Reciprocal Peer Observations

Many of us are settling into the academic term and finding our rhythm. Often, this is a good time to consider a classroom observation as part of our continuous improvement cycle. So, this week I would like to share a recent article entitled, “Reciprocal Peer Observation: A mechanism to identify professional learning goals” by Miquel, et al. (2024). Although the participants are K-12 teachers, the approach and results can be translated to higher ed.

In this article, the authors define “Reciprocal Peer Observation (RPO)” as involving a pair of teachers with similar degrees of experience who agree to observe each other’s practice. Both act as observer and observee. Individual reflection and mutual constructive feedback are provided, enabling the sharing of knowledge to identify goals for improving their teaching. In this study, 228 teachers followed a four-stage cycle: 

1. pre-observation meeting; 

2. observation and brief report by observee; 

3. feedback meeting; and 

4. reflective writing by observee with a learning goal. 

Using different instruments (post-observation report, audio recording of the feedback meeting, final reflective synthesis; evaluation questionnaire and group interviews), the study has shown that most teachers identified the learning goal in the three stages of the cycle, which allowed them to refine it based on their own reflections and those of the observer.

The objectives of this research included:

1. To identify the stage in the RPO cycle when the improvement area included in the final learning goal is identified (post-observation report [most often cited], feedback meeting, final reflective synthesis).

2. To analyse the relationship between the stage when the improvement area included in the final learning goal is identified, and the quality expressed in how the goal is worded.

   1. Result is that the distribution of the quality level of learning goals among the different patterns is not uniform.

3. To analyse teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness of the written guidelines provided in the RPO cycle as a support to identify learning goals.

If you believe that a RPO might be helpful to your reflection and continuous improvement, often the first question is how to systematically collect what is often viewed as subjective “teaching” data. There are many instruments that can be used to help collect data consistently. I have been fortunate to observe many colleagues and created/published using a Three Stage Process for Evaluating Effective Teaching.

1. Assessment (Pre-Observation Meeting; Observation [Quantitative Checklist; Qualitative Field Notes; Faculty Flow Diagram] Post-Observation Meeting)

2. II. Measurement 

3. III. Evaluation 

I am happy to share additional information and/or chat further if anyone would like to learn more about this RPO model.

References

Miquel, E., Monguillot, M., Soler, M., & Duran, D. (2024). Reciprocal peer observation: a mechanism to identify professional learning goals. Education Inquiry, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2024.2370116 

Hargis, J., & Soto, M. (2017). A proposal to use classroom observations as assessment data to measure and evaluate effective teaching. The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education, 7(2), 6-17.

Hargis, J. (2014). A ten-year study of faculty classroom observations. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, 7(2), 1-21.