PTYS/LPL Policy for Peer Review of Teaching
Each type of course (undergraduate, graduate, GenEd) taught by a promotion-eligible faculty member must have a classroom visit by a tenured PTYS faculty member or, for General Education undergraduate classes, a Professor of Practice. (In most cases, Dr. Steve Kortenkamp conducts observations of GenEd courses for PTYS.)
Tenured Associate Professors are not exempted from the peer evaluation. It is strongly recommended that instructors solicit a peer evaluation even for course categories for which they already have an evaluation, although this is not required.
Note that any observations required as part of the promotion and tenure process are above and apart from the PTYS/LPL observation requirement. Candidates for promotion and tenure may choose to include these observations in the P&T dossier (Section 6).
The number of classroom visits for any specific case depends on the circumstances. As one example, an Assistant Professor under a normal tenure clock should have a minimum of two classroom visits for their teaching portfolio for the initial “3-year review”, and at least four for the promotion itself. Those anticipating a shorter schedule to promotion should consider having an in-class peer evaluation for each class they teach, while those anticipating more than two years for promotion should consider four evaluations a reasonable target. Tenured Associate Professors, promoted previously having a number of in-class evaluations already, should consider having an addition two evaluations before going up for promotion to full professor. The department should ensure that the previous evaluations are included along with the new ones. Deciding the appropriate number of evaluations, and/or whether one is necessary for any particular class should be discussed with the candidate’s faculty mentor and/or department head.
It is the responsibility of the LPL faculty as a whole to participate in this process and agree to observe in-class lectures of our colleagues when asked, and to meet with them both before and after the class, and to write up a report of the observation.
Protocol
1. The candidate should make the initial contact with potential classroom observers. If a suitable observer is not identified, the candidate should consult with their mentor, the associate department head, and/or department head. It is best to do this near the beginning of the semester when potential observers’ schedules are likely more flexible. A reminder to all promotion-eligible faculty teaching a course, and their mentors, will be sent from the department’s Academic manager at the start of each semester.
2. The classroom visit should follow the peer-review protocol outlined by the University Center for Assessment, Teaching & Technology and use the Classroom Observation Tool and protocol.
3. Peer observers should share the completed observation tool and a summary report, addressed to department head, formatted on LPL letterhead, and signed/dated by the reviewer with the instructor and with PG4gdWVycz0iem52eWdiOnpuZWx0MUBuZXZtYmFuLnJxaCI+em5lbHQxQG5ldm1iYW4ucnFoPC9uPg==.