What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"Knowledge is constructed, not received."

Ken Bain, a professor and higher education administrator, had spent his academic career at Vanderbilt, Northwestern, NYU, and University of the District of Columbia, before he became the founding director of several major teaching and learning centers, currently the President of the Best Teachers Institute. His What the Best College Teachers Do (2004) is a bestseller and a higher-education classic. I have read the book with great interest as I have been teaching university-level math and computer science for over 35 years and in the distant past I was also involved in research on creativity and mathematical problem solving.

The text is the end result of almost a 15-year study which - as the author claims - was conducted observing all rules of the scientific method. The Appendix explains the methodology of the study. Mr. Bain's book does not disappoint even if the reader may doubt if it delivers on the promise of the catchy title. To me, the weakest aspect are the criteria used to select sixty-three outstanding college teachers as the subjects of the study. Outstanding teachers are defined as those who "had achieved remarkable success in helping their students learn in ways that made a sustained, substantial, and positive influence on how those students think, act, and feel." This is so vague that inclusion or exclusion of individual teachers is essentially arbitrary.

The book is organized into chapters that answer six broad questions about the practices of outstanding college teachers: What do they know and understand? How do they prepare? What do they expect of their students? What do they do when they teach? How do they treat their students? How do they assess the students' progress? I agree with virtually all conclusions of the author and if I am less successful in my own teaching than I would like to be it is because I am not conscientious enough to always adhere to all these practices. It is exactly as the author quotes:

"'When my teaching fails,' [...] a professor told us, 'it is because of something I have failed to do.'"

Exactly! Here's a selection of other great quotes from the text:
"[T]eaching is fostering learning and [...] it requires serious intellectual work [...]"
"You don't teach a class. You teach a student."
"Teaching is about commanding attention and holding it.'"
"'The most important aspect of my teaching,' one instructor told us in a theme we heard frequently, 'is the relationship of trust that develops between me and my students.'"

One of the non-obvious observation I particularly agree with emphasizes the difference between great lecturers - professors who use classroom teaching as an opportunity to display their intellectual brilliance - and best teachers who consider teaching an investment in students. I also commend the author for including the Decalogue of critical thinking: a list of ten reasoning abilities and habits of thought that deserves to be printed in large font, framed, and hanged over every teacher's bed.

One topic that I might consider under-emphasized is discussion of the best practices of dealing with largely non-homogeneous classes of students. I have struggled with the ways of individualizing classroom instruction for students of greatly differing levels of preparation and abilities throughout my entire teaching career. I also wish the text were more focused on teaching mathematics. While most of the general guidelines apply to math pedagogy, the discipline clearly has its peculiarities, which would need to be addressed in more detail. And, of course, I smiled when I encountered a reference to Richard Feynman. No book on great teaching can avoid mentioning the name.

Three and a half stars.




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