Tier 2: Melbourne PRT
Tier 2: Melbourne Peer Review of Teaching
Melbourne PRT provides opportunities for formal assessment and recognition of teaching performance involving a holistic review of curriculum design; assessment practices and teaching practices.
The Melbourne PRT program is voluntary. Teaching academics may apply to have their teaching reviewed. The reviews are undertaken by members of the Melbourne College of Reviewers, highly experienced academics with a demonstrated track record in teaching excellence.
Stages of the review
The review is in three stages:
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Stage 1: Submission of Teaching portfolio
The portfolio is a selection of materials that demonstrates aspects of teaching practice and experience: a ‘showcase’ of approaches to teaching providing examples of facilitated student learning. Preparing a teaching portfolio can be a useful first step in building a case for teaching excellence as it requires reflection on one’s teaching experience, approaches to teaching and learning, and understanding of good university teaching.
See Preparing a Teaching Portfolio for the Melbourne PRT Program
Sample teaching portfolios
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Stage 2: Example of curriculum design/subject outline
A subject outline (sometimes referred to as ‘subject or unit guide’), is the information students receive about the aims and requirements of the subject: presented to students either on the subject’s LMS site, or as a handout, or powerpoint slides at the first lecture/class.
Typically, a subject outline will include:
- A brief overview or description of the subject aims
- A list of learning objectives or intended learning outcomes
- Information about the assessment tasks including a description of task requirements, due dates for tasks and information about how they will be assessed (i.e. assessment criteria)
- Other Information about the requirements of the subject and/or resources available to students
The subject outline enables the expert reviewers to see elements of your curriculum design and provides a context for the session they will observe i.e. how does the class fit in the context of the subject/unit.
The subject outline is to be submitted at least three weeks before the scheduled class observation.
NB: If as reviewee you did not have a role in designing the subject of the scheduled class observation, please state this and if possible, submit an example of curriculum that you have designed in another subject or unit.
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Stage 3: Observation of teaching
An important part of the Melbourne PRT is observation of your classroom teaching (or online equivalent) by one of the Melbourne College of Reviewers. The purpose is to review how well you deliver a class and engage students.
When the class observation is being organised, you will be asked to indicate the class you’d like observed. The observation will last for up to one hour (maximum), so if you are teaching a 3-hour class, please choose which hour you would like observed. If you are unsure, we advise that you choose the first hour as it will include your introduction of the topic and session. Having a reviewer in your class from the start is also likely to be the less disruptive than having them join in middle of the session.
After the observation, you can expect a written a report from your reviewer within 2-3 weeks. This report will be a holistic review of your teaching based on the teaching portfolio, subject outline and class observation. After receiving the reviewer’s report, you will have the opportunity to submit a short response.