Wild Hope New Faculty Peer Teaching Observation Program

The Wild Hope Center for Vocation has created and implemented an opportunity for new faculty to participate in a New Faculty peer-teaching observation and support program – in their first year at PLU. This program represents a process intended to offer intentional and structured support for the success of newly hired faculty at PLU. While not required, it is highly recommended that faculty take advantage of this feedback and support.

PLU’s new faculty development program includes a two-day orientation at the beginning of their first year, and meetings in cohort groups for workshops on a range of topics over their first and second years. One important aspect of this program is to provide multiple opportunities to introduce faculty members to the expectations of the university, and to their academic responsibilities. Another important component of this introduction is meeting faculty members both across the university, supporting a discovery of common interests, possible collaborations, and recognition of colleagues within the community.

What is the Peer Teaching Observation program?

Each new faculty member is assigned a mentor from an external division/school. The goals of this program include:

  • Introduce new faculty to faculty members across campus.
  • Provide new faculty members with informal feedback on teaching that support the development of excellent teaching strategies as outlined in the Criteria for Tenure and Promotion in the Faculty Handbook.
  • Provide new faculty members with the opportunity to observe excellent teaching across campus.
  • Provide new faculty members with avenues for understanding the culture and expectations of the university, and the department/school/division.

What is the time commitment?

For the mentor (about 3 hours during the Spring semester academic year):

  • Meet with the mentee (who has shared their syllabus with the mentor) to discuss course construction and management, and any issues of concern the mentee has.
  • Observe the mentee teaching in a classroom setting.
  • Have a follow up meeting with the mentee to provide informal feedback.
  • Extend an invitation to the mentee to visit your classroom to observe teaching and/or help coordinate similar visits with other faculty whose teaching might be of benefit to the mentee to observe.
  • Report to the Director of the Wild Hope Center, and the Associate Provost that the process has taken place, but not the content of the discussion. An email documenting the process has been completed is all that is requested.

For the mentee (about 6 hours during the second semester of the academic year):

  • Provide the mentor with course syllabus and any other instructional materials considered useful.
  • Meet with the mentor before the mentee teaching.
  • Arrange for the mentor to visit a class.
  • Meet with the mentor after the mentor observes mentee teaching.

You can download this document for more details about the program and the process.

How can you get involved?

Please declare your interest in participating in this program to the leadership of the Wild Hope Center. At the beginning of the Spring semester each new faculty member will receive an email with an invitation to participate in this program. Interested new faculty members will be assigned mentors by the leadership of the Wild Hope Center. Each mentor/mentee pair are expected to complete peer-teaching observation and support project by the end of April.

If you are interested in serving as a mentor, contact wildhope@plu.edu.

Questions? Please contact the Wild Hope Center for Vocation at (253)535-7192 or wildhope@plu.edu.