Establishing Shared Expectations

While section 2.2 focuses on clarifying your individual purpose for engaging in observation, this section focuses on how you and your observation partner discuss and agree on shared expectations for the process. Clear communication helps reduce the likelihood of misunderstanding, and effective observation partnerships are grounded in clarifying expectations together rather than relying on implicit assumptions (Bell & Cooper, 2013; Siddiqui, Jonas-Dwyer, & Carr, 2007).

Before moving forward, you may wish to discuss expectations and boundaries by considering questions such as:

What aspects of teaching would you like feedback on?
Are there areas you prefer not to focus on right now?
What context will help the observer interpret what they see?
What kind of feedback would be most useful to you?
How do you typically respond to feedback?
How will notes or documentation be used, stored, or shared?

These conversations help position observation as a collaborative process, rather than a one-sided act of evaluation. Part 5 of this guide includes optional tools and templates that can help structure these conversations and document agreements where helpful.

Back to top

University of Toronto, Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation