This page gives an overview of the Peer Observation for Teaching and Learning Scheme at Manchester Metropolitan University. Your department will provide specific guidance as to how and when observations will take place.
For guidance on how to approach observations, including pro-formas you may find useful, see the resources page: Peer observation resources »
To promote critical and reflective dialogue about professional practice in relation to learning, teaching and assessment through engaging staff in peer observation activities to enrich academic communities, professional practice and taught programmes.
The scheme is not intended to provide any kind of proxy measure of teaching quality. Its value rests in the reflective and critical dialogue about practice and the ideas, insights and developments that can emerge from this exchange.
The observation cycle is as follows: First the observer meets the observee, to identify points of interest and contextual information. Then they observe the session (or other learning-related activity). Following the observation the two participants meet again to reflect on points of interests and any ideas emerging from the activity. The observer may then adapt any new and useful elements for their own future practice. Any gains from the observation experience should be reported at the annual Professional Development Review meeting.
This scheme is based on the view that critical and reflective dialogue about professional practice is an essential part of university staff development activities to maintain and improve the quality of teaching and assessment, and that peer observation creates an important context for such dialogue. The peer observation scheme is designed to promote collegiality, critically reflective conversations, practice innovation and sharing of ideas about teaching and assessment. The scheme emphasises the skills of being an effective observer, able to recognise and respond to a diversity of teaching approaches, and to learn from observing others. It encourages participants to link observation to programme and unit action plans. The university expects that every member of staff involved in teaching and supporting students will engage with the scheme.
As part of the scheme, participants should report back to their PDR reviewer that they have engaged in peer observation. Discussion about teaching should focus on what has been learned from observing others and how the member of staff sees their own teaching in the context of the programme action plan produced during the Education Annual Review process, or a service action plan in the case of staff who are supporting learning outside the programme context. Please note: an observer should not discuss the personal particulars of who or what was observed; this information remains confidential between the colleagues involved in the peer observation.
The PDR discussion may explore how observation of teaching fits into the member of staff’s career planning; what they can offer to support less experienced colleagues; and any additional training or further observation opportunities they might seek.