Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus

Robert Boice

Allyn and Bacon, 2000 - Education - 319 pages

Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus is a unique and essential guide to the start of a successful academic career. As its title suggests (nothing in excess), it advocates moderation in ways of working, based on the single-most reliable difference between new faculty who thrive and those who struggle. By following its practical, easy-to-use rules, novice faculty can learn to teach with the highest levels of student approval, involvement, and comprehension, with only modest preparation times and a greater reliance on spontaneity and student participation. Similarly, new faculty can use its rule-based practices to write with ease, increasing productivity, creativity, and publishability through brief, daily sessions of focused and relaxed work. And they can socialize more successfully by learning about often-misunderstood aspects of academic culture, including mentoring. Each rule in Advice for New Faculty Members has been tested on hundreds of new faculty and proven effective over the long run -- even in attaining permanent appointment. It is the first guidebook to move beyond anecdotes and surmises for its directives, based on the author's extensive experience and solid research in the areas of staff and faculty development. For new teachers.

Contents

• Moderate Work at Teaching: 11
• Wait: 19
• Begin Before Feeling Ready: 29
• Stop: 47
• Moderate Overattachment and Overreaction: 55
• Moderate Negative Thinking: 65
• Let Others Do Some of the Work: 75
• Moderate Classroom Incivilities: 81
• Summary and Extension of the Nihil Nimus Approach: 99
• Write in Mindful Ways: 103
• Wait: 115
• Begin Writing Early Before Feeling Ready: 123
• Work with Constancy and Moderation: 137
• Stop: 145
• Work with Balance: 151
• Let Go of Negative Thoughts: 157
• Moderate Emotions: 165
• Daily Sessions: 174
• Let Others Do Some of the Work: 183
• Summary and Extension of the Mindful: 192
• Socialize and Serve with Compassion: 203
• Learn about Academic Culture Early Patiently: 211
• Let Others Do Some of the Work: 233
• Combine SelfService with Service for Others: 253
• Catalogue of Nihil Nimus Rules and Advice: 273
• Readings by the Numbers: 279
• References: 299
• Name Index: 311

About the author

Robert Boice, Ph.D., is emeritus professor of psychology at State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus
• Author: Robert Boice
• Edition: 2, reprint
• Publisher: Allyn and Bacon, 2000
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Jun 22, 2011
• ISBN: 0205281591, 9780205281596
• Length: 319 pages
• Subjects: Education / Administration / General; Education / Higher; Medical / Audiology & Speech Pathology