The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning

50 Church Street, Suite 308, and 125 Mount Auburn Street, 3rd Floor  
Phone: 617-495-4869  
Email: bokcenter@fas.harvard.edu  
bokcenter.harvard.edu  

The Bok Center provides faculty, graduate students, and other instructors teaching in the FAS and beyond with a wide range of resources and programming to foster excellence and innovation in teaching and learning. Promoting a culture of experimentation, collaboration, and reflection about teaching, we support instructors in creating dynamic and inclusive learning environments. The Center assists faculty in designing courses and syllabi, in encouraging civil discourse and constructive dialogue in the classroom, in developing classroom presence, and in exploring evidence-based strategies to promote learning. Among the many units with which we partner across the FAS and campus more broadly are the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Undergraduate Education to develop key resources for teaching and learning. We also collaborate with the Office for Faculty Affairs to facilitate orientations for new faculty as well as a peer observation program for tenure-track faculty in the FAS. Moreover, our Learning Lab collaborates with faculty and units across the FAS and beyond to create and implement innovative assignments and course activities, including guidance on teaching with Generative AI. 

In addition to working with faculty of every rank and at every stage of their professional careers, the Bok Center offers a robust slate of professional development programming for PhD students. Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants who are teaching for the first time in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are required to attend a Pedagogy in Practice training session offered as part of Fall Teaching Week and Winter Teaching Week. All FAS instructors are invited to the many other workshops and sessions included in Fall Teaching Week and Winter Teaching Week. International students and scholars who want to improve their oral English communication skills to prepare for the Harvard classroom and beyond engage with our Professional Communication Program for International Teachers and Scholars. Advanced PhD students have the option of demonstrating their commitment to developing as teachers in higher education by applying to our Bok Graduate Fellows program, where we partner with departments to enhance training and support for graduate student teachers across the FAS. 

Further information and resources on teaching are available on the Bok Center’s website.