What the Best College Teachers Do
Ken Bain, Vice Provost for Instruction, Professor of History, and Director, Research Academy for University Learning Montclair State University

What do the best teachers do to captivate and motivate students, to help them reach unusually high levels of accomplishment? Ken Bain and his colleagues have looked at the practices of such teachers in colleges, universities, and medical schools. Most of these highly successful teachers teach with attitudes and practices that reflect the insights of the literature on human learning and motivation.

This highly interactive workshop will give participants an opportunity to explore those insights systematically and to consider their implications for the ways they structure and conduct their courses. Participants should emerge with an increased understanding of human learning and motivation, an awareness of the practices of teachers who have had great success in fostering advanced reasoning abilities in their students, and a greater ability to incorporate relevant ideas into their own practices.

Here are sample comments from past participants in the workshop with Mr. Bain:

"A highly provocative examination of what it means to learn and how we can best help our students learn."

"As they said in the workshop, anyone who expects just a bag of tricks will be disappointed, but anyone who is willing to think deeply about teaching and learning issues will find this workshop extremely useful. I highly recommend it."

Cedar Reiner, a former TRC Graduate Student Associate, shares his review of the book in this Spring’s edition of Teaching Concerns.

Sponsored by the TRC Tomorrow’s Professor Today Program.