructor behaviors. That’s what you’re there to do after all. But if you don’t pay attention to the other half of the equation, which is student behaviors, student responses, we are missing one important component of a teaching observation. Teaching and learning is a relationship, and if you’re going to give feedback on teaching, you also need to pay attention to learning. If we take notes on what’s happening in terms of the student side, are students nodding? Are they shopping online? Are they engaged in small group activities? Are they talking about their weekend plans?

All of this matters because it tells us how students are receiving the instruction, and it allows you to provide all that more valuable feedback to the instructor. It can be hard to juggle all of these considerations. We recommend that you develop a note-taking instrument for yourself. If you do this for a while, you will have a good idea of how you like to take notes. Until that point, however, we have developed a note-taking instrument that you can use to guide your data collection. I hope that you’ll try these strategies and that you’ll practice becoming an effective peer observer because practice makes for better programs.