The Issues With Faculty Performance Reviews Essay Example for Free

The Issues With Faculty Performance Reviews Essay The peer review faculty evaluation system creates big sources of issues and confusion for a variety of reasons. Foremost among the reasons is the nature of interaction between peers in the education setting. Feedback provided, whether positive or negative, is oftentimes skewed due to personal relationships. Personal opinions that should not be present in a professional atmosphere take on added importance when it comes to determining the performance of the faculty. One partial solution to this problem is distributing anonymous peer reviews. If the identity of the person giving the advice is kept confidential, people will be more open to providing honest feedback because they will not violate issues of personal trust and friendship. On the other hand, anonymity also protects those who have personal vendettas against a particular faculty member without recourse to personal accountability. That being said, the peer review system should be anonymous. It is impossible to keep personal interests out of these reviews, but keeping them anonymous can shield against part of the confusion, however it will not eliminate it altogether because people are partial to colleagues they get along with, regardless of the performance in the classroom. Peer reviews need to be balanced against both student and administrative feedback in order to complete a more nuanced picture of the overall faculty performance.