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Review
| The Joy of Teaching: A Practical Guide for New College Instructors, by Peter Filene. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. 159 pages. $17.95, paper.
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| Many academics begin their college teaching careers without substantial preparation in teaching. While some may have access to a teaching center or experience as a teaching assistant, few actually take courses in pedagogy. Peter Filene has written a concise, thoughtful, and useful guidebook for college instructors commencing their professional careers. Written in an informal, conversational style, it engages the reader immediately. The author explains that "This is a short guidebook-suggestive rather than exhaustive." His assertion that "teaching at its best is a joyful kind of work" sets the right tone as he offers prescriptions for surviving the first year of teaching. |
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The author covers virtually every aspect of teaching from how to design a syllabus and how to write engaging and successful lessons, to grading, assessing, and evaluating a student's work and his/her academic progress over time. He emphasizes that students rank highest those professors who are enthusiastic about their subject and who demonstrate that they are well organized. Enthusiastic teachers "set the atmosphere" for their classroom using their voice to good effect, body language to draw students attention and focus, eye contact, gestures, and movement around the classroom. While these valuable common sense suggestions may seem obvious, they bear repeating because some instructors may need prompting to incorporate these techniques into their classroom instruction. Filene's idea of an organized teacher is one who develops two or three topics within a lecture and keeps the focus on those themes. He urges new faculty not to just lecture to students because most are visual learners and therefore faculty must be adept at using multimedia such as power point to enhance their lessons. |
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Another strategy he emphasizes is
the use of group work or "personalized discussions" to achieve the
outcomes necessary in the successful classroom. To achieve that
objective he suggests engaging students in a tripartite exercise
of a "teaching/learning dialogue." First, he/she should pose a question
which aims to have students "think." Second, students should be
pared off with their colleagues to confer about the answer. Third,
students should then share their answers with the entire class.
What is the purpose of all this? Professor Filene believes that
students learn more when they are active learners and when they
speak in class they are "more personally invested," which in turn
provides a "taste of self-assertion" in the classroom. He takes
the concept further by suggesting that there is civic justification
for engaging students in the "dialogec," Because students, "ought
to perform their share" in class as preparation for taking on the
responsibilities of citizenship in "the republic of ideas." Naturally,
the instructor must work to create the right environment for all
of this to work effectively. Anyone who has used this teaching strategy
knows how challenging (and frustrating) it can be to try to implement
this technique successfully.
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On the subject of grading and assessing student work, however, the author suggestions go beyond what seem reasonable given the professorial workload and endless other duties faculty must perform. He suggests for example, that when a student receives a D on an exam, the professor should spell out "the reasons that lurk behind that D." Similarly, on an exam where the grade is "A–" one should explain to the student why that grade is warranted. One can understand the author's good intentions but the prospect of appending extended comments beyond short, concise notations in the margins seems impractical. If one writes "see me" on the "D" exam a student should seek out the professor for discussion about his shortcomings without feeling intimidated. Nevertheless, there is much to praise in this splendid guide to effective teaching, including the fact that it contains a useful, succinct annotated bibliography with specific teaching resources for various academic disciplines. The book will be most helpful to newly-minted Ph.D.'s as they begin their careers in the academic world. It would also be quite appropriate for college faculty to recommend it to pre-service teachers planning to teach at the secondary level. In an ideal world this book should be must reading for graduate students planning to enter the professorial ranks. |
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| Southern Connecticut State University |
John E. Purmont |
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