Peer Review Committee

Choosing a Good Day to be Observed

Your Peer Review Committee observer is invested in making his/her observation of your teaching a positive, constructive experience for you. Your concerns and interests should drive the conversation, and you should feel comfortable that the day you are being observed is one likely to highlight some of your best teaching skills.

It does not, however, need to be treated like a "command performance" designed--regardless of your pedagogy or personal teaching style--to somehow look like a sparkling model of what you think your observer will "want." Your observer knows from experience that visiting anyone's class one day out of the whole term provides (at most) a "snapshot," and understands that instructors shape their lessons uniquely for good pedagogical reasons.

Here are some general skills that PRC observers are concerned with:

Your effective, professionally courteous interactions with students

Engaged, respectful student interactions with you, as well as with one another

What specific pedagogical goals you are trying to attain with the activities presented, and how they succeed at those goals

Quality content, and coherent transitions from activity to activity

Choosing good days for your PRC observers to visit, therefore, has a lot to do with your individual pedagogical concerns and how different days will best reflect them. Generally, class days devoted entirely to student-delivered presentations or library instruction (not conducted by you) should not be used for your observation because they will not adequately show you teaching. Student workshop days, however, may show how you model and/or facilitate different research, writing, and critical analysis skills--you should attempt to determine if the way you structure workshops does in fact highlight your pedagogy, if you want to invite an observer for that type of class.

As you fill out the PRC pre-observation questionnaire, be as thorough and reflective about your teaching interests and concerns as possible. It is your opportunity to provide a richer image of your teaching interests than your observer will get from that one-day snapshot alone.