Re-conceptualising the observation of teaching and learning in Business Schools: Moving from teacher performativity to learner interaction

Understanding how students interact with their educators, peers and learning materials is fundamental to professional practice in Business Schools- but how can this be achieved? One way is through collegial peer observation and the feedback that this provides to the management educator. This positioning paper offers one way of mapping the interaction between an educator and their students, and between students, through an observation tool, and which the author has used in a variety of settings. Although this observation tool may serve as a means of enhancing reflexive practice, it can also be used to generate discussion within the seminar related to broader issues pertaining to participation and inclusion in the workplace and wider society. In highlighting this issue of interaction, this paper also leads on to a wider discussion of the literature and posits future avenues for research on the purposes and benefits of peer-based observation.