Wow, what great book reviews folks! I have so enjoyed reading them and learning from you what you learned from Bain. And finding out what you liked and didn’t like, what you agreed with and didn’t, and so forth. So in order of postings, a few responses to your reviews:
- Charlie, I appreciated your straightforward review! You surely don’t have to agree with everything, and as you note, you didn’t, but I’m glad that Bain challenged your thinking! That’s so important for learning. And I’m glad you found some useful information.
- Tony, I liked your suggestion to start with your own questions! I think that’s really important in teaching. And I tend to think of teaching as a form of scholarship (a la the scholarship of teaching movement), and starting with a question is an important step for scholars!
- Darryl, Yes, there are many, many summaries of Bain out there! I too had read many of them prior to reading the actual book. I agree with your suggestion to start with your own questions—and I’m glad you found important takeaways for your own teaching.
- Akeisha, What a comprehensive summary! I like your take away of teaching as transformative in particular. I also like your critiques of the book. In particular, I agree that some of the strategies run counter to higher education and would be difficult to implement.
- Kiara, Wow, a chapter by chapter summary! Thanks for sharing this! Mrs. Rankin sounds awesome! I wish everyone could have a Mrs. Rankin at some point! I think the quote is great, and I suspect we may chat about what it means to teach a student vs a class.
- Neil, any time you can work in Yoda is a good time, imho. I also appreciate that you are connecting part of Bain’s message, in particular the mental inertia, with your own goals as a teacher, in particular preparing students for work.
- Kit, I so enjoyed your review. I like this book for what it does well. But I agree with all of the points you’ve made in your critical analysis. We do need to think about how he has constructed “best” and who is included and who is left out in this construction. Look forward to discussing in class!
- Marieke, I’m so pleased that you enjoyed the book. I think it does have some useful information. And I agree with your point that it does tend to general and that some specifics would be nice. I also like that you were able to tie some of the points to your own teaching.
- Brandi, I think you make a nice point about the presentation of findings! And I think that he has made his findings accessible to a broad audience, something that researchers sometimes struggle with. Oh and I am excited to discuss the methods in class!
- Shanae, nice summary! I also really like the takeaway points that you’ve highlighted and the quotations you identified to illustrate them. Beginning with the end in mind is important as is owning problems instead of blaming students.
- Carolina, what a nice summary of and reflection on Bain’s book! I really like that you have identified caring as a central theme of the book. I’ve said before that if you care about students, they respond in kind and care about the class and their learning.
- LaNa, Thank you for your critique! I agree that not everything will work for everyone. “Best” for whom, in what contexts, in what situations? I agree with you that there are some things that are likely universal (we should care about students for example), there are many that aren’t.
- Dana, I’m so glad you mentioned the “inspiration” part of this. I think that’s a big part of the book’s appeal. I’m glad you found some parts of the book, for example the planning information, to be useful! And I agree that a connection to research would have been useful.
- Carla, I love the title of your post! Your avatar is also fun. And yes, figuring out how to inspire and motivate learning is one of the biggest challenges. I’m a big fan of the importance of metacognition in teaching, so I’m glad you brought this point up.
- Erin, that point about learning to be a teaching in college is the worst place to learn is really interesting. I often think we don’t teach people to teach, but they sure learn from examples, don’t they? And slide to slide as you say is not generally the best example. But learning together, as you suggest, is.
s to all for sharing your ideas about this book! I look forward to discussing it with you in person!
