INTRODUCTION
Teaching has been, and continues to be, one of the most important tasks
carried out by a faculty member at KFUPM, as well as at any other higher
education institution. Based on this fact, the Deanship of Academic
Development (DAD) has made the improvement of teaching at KFUPM as one of
the corner stones of its mission, objectives, and services to faculty
members. In addition to the numerous workshops that DAD is arranging for the
purpose of improving the teaching skills of faculty members, the DAD is now
offering teaching consultation to faculty members through a new program
called: Peer Consultation in Teaching (PCT). This program is expected to be
very beneficial to all KFUPM faculty members, as it provides them with
valuable and constructive feedback on their teaching skills and techniques.
It is worth mentioning that similar programs currently exist in about 40% of
all higher education institutions in North America.
OBJECTIVE AND BENEFITS
The main objective of PCT is to provide faculty members with formative
feedback on their teaching, intended exclusively for faculty
self-development of their teaching skills. The feedback will make KFUPM
faculty members better and more-effective teachers, leading ultimately to
the enhancement of student learning.
It is expected that faculty members participating in PCT will benefit in
many ways including:
-
Overall improvement in the
teaching skills and capabilities of the faculty members as an outcome of
peer consultation.
-
Positive and constructive feedback
on the teacher performance, highlighting the effectiveness of his
teaching approach and techniques.
-
Specific suggestions on how to
improve teaching based on the experience of colleagues in the same, or
similar fields of specialization.
-
Encouraging faculty members to
develop themselves in the field of teaching and to continuously review
and update their teaching approaches and methodologies based on new
advances in teaching and the expertise of their peers.
-
Providing teachers with an
additional source of feedback complementary to self-assessment and
students evaluation.
OVERVIEW OF PCT
The PCT program will be offered and managed completely by the DAD and its
consultants. The main tool of PCT will be class-visits by specially-trained
individuals (peer-consultants) who will represent the DAD. The visits will
take place upon the request of the faculty interested in getting
consultation (client). Every effort will be made to select a peer consultant
from a discipline/major close to that of the faculty member. To ensure that,
a group of faculty members from various KFUPM colleges and departments have
been enlisted as peer-consultants and they have been provided with the
necessary training to carry out the class visits effectively.
Due to the voluntary nature of PCT, faculty members requesting visits are
assured of complete confidentiality of the outcome of the peer-consultant
visits. The oral and written feedback which the client will receive pursuant
to the visit will be known only to the client and the visiting
peer-consultant. The DAD Director’s office will keep records of the visits
and the resulting reports for book-keeping purposes only.
PCT PROCESS
1. Application to PCT
Any KFUPM faculty member who is interested in being visited in the class by
a peer, can apply by contacting the DAD. A special form is to be filled
indicating the faculty member name, course title and number, number of
students, location and time of class, as well as other relevant information.
Click
here to fill the PCT form
Based on the provided information, the DAD will select one of its peer
consultants for the class visit.
2. Pre-Visit Contact
The peer-consultant will contact the client requesting the visit, introduce
himself, and discuss all the issues relevant to the visit. This contact will
be through a face-to-face meeting between the two, or through the phone (if
a meeting can not be arranged). The issues discussed will include: specific
date of visit, length of visit, type of class, role of the peer-consultant,
interaction with students … etc. It is also highly recommended that the
client identifies at this stage any specific aspects of his teaching on
which he needs specific feedback (e.g. tone of speech, engaging students …
etc.)
3. Class Visit
The class visit will take place as agreed upon between the peer consultant
and the client. The client may, or may not, announce to his students the
presence of the peer-consultant. But in either case, the presence of the
peer-consultant in the class will be as low-key as possible.
The visit should last a complete lecture, which is typically 50 minutes.
During the visit the peer-consultant will note his observations on issues
such as: defining objectives, clarity of presentation, effectiveness of the
teaching method, teacher enthusiasm, interacting with students, managing the
class, as well as any specific issues raised by the faculty member during
the pre-visit contact.
The last 20 minutes of the lecture are used by the peer-consultant to gather
the opinion of the students about the course. This is done in the absence of
the client to ensure that students are comfortable in expressing their
opinion. The student views are gathered through a methodical process which
involves a combination of written and oral comments.
4. Post-Visit Meeting
After the class visit, the peer-consultant and the client will hold a
post-visit debriefing meeting. The meeting should be held as soon as
possible, preferably within the first 48 hours after the visit. During the
meeting the peer-consultant will debrief the client about his observation
during the class visit. The debriefing typically includes 3 main components:
general observations regarding teaching skills and techniques of the client;
aspects of teaching that were found be effective; aspects of teaching that
can be improved and the suggestions on how to improve.
The peer-consultant will also inform the client about the general opinion of
the students regarding the course progress. The student opinions will be
summarized from individual students, groups of students, and the whole
class.
In addition to the verbal discussion, a short report summarizing the
feedback will be presented to the client for his records. A copy of the
report will be given to DAD for its records of the PCT program activities.
