Woo-hee!  This is a scary concept - having a colleague come in to your classroom to observe your teaching (and then to give you feedback).  I know it’s intimidating (for a lot of reasons), but I’m going to write about it anyway and encourage you to access this as a feedback method.  Here are some ideas to keep in mind when you considering inviting someone to observe you as you teach.

First, think about who you might ask.  You could invite

• An experienced instructor in your own department - whom you know well.
• An experienced instructor in your own department - whom you don’t know well, other than by reputation.
• An experienced instructor in another department - whom you know well.
• An experienced instructor in another department - whom you don’t know well, other than by reputation.
• Someone who has been assigned as a peer mentor.
• Someone who has been assigned as an experienced faculty mentor.
• Someone from your institution’s faculty teaching/learning center (or one of their specially-trained faculty consultants).
• A graduate student from your department (or an undergraduate student from your department (or another one).

There are many ways to set up the observation, but here are a few guidelines:

1. Ask the person if s/he would be willing to observe your teaching and provide you with feedback.  If the answer is yes, proceed.  If no, thank the person and assure that there are “no worries.”
2. Determine a time that is mutually convenient for the two of you.
3. Discuss the expectation of confidentiality - both for your students’ sakes as well as yours.
4. Provide whatever background information the other person might need about your teaching, the particular lesson you’re teaching, the students in the class, and any other pertinent context.
5. Define, as specifically as possibly, what you want the other person to ‘look for.’  If no direction is provided, then the feedback you may receive could end up being less than helpful.  In addition, the other person may feel like a ship adrift when walking into your classroom and in fact, feel less confident that if the direction had been provided.
6. Discuss the ways that the observer could make notes, depending on his/her style as well as whether or not you have a particular form you want used.  In many cases, I felt most comfortable using a laptop where I could script nearly everything that was said, much faster than I could have hand written it (plus, with a laptop, at least someone could read it later!!)
7. Set up a time when the two of you can debrief.  Note:  The debrief is better sooner rather than later in terms of making sure that memories are still intact about what happened in the classroom interactions.

Note that there is significant risk in this process unless you are absolutely comfortable with the person observing your teaching and that person, likewise, is comfortable playing this role. If the person you chose declines - for perfectly understandable reasons - resist applying pressure of any kind. The simple fact that you invited him or her to participate in the process might plant a seed that will bear fruit at some later time. Note too that an informal assessment may be especially useful when there is a formal process in place that you must satisfy later - your colleague’s observation can serve as a trial run. Therefore arrange it far enough advance so that you have time to make changes based upon its feedback.

Having a colleague observe your classroom and give you feedback is invaluable - regardless of whether you are an outstanding teacher or someone who is struggling a bit.  I won essentially every award available at my institution and had observers constantly - and it helped me.  AND, sometimes, I asked observers to attend my class because I was struggling with an entire class or a whole group.  It was always scary - and always helpful, too.  Don’t miss this chance for growth.