Product Description

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, 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3570 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-30
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

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." Easy-to-follow headings—such as "Start with the Students Rather Than the Discipline"—help readers learn to create such environments, too. Inspiring though this slender book will be for college teachers at all levels, it may also delight the general reader with nostalgic reminders of their finest classroom experiences.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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. Although this book is aimed at teachers, it is a thoughtful and valuable resource for students and parents as well. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
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...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 strive best in cooperative classrooms. The best teachers, Bain avers, understand and exceed such expectations. (Publishers Weekly 20070901)

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.
--Vanessa Bush (Booklist )

Bain, a historian and director of New York University's Center for Teaching Excellence, studied 63 outstanding college teachers (as deemed by students and colleagues as well as by an examination of their students' work) from diverse institutions in an attempt to identify their common traits. What he discovered is pertinent to all teachers, including those at the K-12 level.
--David Ruenzel (Teacher Magazine )

It combines a robust theoretical framework grounded in the latest scholarship, the wisdom of best practices, and a unique depiction of how successful educators think about their teaching.
--Paul Keim (Christian Century )

Ken Bain's What the Best College Teachers Do has generated considerable buzz, and rightly so. Based on a careful study of 60 outstanding teachers from a variety of disciplines and institutions, it distills valuable lessons that warrant the consideration of anyone who wishes to be more effective in drawing students into the life of the mind...[Readers] will find its various discussions to be uncommonly well grounded and uncommonly inspiring.
--David E. Leary (APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy )

Customer Reviews

An Amazing Book
This book is excellent for all teachers, in grades K-12, not just college teachers. It gets at the essential elements of great teaching and teachers. I have given it to many of the teachers at my school.

WHAT THE BEST COLLEGE TEACHERS SHOULD READ
If you are a seasoned educator looking to improve your classroom performance and get greater academic results from your students, this book is for you. If you are a new teacher who would like to get on the right track to teaching success - without having to endure the painful learning curve that most teachers go through, this book is for you.

The book's author, Ken Bain, set out with the objective of capturing the collective scholarship of some of the most outstanding teachers in the United States with surveys and interviews that helped him document what they do, and how they think in an effort to conceptualize their practices. He defines "outstanding" teachers as those teachers who have achieved remarkable success in helping their students think, act and feel.

The conclusion of the book is directed to people who teach, but will benefit students and their parents as well. "What The Best College Teachers Do" should be required reading for all teachers (young/old or new/seasoned) who not only want to get better, but to become outstanding in their field.

Teaching is harder than it looks.
Brief Summary: Ken Bain and his colleagues conducted a fifteen-year study of outstanding teachers from a variety of disciplines at two dozen institutions. The teachers they chose to study had all achieved remarkable success in helping their students make sustained, substantial and positive changes in the way they think, act and learn. The study looked at how good teachers prepare, what they expect from their students, how they conduct a class, how they treat their students, how they evaluate their students and themselves, and how they understand how students learn, and then play to those strengths.

There were several recurring practices and beliefs that seemed to be shared by the best teachers. They are looking to foster deep and lasting learning, rather than a kind of surface learning in which students remember something just long enough to pass the exam. They are learners themselves, constantly trying to improve their technique. They provide a safe environment which allows students to struggle and question new ideas. They plan their course backwards, beginning with the results they hope to achieve. They provide their students with clear and realistic goals. When their students have difficulty, they look for problems with their course rather than with their students. They make their classes as relevant as possible. Most importantly, good teachers seem to share the belief that teaching only occurs when learning takes place.

Sample Excerpt :Understanding that every student is an individual, the best teachers know that no single approach can work for all of them. As one teacher in the study said, "You don't teach a class. You teach a student." Bain further explains, "Simply put, the best teachers believe that learning involves both personal and intellectual development and that neither the ability to think nor the qualities of being a mature human being are immutable. People can change, and those changes - not just the accumulation of information - represent true learning. More than anything else this central set of beliefs distinguishes the most effective teachers from many of their colleagues."

Primary Strength: If a person was lucky, she might have five outstanding teachers in her lifetime who she would strive to emulate. Yet when I try to put my finger on the "what" and the "how" of what my outstanding teachers did, those qualities are elusive. But when I read this book, those great teachers of mine came to mind and I found myself thinking, "Yeah, they did that." Bain has taken on the herculean task of studying hundreds of successful teachers and then finding their common denominator, thus allowing each of us to study what the masters have in common and incorporating those skills into our own personal style.

Primary Weakness: Bain was vague about the "science" of his study. Some might like to know more about the source of his facts, how many teachers were studied where, and exactly how the studies were conducted.

Overall: Before I read this book, I knew that teaching was difficult. After reading this book, I realize that if you do it well, teaching is far more complicated than I ever imagined. It's like a juggling act with thoughts and minds, and you have to adapt your routine for every class. It confirms what I have always known: Not everyone can teach. It's not enough to know your subject cold, or to have the greatest lesson plan, or even to use the best techniques. You have to love the job. You have to respect your students and have faith that they want to learn, and they can learn. Because if you don't believe all of that, for even one day, they will know it. Your students will know it, and they will suffer.