The in-class visitation is in addition to the Teaching Resource Center's activities, which are strongly recommended to new faculty members. These seminars were coordinated with the Teaching Resource Center's two half-day orientation seminars for new faculty. The third formal method of teaching development at McIntire are the faculty development seminars that are held three or four times a year. Examples of these faculty-run seminars include effective teaching techniques, i.e., case teaching, group projects, grading, and experiential teaching. During some years the faculty development seminars will evolve around a theme.
Faculty development is planned and conducted by a faculty-initiated committee.
The committee has worked hard to keep faculty development separate from the evaluation process. The evaluation of faculty members' teaching is conducted by the area coordinator, dean and the APT Committee. The Law School initiated its Teaching Partnerships program in the spring of 1995. The idea came from the Teaching Committee, which the Dean recently created for the purpose of developing proposals to support faculty self-improvement in teaching. The Committee opened up the program to the entire faculty.