Why Do Law Profs Provide Peer Review Of Scholarship, But Not Teaching?

Mary Lynch (Albany), Experience with Peer Support, Peer Review and Feedback on Teaching?: 

We are all familiar with engagement in peer review of scholarship. Law faculty culture prioritizes peer input and review of scholarly ideas and articles. Sending drafts of articles to colleagues for feedback, “workshopping” preliminary ideas, and vetting scholarship is part and parcel of the work we do. We visit other schools, make presentations and attend conferences because we value peer discussion and input. It is the basis by which we create and communicate knowledge.

I don’t believe, however, we have a similarly pervasive culture for formative peer review when it comes to teaching in law schools, although such culture exists at other higher education institutions.

• Jennifer Bard (Cincinnati), Some Thoughts on Peer Observation in Law Teaching