Inside the peer review process: How academics review a colleague's teaching portfolio

Understanding how academics review and make judgments about teaching portfolios is important as the peer review of teaching becomes more common. This think-aloud study examines the processes seven academics used in reasoning through a colleague's biochemistry course portfolio. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that participants used a normative, case-based reasoning approach, comparing the reviewee's practices to their own experiences, their colleagues, and to prototypical or traditional practices. They considered contextual factors and their pre-existing knowledge of the teacher and the context. The readers justified their final decisions based on the appropriateness and achievement of educational goals. The teacher's reflective commentary, the student evaluations of teaching, and the syllabus were important in their review. Implications are discussed.