Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.

Bain, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at New York University, asks "what makes some teachers successful with students of diverse backgrounds?" This book encapsulates his findings after 15 years of research and consideration of more than 100 college teachers. Bain does not attempt to define specific tasks or activities, but rather describes a collection of habits of mind and world views that seem to capture the essence of excellent teaching. Excellence here is defined not only as receiving positive reviews from students and peers, but also engendering in students a love of learning, promoting deep learning, and having a lasting effect on learners' lives. Bain profiles excellent teaching practices from a range of disciplines both technical and non-technical. Topics considered include what we know about how people learn, how excellent teachers prepare to teach, and what they expect of their students. Each section ends with a summary of implications for teaching practice.

Some of the major conclusions of Bain's study fall under six broad questions he asked about the instructors he examined: (1) What do the best teachers know and understand, (2) How do they prepare to teach, (3) What do they expect of their students, (4) What do they do when they teach, (5) How do they treat students, and (6) How do they check their progress and evaluate their efforts? What follows is a preview of some of the main conclusions arrived at in Bain's study. One conclusion arrived at under (1) is that the best teachers don't talk about teaching as the transmission of the knowledge they possess to their students; instead, they talk about helping students engage and grapple with the material being taught to them so that they construct their own understanding. Related to this, a conclusion arrived at under (4) is that the best teachers create a 'natural critical learning environment' where the students learn by confronting important problems in their field of study, challenging them to wrestle with concepts, reconsidering their assumptions, and evaluating their understanding of the world and reality--by creating this sort of environment, these teachers give their students a sense of control over their education. Finally, a conclusion Bain talks about under (5) is that highly effective teachers often show a strong trust that their students want to learn and assume that they can, unless they are given reasons to think otherwise.

Added by: William Doane wd213355@albany.edu

Edited by: Brandon Lee BL358878@albany.edu (10.18.08)