New and Early Career Instructor Teaching Community
The New and Early Career Instructor (NECI) teaching community aims to foster and accelerate success in teaching for eligible new and early career instructors. Over a two-year sequence, participants will learn, discuss, and document evidence-based teaching practices, create and form connections with instructors in different areas, and enjoy a space for reflection, iterative growth, and professional development.
The program is open to instructors who:
- Are in their first three years of teaching at the University of Rochester
- Are on a multi-year contract (e.g., tenure track, instructional track, lecturer, two-year visiting assistant professor, etc.)
- Teach courses that enroll students at the University of Rochester
The goals of the community are to help early career instructors:
- Adopt evidence-based teaching practices
- Develop a network of colleagues with whom they feel comfortable discussing teaching
- Identify and articulate their personal teaching identity and goals, as well as the relationship of that identity and those goals to the norms of their department/program, school, University of Rochester, and their academic discipline
- Identify and utilize appropriate Teaching Center programming to support their teaching
- Assess and reflect on their own teaching as the basis for iterative improvement
- Document their teaching development for tenure and promotion
- Develop skills to support their evaluation of the teaching of others
Program Outline
This program is structured to take place over two years, with six in-person sessions in both the fall and spring semester of the first year, and four sessions in the fall and spring semester in year two.
Year One: Introduction to Teaching at Rochester:
- Six in-person meetings in both the fall and spring semester
- One Teaching Center service of choice
- Peer partnership with a colleague outside of your college/department
- Time commitment: 12–14 hours per semester
Year Two: Develop your practice and Document your teaching
- Four in-person meetings in both the fall and spring semester
- The spring semester of year two will focus on construction and peer critique of teaching portfolios
- One Teaching Center service of choice
- Time commitment: 8–10 hours per semester
The Teaching Center will determine meeting times each semester based upon participants’ schedules.
Register here to participate in Year One of the New and Early Career Instructor teaching community for academic year 2025-26.
Year Two participation is open to instructors who have completed Year One of the community.
Please email the Teaching Center for more information.
Additional Support
In addition to the NECI teaching community, the Teaching Center offers a variety of programming, including workshops, consultations, cohorts, mid-semester observations, grants, and more. If you are not eligible for this community, please join us in our other programming.