Participation in TOPS is voluntary and completely separate from the reappointment, tenure, promotion process. Participants select their own partners. Between 10 and 20 faculty have participated in TOPS each semester, some continuing for several semesters. There have been over 60 TOPS participants since the program began in 1993.
Training is critical to effective peer observation.
Participants review and discuss behaviors consistent with good teaching and determine how best to give feedback on specific behaviors. The TOPS program helps decrease that isolation by providing an informal structure for discussion of teaching and promotion of collegiality. I have taken ideas for content materials from completely different disciplines because they reflect teaching strategies. TOPS gives me immediate strategies that I can use in my classes. I now read literature on teaching just out of curiosity.