Summative peer review of teaching has the ability to improve both the status and the quality of teaching at tertiary level, by encouraging the promotion of exceptional teachers and academics engaged in the scholarship of teaching at all levels. The project aimed to:

create a robust summative peer review process with the potential to foster and acknowledge excellent teaching and learning in Australian universities, particularly by being integrated with the promotion process; establish tools and protocols for the external peer review of teaching; and articulate ground rules and principles for a sustainable, effective and customisable process of internal and external peer review of teaching.

Rigorous and adaptable protocols, processes and tools were developed for Internal Peer Review of Teaching (focussing on peer observation of classroom teaching) and External Peer Review of Teaching (focussing on peer evaluation of written materials and documentation). These were grounded in a thorough review of the literature around summative peer review of teaching, and trialled in pilot programs over two years. Feedback was collected from participants after each pilot program and used to modify and refine all documentation. For a summative peer review of teaching program to be successful, peer reviewers must be trained and experienced. A set of professional development resources for Internal and External Peer Review Team members was therefore developed, including model session agendas, video clips of classroom teaching, and sample promotion applications.