Teaching Feedback Program
Looking for additional opportunities to participate in observations and get feedback regarding your teaching practice? Click here to learn more about (google doc) The Open Doors Program (external link) .
The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) is dedicated to supporting the growth and professional development of its instructors and educators. We invite applications to the Teaching Feedback Program (TFP), an opportunity for instructors to gain insight into their classroom teaching.
The Teaching Feedback Program pairs an active instructor with a CELT Educational Developer (ED) to identify instructor-defined goals and a focus for feedback on in-class instructional practice. Common areas of focus include lesson delivery, facilitating discussion, engaging students, and so on.
Applications for the Fall Semester will remain open until September 30, 2025, or when the program reaches capacity—whichever comes first.
(google form) Click here to apply for a Refinement or Observation (external link) .
Program Options
The TFP consists of structured feedback on instructional topics of your choosing. Each semester, instructors can apply to participate in one of two Teaching Feedback options, for a total time commitment of no more than two hours over the course of a semester:
Option 1: Teaching Observation
- You meet with an Educational Developer for a 30-minute initial consultation to talk about your teaching goals and organize a classroom visit.
- The Educational Developer visits your class and conducts a 60-minute observation.
- Afterwards, you and the Educational Developer meet for a 30-minute “debrief” consultation to review the feedback together and reflect on the observation.
Option 2: Teaching Refinement
- You meet with an Educational Developer for a 30-minute initial consultation to talk about your teaching goals and organize a classroom visit.
- The Educational Developer visits your class and leads a 20-minute, anonymous group discussion with students. You step out of the classroom at this time.
- You and the Educational Developer meet for a 30-minute “debrief” consultation to review the feedback together and reflect on the refinement.
Icons made by Vectors Market (left) and gravisio (right) from www.flaticon.com (external link)
Upon completion, participating faculty will receive a completed (google doc) Observation or Refinement Feedback form (external link) for their own use (such as for professional development, currency reporting, tenure and promotion, teaching philosophy, and so on).
Call for faculty (CUPE and TFA) applications
Fall semester TFP applications
The call for Teaching Observation and Teaching Refinement requests will launch in mid-August, 2025 and remains open until the end of September (September 30, 2025) or when the program reaches capacity—whichever comes first.
Registration is first come, first served, and participants remain wholly eligible to apply to and participate in other CELT programs and offerings.
Winter semester TFP applications
Registration for the Winter 2026 semester will open in early December 2025.
Important dates
| Date | Event |
| Aug. 15, 2025 | Applications for the Fall 2025 semester open for all TMU faculty |
| Sept. 22, 2025 | Fall semester Teaching Feedback Observations and Refinements begin |
| Sept. 30, 2025 | Final date for Fall 2025 applications (if not already full) |
| Oct. 17, 2025 | Final date for Fall semester Teaching Feedback Refinements |
| Nov. 14, 2025 | Final date for Fall semester Teaching Feedback Observations |
| December 2025 | Applications for the Winter 2026 semester open for all TMU faculty |
Upon completion, participating faculty will receive a completed (google doc) Observation or Refinement Feedback form (external link) for their own use (such as for professional development, currency reporting, tenure and promotion, teaching philosophy, and so on).
Fostering inclusive and respectful participation
We recognize that classroom dynamics are shaped by intersecting identities, power dynamics, and lived experiences of both students and instructors. During Teaching Refinements, all student feedback will be anonymous and only summaries will be shared with instructors. If you have preferences about who from our Teaching Development team you would like to work with during either an Observation or Refinement, there will be a question to indicate this in the Application Form. There will also be a question to indicate any equity, accessibility, or accommodation needs you might have.
Throughout the program, we will collaborate with you to make sure that all participants (including you) feel respected, heard, and safe when giving or receiving feedback.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The program is for self-development only, and is not connected to any formal departmental review for tenure and promotion. CELT will never share feedback or other data with students, departmental colleagues or supervisors, or anyone else. Instructors may voluntarily elect to incorporate completed teaching feedback forms into their own applications, but CELT will never distribute the contents of these forms. Additionally, instructors can request the forms be deleted upon program completion.
For an Observation, none! Observations occur alongside regularly-scheduled instruction, with no interruption to your planned lesson. For a Refinement, 20 minutes at the very end of one, single class early in a semester (week 3, 4, or 5). All other time is outside of class time, in-person or online, at the convenience of the instructor.
Instructors interested in a Teaching Observation or Refinement are encouraged to complete the (google form) Request Form (external link) before the semester deadline (see Important Dates above). Observations or Refinements will not be scheduled for the first or last class session of a term, or during weeks set to include exams, tests, or guest speakers. They should also be scheduled separately from formal teaching assessments (CUPE or TFA) wherever possible.
Observations can take place at any point, but are typically most useful to Instructors when they are scheduled to occur between weeks 3 and 9 of a single-semester course.
Because Refinements are intended to support instructional change, they are best scheduled during the mid-term weeks of a course, (5, 6, or 7) to allow time for changes based on student feedback to be made during the remainder of the semester.
Observations will last no longer than 60 minutes and will not interfere with instruction; Refinements will require the final 20 minutes (at the end of your class) of one week’s instruction.
Not typically: please schedule a consultation with an Educational Developer Faculty Liaison to discuss how these assessment and instructional design strategies can be best addressed in the Teaching Observation and Refinement process.
No. Observations and Refinements conducted by CELT staff are voluntary, formative reviews of instruction. They are separate from and cannot be used in place of formal, peer assessments of teaching conducted under the terms of CUPE and/or TFA collective agreements, which must be conducted by TFA or CUPE peers. Instructors may be able to include them in currency or teaching portfolios under certain conditions, but will need to independently verify their eligibility and suitability for such inclusion.
No. Requests for Teaching Feedback are voluntary and can only be made by instructors on their own instructional practice.
We are happy to receive your endorsement and referrals, however! Please refer your colleagues and Academic Assistants (AAs) to the CELT website, to our TeachNet mailing list, or to our many other services and resources.
Additional instructional feedback opportunities
The CELT supports additional faculty-led opportunities for engaging their colleagues in discussions about their teaching practice. These include:
- (google doc) The Open Doors Program (external link) : Instructors attend a colleague’s class, or volunteer to host their peers during their own. CELT helps facilitate the matchmaking process to support department-level or cross-campus engagement.
- Teaching Circles (or Teaching Squares): Instructors, with or without the involvement of Associate Deans, department chairs, and so on, meet periodically to discuss and support one another in instructional growth and innovation. CELT can help initiate or reinvigorate these peer-led teaching communities.
For further details please reach out to jackydeng@torontomu.ca