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Peer Review and Enhancement: Participating in PRE

Participating in Peer Review

It is best practice for teaching staff to participate in PRE activity annually. You should aim to complete two kinds of activity:

  • one live classroom delivery (either on campus or online using Virtual Classroom) and one of the following:
  • review of Brightspace use for synchronous or asynchronous activity OR
  • design of assessment, formative or summative OR
  • provision of assessment feedback. 

Your observations and review will be completed by a peer from within the University. This is a reciprocal process, meaning that you will take it in turns to take the role of the reviewer. You will be assigned you partner for the year's reviews at the beginning of each academic year. Your partner will normally be from outside of your School.  Within the partnered dialogue, questions are asked to stimulate reflection and discussion, and where appropriate, to provide each other with feedback and support in action planning and ongoing enhancement.  The UKPSF provides a descriptor-based framework for standards in learning and teaching in HE and maybe helpful in reflecting the range of your activities, interests, experience and expertise in relation to teaching and the facilitation of students learning. 

Prepare

Before the classroom observation, the observee should:

  1. Identify a lecture, workshop, seminar or tutorial for your observation, and arrange this with your PRE partner. 
  2. Complete the Observation of Teaching Template and share this with your partner.
  3. Arrange a pre-review meeting to discuss your delivery and  session and agree the learning you are hoping to achieve from the observation.
  4. Prepare your students, explaining why the lesson is being observed, and who is being observed. 
  5. Agree the time and date for a followup, post-observation conversation with your PRE partner. 

Participate

During the classroom observation, the observer should:

  1. Take a seat where you will not be disruptive to the delivery of the teaching, and be on time!
  2. View the session holistically. 
  3. Focus on the learning from the student perspective. 

Reflect

After the classroom observation, the observer and observee should:

  1. Reflect on the experience. The features to be observed will vary according to the session and for the discipline concerned. Some guidance on the kinds of things you might be looking for in different types of session is given below. But more generally, consider, 
    • what happened?
    • how did you feel?
    • what was good?
    • what could be improved?
  2. Complete the post observation template.
  3. Meet and discuss the observation, beginning with the self-reflections of the observee. The conversation should be
    • constructive
    • respectful of difference and 
    • both parties should remain open minded about feedback. 
  4. Where feedback includes suggestion for improvement, be sure to capture these in a personal action plan, and include suggestions for useful resources and activities.