Book Analysis: What the Best College Teachers Do (Bain, Ken)

This really is a fantastic book, no matter what kind of teaching you do. It confirmed a lot of beliefs and ideas I’d come to over the course of my career that I’d never heard addressed before. Much of the reading I’ve done and Train-the-trainer type seminars I’ve attended have a lot to do with technique and little to do with teaching philosophy. In that sense “What the Best College Teachers Do” reminds me a lot of Dewey’s Experience and Education and Palmer’s Courage to Teach.

It also forced me to reevaluate some of my own beliefs. For instance, most of what Bain offers has to do with the many important parts of teaching that occur when you’re not actually talking. Like an iceberg, much resides out of plain sight. This book offers many ideas that subvert the traditional conventions about how to teach, what a teacher should think about and do, and even the nature of how we learn.

It’s empowering for me to think that good teaching, rather than being a gift granted to some chosen few, is attainable by those of us who are regular mortals with a desire to improve the quality of learning in our classes and a willingness to change and grow our own skills. Despite the cover art, that depicts a teacher doing a one-armed handstand, the practices Bain recommends aren’t techniques that require talents and skills that normal folks can’t master with practice. Rather, they are straightforward practices that can be incorporated with both feet firmly grounded.

I found myself wishing Bain had included more of the voices of the exceptional teachers they studied, talking about what they do, why, and how they go about it. Though the book is filled with examples—I wanted even more. Especially descriptions of the creative ways to present subject matter in the form of compelling questions for students to investigate. I think that one is probably more difficult to do than it appears on the surface.

Though the book is grounded in Bain’s research, you won’t find a lot in the way of presentation of formal results like you might see in a journal article. The book is mainly his conclusions bolstered by anecdotal evidence and examples. Even so, the arguments are artfully presented and likely to resonate with anyone who has spent significant time as either a teacher or a student.

I tried to provide a good flavor of each chapter in my chapter summaries, but I would recommend this as one of those books that’s worth reading (and rereading) in its entirety.

To further my learning, I’d appreciate it if you’d respond to the discussion point I posted. I’m interested to hear what you’ve got to say.

Regards,

--Patrick

Bain, K. (2004). What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge, MA, London: Harvard University Press.