Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

<i>Ideas That Work in College Teaching</i> (review)

2008; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 32; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/rhe.0.0031

1090-7009

Jann E. Freed,

Leadership and Management in Organizations

Reviewed by: Ideas That Work in College Teaching Jann Freed Robert L. Badger (Ed.). Ideas That Work in College Teaching. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2007. 172 pp. Paper. $17.95. ISBN: 978-07914-72200. In teaching, there is always more to learn. Anyone teaching at the college level is familiar with the challenges of trying to reach this generation of students, stay on top of changing technologies, keep current in our disciplines, and be active in research and service. Ideas That Work in College Teaching is an anthology of fewer than 200 pages edited by Robert L. Badger, Professor of Geology at SUNY Potsdam. The book is written with the purpose of helping us keep learning about what works in college teaching. At SUNY Potsdam, Badger comments, “It’s not just that you have to like teaching to stay here very long. If you are to thrive here, teaching must engage you—you must be seriously interested in teaching well, in improving your pedagogy, in learning from mistakes” (vii). Therefore, this book is targeted for educators who try to create an environment where students want to learn. As Badger suggests, it is important to identify the distinct features of SUNY Potsdam to understand the context for this book. Faculty discussions of pedagogy fuel a passion for their interdisciplinary work. Facilitated by a provost who started an informal book discussion series, a voluntary group of faculty members reads and discusses a book each semester. The books typically focus on new ways to teach or on new ideas to integrate into courses. The discussions usually begin with an interdisciplinary panel of faculty members presenting various perspectives on the book. Out of these discussions, Badger conceived the idea of having the core members of the discussion group write individual essays about their ideas and philosophies they have found successful based on personal experiences. As Badger admits about Potsdam’s students, “We’re starting with pretty raw material. For those who really are freshmen, just out of high school, they are also freshmen in life” (p. xiii). At SUNY Potsdam, a Division III institution, many students are the first generation in their family to attend college; most come from working-class families with little to no family financial support; and 80% receive financial aid. This book of 15 essays provides personal stories of teaching techniques described in enough detail that readers could adapt and integrate them into courses regardless of the discipline. The variety of perspectives (i.e., sociology, art, computer science, and mathematics) make the book an interesting and quick read. For people like me, working in teaching institutions, there is much to be gained by reading the essays, perusing the references, and reflecting on our own practice. I found the creativity incorporated into these courses reenergizing. The book stimulated my thinking and I came away with several ideas that I can adapt and apply in my courses since most of the ideas are transferable across disciplines. For example, in Badger’s own contribution, “You Can Teach a Rock New Tricks,” he describes a learning method called third-person writing—writing to someone other than the professor. “If students describe something to someone who has not been there, they will usually do a much better job of describing, which leads to better interpretation, and hence better comprehension. They also put it in their own words, instead of reiterating mine” (p. 60). This technique could be used in almost any course that integrates analysis synthesized through writing. In “Service Learning in Sociology: Replacing Hopelessness with Efficacy,” Heather Sullivan-Catlin [End Page 140] describes how “community service activity is specifically designed to meet a need articulated by the community and to provide students with an experience that will enhance their learning of the curriculum” (p. 10). While the focus is on sociology, this chapter provides a framework, details, outcomes, and an extensive reference list to jump-start integrating service with learning into any course in any discipline. Badger explains that there is no systematic order in the arrangement of essays, but clearly their main theme is active learning. He encourages readers to select the chapters that most interest them and to read in whatever order...