Peer Review of Teaching
TIIS has initiated a peer review of teaching known as the Summative Teaching Review Program or simply known as the STaR. As much attention is placed on our students as the future ‘stars’, TIIS also places equal importance in the scholarship journeys of our academic staff. STaR is a formal evaluation of academic staff’s scholarly teaching, underpinned by Dimensions of Teaching (Crisp et al., 2009). Academic staff will be able to use the review to make improvements in the curriculum – course design, assessments, learning outcomes, and teaching-related activities. It is mandatory for every academic staff who teaches at TIIS.
The secondary purpose of STaR is to support academic staff to gain evidence and insights to complement their student evaluation surveys. A recent study by Heffernan (2022) has reported that while negative issues with student evaluation surveys were on the rise, abusive and derogatory comments directed to women and marginalised academics were highest, and severely impact academic staff’s wellbeing, mental health, and career progression.
References
Crisp, G. T., Sadler, R., Krause, K.-L., Wills, S., Brown, C., McLean, J., Daltong, H., Le Lievere, K., & Brougham, B. (2009). Peer Review of Teaching for Promotion Purposes: A project to develop and implement a pilot program of external peer review of teaching in four Australian universities.
Heffernan, T. (2022). Abusive comments in student evaluations of courses and teaching: the attacks women and marginalised academics endure. HIgher Education. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00831-x
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