A program for faculty peer review of teaching at North Dakota State University

North Dakota State University has recently created the peer review of teaching (PRT) program which seeks to promote student-centered learning through the use of cooperative peer review teams to promote enhanced teaching methods, techniques, and strategies. The PRT project is a faculty-driven initiative intended to offer individual faculty added feedback related to instruction. Faculty members work together to set goals and to interpret student reactions to instruction strategies. The process is intentionally limited to formative assessment, and the peer assessment data is owned by the individual faculty members. Project participants are required to observe the teaching materials and teaching activity of a peer for at least one class per semester, provide meaningful feedback to his or her peer related to his or her syllabus and teaching strategies, and provide a measure of evaluation and assessment related to enhanced student learning. The contents of this paper document: 1) the background and development of the PRT program, 2) the selection and coordination of the peer teams, 3) the development of the peer philosophy and project deliverables, and 4) an evaluation and assessment of the PRT program.