What the Best College Teachers Do

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, Sep 1, 2011 - Education - 224 pages

What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators.

The short answer is—it’s not what teachers do, it’s what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out—but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn.

In stories both humorous and touching, Ken Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students’ discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential. What the Best College Teachers Do is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration for first-year teachers and seasoned educators.

 

Contents

Defining the Best
1
2 What Do They Know about How We Learn?
22
3 How Do They Prepare to Teach?
48
4 What Do They Expect of Their Students?
68
5 How Do They Conduct Class?
98
6 How Do They Treat Their Students?
135
7 How Do They Evaluate Their Students and Themselves?
150
What Can We Learn from Them?
173
How the Study Was Conducted
181
Notes
191
Acknowledgments
201
Index
203
Copyright

Other editions - View all

What the Best College Teachers Do
Ken Bain
Limited preview - 2004
What the Best College Teachers Do
Ken Bain
Limited preview - 2004
What the Best College Teachers Do
Ken Bain
Limited preview - 2004

Common terms and phrases

African American answer approach ask students assessment assignments begin believe best teachers bulimic calculus challenge classroom Claude Steele colleagues concepts conclusions course create critical learning environment dents Derrick Bell develop didn’t discipline discussions Dudley Herschbach efforts emerged encountered encourage students Eric Mazur evaluate evidence examinations example expect experience explain extrinsic motivators faculty feedback foster Frank Costin give students goals grade help and encourage help students learn highly effective teachers human ideas important inquiry instructors intellectual interest interviews issues Jeanette Norden kind learners learning objectives lectures look means mental models Michael Sandel natural critical learning one’s outstanding teachers Paul Baker performance person practices problems questions Ralph Lynn recognize Saari sense simply standards stereotype stereotype threat stimulate story student ratings students to learn subjects successful talk teachers we studied teaching tell thought tions understand University

About the author (2011)

Ken Bain is President of the Best Teachers Institute and a former professor of history at Northwestern, Vanderbilt, the University of Texas, and New York University.

Bibliographic information

TitleWhat the Best College Teachers Do
AuthorKen Bain
PublisherHarvard University Press, 2011
ISBN0674065549, 9780674065543
Length224 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

Education / Schools / Levels / Higher
Education / Teacher & Student Mentoring
Education / Teaching / General
  
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