Promoting better teaching using a co-mentoring peer review of teaching approach

Globally, educational institutions from pre-schools to higher education have been significantly influenced by various reform agendas aimed at monitoring and improving student outcomes. Quality assurance organizations like the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) have gained prominence, along with testing regimes such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), contributing to what is termed the 'rise of audit cultures' (Groundwater-Smith & Mockler, 2009). These reforms emphasize the quality of teaching across all education levels, leading to increased accountability processes for all educators. Many institutions have implemented top-down directives to improve teaching, often undervaluing teachers' expertise and experience, which can lead to a lack of autonomy, reduced self-efficacy, and diminished teacher judgment (Dulfer et al., 2023). This even applies to Peer review of teaching (PRT) that, whilst traditionally a feedback mechanism among teachers, is sometimes/now also tends to be used to judge rather than support collegial reflection amongst practitioners. This presentation explores a promising conception of PRT as a co-mentoring process, leveraging teachers' content knowledge, experience, and collaborative skills (see Mullen, 2000). Through an interpretive literature synthesis, we examine the benefits and constraints of a co-mentoring approach across all education sectors. Three stages of data collection were utilised to generate data for this project: researchers developed key terms, trialled search term combinations to test searches, undertook final search and followed this with hand search of key references in identified high relevance research articles. Data was analysed thematically. We juxtapose this literature with our work in universities, schools, and early childhood centres (Kriewaldt et al., 2017) to propose a collaborative model of PRT emphasizing co-mentoring. Our model focuses on the observed teacher’s self-identified needs, using evidence-based (not inference) observations, and employing a dialogic approach that encourages reflective practice. Key findings suggest that co-mentoring PRT can empower educators, enhancing professional development by providing a non-judgmental space for reflecting on practice and exploring pedagogical innovations. The model supports teacher growth and highlights tensions between current evaluative practices and growth-focused observation approaches. This study's implications for implementing co-mentoring PRT in various educational settings will be discussed, offering insights for researchers, practitioners, and teacher educators facing similar policy and pedagogical challenges.