In the rapidly changing global higher education sector, greater attention is being paid to the quality of university teaching. However, academics have traditionally not received formal teacher training. The peer-assisted teaching programme reported on in this paper provides a structured yet flexible approach for peers to assist each other in reinvigorating and refining their teaching practice. Academics participated in this national, multi-institutional trial for varied reasons: the majority voluntarily, others to increase low student evaluation of course scores and some as part of a graduate certificate teaching qualification. Here we report on how academics used the scheme, and the teaching areas they focused on. Student evaluation of course scores increased in the majority of courses, suggesting the changes made had a positive effect on students’ learning experiences. The experiences of the multi-institutional trial reported here may benefit others considering such a scheme to reinvigorate and refine teaching practice and improve course evaluation scores.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	peer-assisted learning; student evaluation; professional development; teaching evaluation
Research Division:	Education
Research Group:	Curriculum and pedagogy
Research Field:	English and literacy curriculum and pedagogy (excl. LOTE, ESL and TESOL)
Objective Division:	Education and Training
Objective Group:	Teaching and curriculum
Objective Field:	Teacher and instructor development
UTAS Author:	Drew, S (Dr Steve Drew)
ID Code:	111733
Year Published:	2015
Web of Science® Times Cited:	15
Deposited By:	Tasmanian Institute of Learning & Teaching
Deposited On:	2016-10-04
Last Modified:	2017-11-18
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