Formative review refers to activities designed to contribute to the development of teaching. A formative review results in feedback to the instructor. By evaluation, we mean the assessment or appraisal of the quality of someone's teaching. Summative review refers to activities designed to produce or provide input to such an evaluation. A summative review usually results in documentation that may be reviewed by others.
Teaching is difficult to define.
The Graduate School offers masters and doctoral degrees in almost every field. Instruction is offered to over 40,000 students by 2200 faculty and many of the 5000 academic staff members employed on the campus. It is obvious from the breadth of educational programs suggested by this list of schools and colleges that the range of teaching activities is similarly broad. Throughout this site, we emphasize the importance of agreement about what is to be reviewed as a prerequisite for successful peer review. The diversity of teaching activities suggested by this list illustrates why such an agreement is essential.