Peer observation in language teaching within higher education has been recognized as valuable for teacher professional development, yet teachers’ attitudes towards observation practices remain mixed. Most criticisms of the practice are related to its top-down nature, teacher time constraints, and its rigid procedure. It has also been known to cause stress and anxiety. These drawbacks of peer observation of teaching (PoT) approaches have resulted in teachers perceiving a loss of agency in the process, and to their consequent sense of disempowerment. With the purpose of redressing these issues, the Center for Language Education at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, started introducing changes to its PoT model. A variety of observation formats were provided for teachers to choose from and the importance of dialogue with a peer, and reflexive praxis were emphasized. Through data collected from a survey, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis of written reflections, this study sought to examine teachers’ views about this new approach. Results show that: a) participants found the opportunity to talk about teaching with a trusted peer of their choice particularly rewarding and b) they mostly did not avail of the different PoT formats despite indicating through the survey that they welcome these options. The latter could be due to teachers’ unfamiliarity with new ways of conducting PoT or it could be reflective of the contradictions between what they think and what they do. This paper, therefore, raises key questions about flexibility and choice in PoT and discusses these issues in detail.

A video series talking to CLE colleagues about what they think scholarship is, their thoughts on it, and what scholarship they have done or are doing.

Our ideas on Scholarship (Part 1)

Our ideas on Scholarship (Part 2)

Our ideas on Scholarship: (Part 3)