Issue # 2: Peer Evaluation

Once the question regarding student evaluations seemed answered, attention turned to peer evaluation.

The faculty consensus: traditional classroom visitation is not very revealing of anything useful. What we really need is evaluation of course structure and materials used in the class for teaching and evaluation. We’d like to have periodic external peer review of these materials.

Peer evaluation presented the group with a much larger problem. After much heated discussion, it became clear that the occasional visit to a classroom by one’s colleagues did not seem an adequate form of peer evaluation. This faculty agreed that what was missing was a systematic review of course organization and materials (including exams, visual support for class presentations, etc.) conducted by people outside the department who knew the content.