The Implementation of a Peer Observation of Teaching Initiative at a Dubai‐based College’s Faculty of Dental Medicine.

This change initiative involved the inception of a trial involving peer observation of teaching (POT), executed solely by the writer who received facilitative aid from a corresponding team on the trial site. The rationale for selecting this project was the impetus for developing augmented quality assurance in teaching and learning at a higher education medical organization in the Middle East. The highest aim of this impetus was to ensure that education be offered to the ultimate standards, evaluated over a continuum, preferably by POT. In this instance, developments were in the preliminary burgeoning stage. The HSE’s change model and the CIPP evaluation model were employed to furnish the project with direction. Prior to its implementation, a survey was transmitted to 15 faculty volunteers, to evoke their perceptions and attitudes of POT. A proper training tutorial was then provided to volunteers, coaching them through both the observation and feedback processes. Subsequently, they underwent one actual POT session, in which the 9 participants, bar one, assumed both observer and observee roles. Next, focus group interviews were carried out with the participants (n=9). Analysis of both data sets yielded consistent results with each other and the literature, indicating strong favourable responses for the implementation of POT with a formative, developmental approach using a systematically precise observation instrument. Lastly, the evaluation of this change initiative simultaneously substantiated the benefits of POT and enabled the devising of a bespoke model with the capacity for its complete embedding within the organization.