Reading Roundtable for Spring 2007

Ken Bain's Book: What the Best College Teachers Do

The Reading Roundtable for the spring semester is taking registrations through November 21, 2006 (or sooner if all placed are filled). The Roundtable is a faculty book discussion group that will meet periodically during the spring semester for good, collegial conversations connected with reading Ken Bain's What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, 2004).

The book is 190 pages with some of the chapter titles being "What Do They Know about How We Learning?," "How Do They Prepare to Teach?," "What Do They Expect of Their Students?," "How Do They Conduct Class?," "How Do They Evaluate Their Students and Themselves?," "What Can We Learn from Them?"

The Center for Excellence in Teaching will purchase copies of the book to give to each member of the Reading Roundtable. The number of places is limited. To register, send an email to the coordinator of the Reading Roundtable, Ludy Goodson (lgoodson@georgiasouthern.edu), or call the CET: 681-0049. Books will then be ordered. The deadline for registration is November 21st.

About the Book
From Publishers Weekly
Bain's sound and scholarly yet exuberant promotion of America's "best college teachers" abounds with jaunty anecdotes and inspiring opinions that make student-centered instruction look not only infectious, but downright imperative. Teachers may enjoy the book's plummy examples from their peers' interdisciplinary curricula-such as the Harvard chemistry professor whose "lesson on polymers becomes the story of how the development of nylons influenced the outcome of World War II" or the U Penn art professor whose computer game allows students to determine the authenticity of a questionable Rembrandt. Bain's most compelling arguments, however, concern the quirks and motivations of today's college students. Though he acknowledges nationwide trends toward grade inflation, he invokes a 1990 study that suggests students are most driven by "high demands" and prefer "plentiful opportunities to revise and improve their work before it receives a grade." Likewise, the book argues that, even in the cutthroat climate of today's competitive colleges, students thrive best in cooperative classrooms. The best teachers, Bain avers, understand and exceed such expectations, and use them to create "natural critical learning environments."

From Booklist
With the strong conviction that good teaching can be learned, and after 15 years of observing teachers in action, Bain undertook an exploration of the essentials of effective teaching. The result is an insightful look at what makes a great teacher, based on a study of three dozen teachers from a cross section of disciplines from medical-school faculties to undergraduate departments. After interviewing students and colleagues, observing classrooms and laboratories, and examining course materials from syllabi to lecture notes, Bain concludes that the quality of teaching is measured not by whether students pass exams but whether they retain the material to such an extent that it influences their thoughts and actions. Bain focuses on what the best teachers know and understand about their subject matter as well as the learning process; how they prepare; what they expect of their students; how they treat students; and how they evaluate student progress.

Ken Bain is Vice Provost for Instruction, Professor of History, and Director of the Teaching and Learning Resource Center at Montclair State University.