The UALR William H. Bowen School of Law has become the third co-sponsor of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning (ILTL), joining Gonzaga University School of Law and Washburn University School of Law.
The Institute was founded in 1991 to provide resources and leadership for law schools in the areas of teaching and learning, assessment, and curriculum design, and to enable schools to provide a learning environment that helps students achieve the highest academic standards and prepares students to assume their responsibilities as effective, moral attorneys.
Professor Kelly Terry will serve as one of the Institute’s co-directors. She takes the place of new Bowen Dean Michael Hunter Schwartz, who will continue to work on ILTL projects as an institute consultant.
Terry serves as the director of the Public Service Externship Program and Pro Bono Opportunities at Bowen.
“Professor Terry is an accomplished teaching and learning scholar and a great teacher,” Schwartz said. “I am excited to find out how the Institute will under her stewardship. I know Professor Terry to be an effective and insightful collaborator who is committed to helping ILTL continue to serve law students and professors.”
The Institute has several goals:
- to serve as a clearinghouse for ideas to improve the quality of education in law school
- to support student-centered curriculum reform
- to provide national leadership on effective teaching and learning in law school
- to support research and the development of materials to enhance teaching and learning in law school
- to establish and maintain a national reputation for quality programs, responsiveness to law teachers’ needs, and innovation in law teaching
Since its inception, the Institute has co-hosted annual teaching and learning conferences, including two conferences each year for the past several years, and it has published twice-annual issues of The Law Teacher, which publishes short articles and book reviews on teaching and learning authored by a wide variety of law teachers representing dozens of law schools around the country. The Institute’s website contains web resources such as focused materials on teaching methods, assessment, and team-based learning. Finally, the Institute also offers law teacher training workshops to US and foreign law teachers, and, Institute faculty have conducted more than 200 such workshops at more than 75 US law schools and for law teachers from Canada, Chile, Germany, Iran, Japan, the Republic of Georgia, and Turkey.
