Welcome to the Tuesday Teaching Tip, an easy-to-implement tool that you can use immediately in your classroom teaching. 

TUESDAY TEACHING TIP: The Power of Peer Observations

We teach for a living and yet many of us would rather untangle a box of holiday lights than invite a colleague to observe our teaching even though there’s a mountain of evidence that shows that peer observations can provide valuable insights into our teaching practices. With a few suggestions, we hope to make teaching observations both effective and rewarding:

This week, we challenge you to schedule a peer observation in one of your courses this term. 

Here’s one way to do it: 

1. Invite a Colleague: Choose a peer whose teaching style or expertise complements yours. Share your goal—whether it’s improving student engagement, clarity, class pacing, etc.
2. Prepare Together: Provide your colleague with a brief overview of your course, learning objectives for the observed session, and areas where you’d like feedback.
3. Observe and Reflect: During the observation, encourage your colleague to focus on the agreed-upon aspects of your teaching. Afterward, schedule a discussion to review their observations and reflect on what resonates.
4. Exchange Roles: Offer to observe your colleague’s class in return. Seeing their approach might inspire new strategies for your own teaching.
5. Take Action: Apply one or two suggestions to your course and observe the impact. Small, intentional adjustments can lead to meaningful improvements.

NOTE: For bargaining unit members, a discussion of the observation and review of the letter is required.

Peer observation is a collaborative way to grow as educators—embrace the process with curiosity and openness! 

DID YOU DO IT?

Let us know how it went. We would love to hear your feedback about how you implemented today’s Tuesday Teaching Tip in your classroom. Click here to fill out our 3-question survey.

UPCOMING EVENTS 

Join us for lunch at our next CAFE: Peer Observation of Teaching to hear from panelists about their best practices and how they normalized peer observations in their departments, Monday, January 13th from 11:45-12:45 at Varsi 222. Sign up here.

WANT TO READ A LITTLE MORE?

• SCU resources 
• Peer Observations of Teaching, a new resource from Faculty Development
• Observation of Teaching from SCU Faculty Development (includes an overview of a suggested process and examples of observation protocols)
• Teaching Observation Letter Template from SCU Faculty Development
• Check out our Digital Resources for Teaching (DRT) pages on Course Design, Engagement and Inclusive Teaching
• Other resources
• Peer Review of Teaching from Vanderbilt Center for Teaching
• Peer Review Guide for Online Teaching from Penn State
• Peer Observation of Teaching Thematic or Documentary Organizer (Yale)
• Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation. (2017). Peer observation of teaching: Effective practices. Gleason, N., & Sanger, C. (2018). Peer observation of teaching guidelines. 

This week’s Tuesday Teaching Tip was prepared by Cara Chiaraluce on behalf of the Faculty Collaborative.

Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here:

• Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here. Don’t forget to check out our Faculty Associates office hours here.

And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development and Faculty Collaborative events.