The purpose of peer visits is to provide tutors with feedback on their tutoring style, and a chance to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses.  Lecturers in this School have been conducting peer visits with each other for a few years now, and the experience with them has been overwhelmingly positive.  The nature of all peer visits is meant to be informal and constructive, not a rigid critical analysis of the tutor's abilities.

Every tutor is asked to arrange for another tutor to 'sit-in' on one of their tutorials in week 4 or 5 of semester.  You are free to choose the visitor, but it should be a current tutor or lecturer in ITEE.  Prior to the visit you should meet the visitor and discuss aspects of the tutorial that you would like the visitor to pay special attention to.  This ensures that the visiting tutor has a focus during the tutorial, and will give you feedback on aspects that you are interested in. A checklist of general aspects to consider has been provided to you, to help you construct such a list.  There are separate forms for laboratory and classroom tutors.

During the visit, the visiting tutor should observe and note both strengths and weaknesses of the tutorial.  A good idea is to balance the number of positive and negative comments.  As well, negative points should ideally be accompanied by a suggestion — don't just criticise, but think about how the problem can be solved.

After the visit, you should organize to meet with the visitor again (over coffee or in a similar informal situation) and discuss the outcomes of the visit.  It is hoped that both tutor and visitor can work together to build on the strengths of the tutor and find solutions to any problems.  You are also encouraged to discuss any problems which you perceive, or are raised by the visitor, with the course lecturer or with any member of staff.

After the visit is complete, the tutor should advise the tutor training administration officer (tt@itee.uq.edu.au) of the name of the tutor, the visitor, and the date the visit took place.  This is to ensure that all visits have taken place before the followup tutor workshop. All visits should be completed before the 5th week of semester.

Probably once or twice during the semester the course lecturer will sit in on a tutorial.  This is encouraged by the School to provide additional feedback to the tutor.