WELCOME

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• WELCOME !
• To our first training session on Peer Partnership

• Dr. Wasana Bandara
• Faculty of IT

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Where we are at with our teaching at FIT

• Immediate History
• From 85 academic staff to 55 academic staff
• From 180 unit offerings to 130 unit offerings
• 5 Teaching awards at national level in the last
  24 months
• Immediate Goals/Plans
• We must improve our CEQ ratings (currently under
  20 out of 100)
• For all staff to have LEX results over QUT
  average (4.0)
• Reach out wider (i.e. IT Academy, InfoSys PhDs)

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• Each one of us will play a crucial role in
  achieving these goals
• We need to set mechanisms where help call be
  called upon for
• And
• where we can freely discuss teaching issues
  amongst our peers.

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The Peer Partnership Program is

• 100 Voluntary
• Confidential
• The results of the review and the discussions
  are ONLY with the participating reviewer and the
  one been reviewed. YOU can choose who you want to
  partner with.
• Developmental
• Gives you the opportunity to receive detailed
  feedback to enhance your teaching.
• Anticipated long term outcomes on developmental
  planning in target areas
• Supportive
• Helps you collect additional evidence to your
  Teaching Portfolio. This information can also
  compliment LEX data
• Benefits colleagues and students

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Planning to enhance own teaching Communities of
practice and Peer Observation

• Malcolm Pumpa TALSS

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Learning outcomes

• Review the role of peers, mentors and peer
  partnerships (Teaching Fellows) in creating
  communities of practice
• Consider a model for peer observation and discuss
  the principles that underpin it
• Reflect on a role play of peer observation
  feedback in terms teaching squares feedback
• Consider survival tips for teaching
• Review extent to which needs and expectations
  were met

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Communities of practice role of peers and
mentors

• Foundations program20 participants.
• ECard program30 participants
• MCard program20 participants.
• Teaching Fellows10 participants.
• Formation of Teaching Squares and peer
  observation schedules.
• More experienced staff acting as facilitators for
  new rounds of observations.

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Communities of practice role of peers and
mentors

• In your groups
• Identify the different communities of practice
  that are possible to support your teaching at
  QUT. Consider
• What kind of community of practice you might
  want to establish with each of these groups, and
  what they and you might gain from the interaction
• Personal experiences of peer mentoring as part of
  this
• The role of peer partnership/peer review

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Communities of practice

• Possible groups
• Current Foundations participants (in and across
  faculties)
• Previous ECARD participants in your own faculty
• Faculty teaching fellows
• Learning and Teaching Consultants
• Colleagues in your School/Faculty (course teams,
  innovative teachers)
• Colleagues at other universities

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TALSS The Teaching Fellows
Ten Teaching Fellows representing all QUT
faculties have formed a community of practice,
focused on improving teaching quality through
coaching, mentoring and peer review.
To support academics in developing a peer driven
culture to reflect upon, improve and support our
teaching
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Peer Partnerships and Peer Review

• Different terms used to reflect a continuum of
  positions at universities
• Peer partnerships are regarded, in part, as an
  extension or an extra dimension of the mentoring/
  coaching paradigm. Each concept involves
  job-embedded, collaborative ongoing professional
  support and development with the aim of improving
  teaching and building collaborative partnerships
• Peer review can also be used in this way but can
  also involve an evaluation component leading to a
  judgment about an individuals teaching
  performance.

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Teaching Fellows and Peer Partnerships

• Peer partnerships and the role of Teaching
  Fellows
• Identify key outcomes of the project
• Peer partnerships and communities of practice
• Roles for participants

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A model for peer observation/feedback

• A peer observation partnership is a collaborative
  developmental activity in which professionals
  offer mutual support by observing each other
  teach
• explaining and discussing what was observed
• sharing ideas about teaching
• gathering student feedback on teaching
  effectiveness
• reflecting on understandings, feelings, actions
  and feedback
• and trying out new ideas.
• (Bell, 2005, p.3)

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Peer observation and feedback cycle
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Observation and feedback conference

• Preconference
• Jointly clarify the teaching plan
• Teacher decides what will be observed and type of
  observation
• Some key questions
• What is the session about?
• What do you expect students to learn in the
  session?
• What strategies will you be using?
• What aspect of your teaching do you want me to
  look at?

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Observation and Feedback Conference (Cont.)

• OBSERVATION
• Observer jots down specific examples
• POST OBSERVATION
• Aims at jointly establishing major learning from
  the teaching session and what to do next

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Observation and Feedback Cycle (Cont.)

• Types of Feedback (Peer partnership feedback)
• Type A What was effective? Why was it
  effective? Analysis
• Type B What was effective? What else would work?
  Discuss alternatives
• Type C Teacher (or observer on invitation)
  identifies area of concern. Both explore
  alternatives
• Type D (Supervisor driven) Observer identifies
  areas of concern. Discussion of alternatives.
• Task In groups, frame three questions you could
  ask that would require refection by the teacher

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Some Questions to Promote Reflection

• What went well in the session?
• Do you think student learning outcomes were
  achieved and why?
• Tell me how you tried to engage the students?
• What evidence do you have about that?
• In what ways did students show they were actively
  engaged?
• Can you think of another way of dealing with the
  problem?
• What can you do next time?

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Questions or Advice?

• Your questions might be more important than the
  answers you provide
• Getting your colleague to talk about their
  teaching helps them become self reflecting and
  able to improve their own practice.
• Think of it as a professional dialogue a two
  way conversation

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Receiving Feedback

• In engaging in the feedback process, it is
  helpful for both parties to
• Listen objectively without interrupting
• Take feedback/comment as support, not as a
  personal attack
• Take a problem solving approach
• Together, generate suggestions/alternatives for
  improvement
• Summarise feedback to ensure there is a clear
  plan of action
• Demonstrate two different approaches to feedback

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Peer Observation of Video

• View the video segment and write down
  observations that focus on engaging students in
  learning and the use of questions
• In pairs, conduct a role play with one of you as
  the teacher and the other the observer. (5 min.)
  Teaching fellow acts as observer
• Switch the roles (5 min.).
• Discuss the feedback sessions and then feedback
  to the whole group

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Peer Observation Key Principles

• Collegial and collaborative
• Models warmth and mutual respect view teacher
  as a professional
• Confidential
• Focus on improving teaching and student learning
• Formative/developmental (not summative/judgmental/
  evaluative)
• Critically reflective
• Usually reciprocal
• Teacher controls the agenda
• Not a one-shot fix but a change over time
• Can involve non-classroom aspects course and
  unit design, teaching resources, appropriateness
  of assessment, student feedback
• (See article and two page summary on peer
  observation)

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Next steps

• Find a colleague whom youd like to partner with
  
• Around Units (i.e. First years large units)
• Around Cluster groups
• Around Teaching Excellence recipients and
  nominees in the Faculty

Please Contact Sylvia (s.edwards_at_qut.edu.au or
Wasana w.bandara_at_qut.edu.au) if you require any
support with this
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Record your plans
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• So, what are your plans, in terms of Peer
  Partnership?

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Contact

• Malcolm Pumpa
• Learning and Teaching Consultant, TALSS
• Email m.pumpa_at_qut.edu.au
• Extention 88527
• Location KG F706
• Wasana Bandara
• Senior Lecturer, Faculty of IT
• Email w.bandara_at_qut.edu.au
• Extension 81919
• Location GP S737