Yüksek öğrenimde İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğreten çevrimiçi eğitmenler için süreç temelli bir akran gözlem modelinin tasarımı, uygulanması ve değerlendirilmesi

During the coronavirus pandemic that the whole world experienced since December 2019, face-to-face teaching was temporarily replaced by online teaching. Later, most of the higher education institutions in Türkiye decided to deliver their courses in a blended fashion by merging face-to-face teaching with online instruction. Peer observation of teaching has not become a common practice in higher education institutions in Türkiye although its beneficial results have been increasingly reported in other countries, where it has been a usual procedure. There have not been many studies focusing on traditional peer observation and online peer observation (OLPO) in Turkish higher education context. With this in mind, considering the interests and opinions of English as a foreign language instructors working in higher education institutions, and drawing on social cognition theory, sociocultural theory along with its perspective on teacher learning and teacher professional learning theory, this collective case study set out to describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a process-based, peer observation of teaching model carried out for two (Spring 2019, Spring 2020) semesters both in the traditional classroom setting and online teaching in an English language program at a foundation university located in Istanbul, Türkiye. In the first phase of the study (the orientation scheme), in Spring 2019, following a one-day preparatory workshop, designed and offered by an educational consultant (an outside expert/the advisor himself) with experience in harmonizing peer observation (PO) programs, a PO scheme was introduced, and participating instructors (n=14) were paired up based on their preferences regarding the aspects or areas of teaching on which they wished to be observed. Then, these pairs (n=7) observed each other's classes several times and participated in pre- and post-observation meetings. At the end of the phase, all participating instructors came together to share their experiences with the rest of the group in the format of a colloquium. In the second phase of the study, data were collected through an interest analysis form that sought the participants' opinions and preferences regarding the first phase of the study, and how they would plan the next scheme. The audio (for the first cycle) and video recordings (for the second and third cycle) of pre- and post-observation meetings, and the video recordings of experience sharing day colloquiums and the researcher's notes kept during these colloquiums were among the other data collection tools. The participants (n=16) were also asked to write their reflections in the form of a reflective diary and compare the peer observation process in the traditional classroom setting to online teaching for the classes they observed and for the classes in which their peers observed them. Suggestions for future implementations are proposed and insights into the complexity of the phenomenon are discussed. Also, practical implications for further research are provided.