Optimizing Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development through Peer Observation: A Critical Analysis for Implementation in a Government College, Dhaka

Abstract

Peer observation is a useful tool for the professional growth of teachers as it enables two peers work together, observe each other’s teaching, share helpful suggestions, and engage in reflection on their instructional abilities. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of peer observation in tertiary education to foster teachers’ continuing professional development, formulate a framework for its implementation to improve teaching performance and seek possible solutions to some potential challenges regarding the implementation of the peer observation of teaching (POT) program in a Bangladeshi government college. Therefore, the researcher used a secondary data analysis method in which around 30 papers, including journal articles, conference proceedings, research reports, were studied, analyzed, and discussed. Moreover, two case studies in international contexts were reviewed elaborately. The result found that the implementation of peer observation of teaching program would enhance teachers’ professional development and consequently, the students’ success would be accelerated. After analyzing the documents, an implementation plan for POT in the researcher’s college was devised and some strategies were suggested to overcome the challenges that might arise during the process.