What the Best College Teachers Do

What the Best College Teachers DoWhat 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

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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 04/30/2004
ISBN: 9780674013254
Pages: 207
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 8.39h x 5.63w x 0.82d

Review Citations: New York Review of Books 11/03/2005 pg. 51
Library Journal 02/01/2004 pg. 104
Booklist 03/15/2004 pg. 1247
Christian Century 02/22/2005 pg. 51