Faculty and Teaching Fellows often are in an excellent position to identify students and colleagues who are struggling, and to refer them to the right person or department for help. And yet, at the same time, many instructors understandably report that they feel uncomfortable and/or unprepared in reaching out to a student or colleague in distress. After all, most of us are trained to be teachers and scholars, not mental health professionals.

Recognizing this challenge, the Bok Center recently collaborated with...

Planning the Fall Teaching Conference this summer felt like building an airplane while flying it: we knew we would be teaching in person, but the continually changing circumstances required us, like all instructors teaching this fall, to be intentional yet flexible in our planning. We had so many questions to consider: How should we prepare graduate student TFs to teach in physical classrooms? How could we most effectively apply the lessons we learned from our fully online conference in 2020 to this new “hybrid” moment of transition? How could we meet the needs of both new and experienced TFs facing another unprecedented semester?

... Read more about From Zoom Rooms to Classrooms: A Hybrid Fall Teaching Conference

Teaching is an act of scholarly communication, whether you are explaining a concept, giving a lecture, or presenting your research on the Sanders Theatre stage. Whether you are working with a small, familiar group of students or a large public audience, what goals do you have? How can you structure your content, use your visuals and voice to support those goals, and keep the audience engaged in your ideas? Engaged communication is a core component of the Bok Center’s work; over the past year, we translated lessons of engaged communication to the Zoom setting, and adjusted how we coach...

We are excited to recognize and celebrate the 2020-21 Bok Teaching Certificate Recipients.

The Bok Teaching Certificate gives GSAS PhD students a tangible marker of their ongoing commitment to developing as teachers in higher education. Guided by three principles—Learn, Practice, Reflect—those who pursue the Certificate explore different topics in teaching and learning through departmental pedagogy courses and Bok Seminars, reflect on...