Abstract:

At the heart of most approaches to quality assurance is evaluation by experts, generally known as peer review. The involvement of people as active university teachers, as researchers or as practising professionals to offer advice and to make judgements and/or decisions about proposals for new programmes, the continuation or modifications of existing programmes, the quality of research programmes or the quality of institutions is described as peer review (Frazer, 1994:107). It is used to some extent in the processes for quality maintenance and enhancement in HE in countries such as Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, United Kingdom, USA and SA, inter alia (Frazer, 1994:101). An important goal of peer review is one’s own professional development. Winter (1995) and Harvey (1996) state that professional development is dependent on the development of an individual’s self-awareness (cited by Moon, 1999:81). Eraut (1992) includes as essential the capacity to use that awareness and knowledge of self to understand its strengths and weaknesses. “Self-management is the process of using self-knowledge in order to achieve a particular end.” The “end … is the growth of professional behaviour that enables the tasks of the professional to be executed in an appropriate manner” (cited by Moon, 1999:81). Carr and Kemmis (1986) claim that the professional development of teachers requires that they adopt a research stance towards their own educational practice (perhaps in the form of action research). Bush (1997), cited by Quinn & McKellar (2002:74), argue that self-appraisal is fundamental to the success of the performance appraisal process. An important ally of the self-appraisal process is peer review. Involving peers is thus central to all aspects of the educational experience, including the legitimising of any quality assessment procedures (Barnett 1992, cited by Quinn & McKellar, 2002:74). However, in a study at one comprehensive university, the theory above does not seem to add up. Staff (while agreeing with the principle), are not to keen to be peer reviewed themselves. This paper reports on one such study and looks at the strengths and limitations of peer review and provides some solutions towards an effective peer review system.

Keywords:

Peer review, performance appraisal process, professional development.