Teaching & Learning - Faculty Resources

Peer Review

This site focuses on the Peer Review of Teaching, which can be considered a component of the scholarship of teaching and part of the formative and summative evaluations of teaching. Peer Review enhances the dialogue related to teaching effectiveness, recognizes that faculty peers are the best judges of course content, pedagogical methods, and assessment strategies, and elevates teaching as a scholarly activity.

In 1990 a discussion of the scholarship of teaching began with the publication of Scholarship Reconsidered (Boyer), and then refined later in Scholarship Reassessed (Glassick, Huber, Maeroff, 1997). The scholarship of teaching has evolved into two equally important activities---scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching. Lee Shulman, President of the Carnegie Foundation and Professor of Education at Stanford Unviersity, defines scholarly teaching as "teaching that is well grounded in the sources and resources appropriate to the field. It reflects a thoughtful selection and integration of ideas and examples, and well-designed strategies of course design, development, transmission, interaction and assessment. The scholarship of teaching is developed when the work of teachers becomes public, peer-reviewed and critiqued, and exchanged with other members of the professional communities so they, in turn, can build on our work."

In addition to responding to UNC policy directives, peer review of teaching can be beneficial for a number of reasons. Just as researchers' work is improved through journal article and grant proposal review, so can teachers' work be improved through collegial review by those who best understand the subject and instructional setting. As a result of systematic peer review, departmental faculty learn what students are experiencing in their courses and identify ways the curriculum can be improved.

In June 2001, the University Standing Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching submitted its report on peer-review of teaching at NC State. Among other recommendations, the committee called for college-level workshops on peer review of teaching. If this recommendation is accepted and support is provided, these workshops will focus on principles and practices common to all college/departmental peer review systems, and they will be offered to colleges on a first-come, first-served basis.

Definition of Peer Review

Peer review is evaluation, by colleagues or peers, of all teaching related activities for either formative (for development) or summative (for personnel decision) purposes. Components of either type of review may include course materials, student evaluations, course portfolios, teaching portfolios, documentation of teaching philosophy, teacher self-assessments, classroom observations, and other activities which may be appropriate to a discipline.

Peer review of teaching may be completed as part of a formative review of teaching process and must be completed as part of the summative review of teaching. Both processes are important to faculty development and the improvement of teaching effectiveness. Since there are different purposes for each type of evaluation, the processes should be conducted independent of each other.

Who are peer reviewers?

The word peer means "a person of equal standing" but in the context of the peer review of teaching the definition is expanded to include faculty members of the same or different ranks who might also be referred to as colleagues or mentors.

For formative reviews of teaching, the peer reviewers may be colleagues of any rank mutually agreed upon by the faculty member and the department head or academic administrator. The peer reviewers may be selected from inside or outside the department. In small departments or in highly specialized disciplines, it may be difficult to find colleagues who can provide the requested insights within the same department. Whenever possible formative reviewers should be knowledgeable of the discipline and/or the pedagogical strategies being applied. Ideally, the formative reviewer/s should not participate in the summative review process.

In summative reviews of teaching, the peer reviewers are typically colleagues of the same or higher rank who are members of the department's personnel committee. The purpose of the review is to provide a basis for making a personnel recommendation on reappointment, promotion, tenure or other performance assessment related to teaching performance. Summative review may include review by outside experts of course materials. Whenever possible the summative reviewer/s should be different from the formative reviewer/s.