Hi Y'all,
In this chapter, Bain forwards his reasons for investigating this topic. He describes several inspirational teachers who are not only competent educators, but have a certain additional quality that makes a deep impression on their students both during and after the course. These are the “life changing” teachers you’ve heard about (or you may be one yourself!).
Bain defines excellence as having “achieved remarkable success in helping students learn in ways that made a sustained, substantial, and positive influence on how those students think, act, and feel.”
He and his fellow researchers searched for teachers that exhibited these qualities and studied between 60 and 70 of them. About half were studied intensively to try to distill what they think and do that makes a difference for learning. The chapters that follow will explore their conclusions.
Chapter 2: What Do They Know about How We Learn?
Chapter 3: How Do They Prepare to Teach?
Chapter 4: What Do They Expect of Their Students?
Chapter 5: How Do They Conduct Class?
Chapter 6: How Do They Treat Their Students?
Chapter 7: How Do They Evaluate Their Students and Themselves?
As a point of discussion, I’d be curious to see your comments on Bain’s definition of excellence. No doubt you’ve considered this topic yourself at least casually, so how would you define excellent teaching?
Happy blogging!
--Patrick
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Bain defines excellence as having “achieved remarkable success in helping students learn in ways that made a sustained, substantial, and positive influence on how those students think, act, and feel.”
ReplyDeleteI love that quote - notice it doesn't include 'teach' - it facilitates learning by providing the opportunity through thoughtful, purposeful course design to achieve an overall community for learning.
(OK - so I've read the book already!)
I read this book last semester. I didn't post on Amazon.com, but I gushed about it in class. It's one of my favorite books. I finished it in a day and I'm not a reader.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Linda. That's an interesting distinction he draws, isn't it? I've talked to people who say you can't really teach at all, only facilitate learning. Anyone who's tried to "teach" something to someone who isn't motivated to learn might be inclined to agree!
ReplyDeleteHey Tim--Looks like I picked the right book! I know there's a lot of blogs to pay attention to, but any personal insights your willing to share are welcome here. I’ve found it’s not uncommon for me to miss things that jump out to other people.