Teaching Undergraduates
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This practical guide is designed to help college teachers plan their undergraduate courses and deliver high-quality instruction. The book's theme is that teaching is a creative, decision-making, idea-testing enterprise whose purpose is to facilitate student learning in all of its facets. Its goal is to help instructors understand the multiple kinds of learning taking place in their courses so that they can select, devise, evaluate, and modify teaching techniques to improve their effectiveness. Based on research on human learning, memory, thinking, and problem solving, as well as studies of teaching and less-formal reports of teaching practices, the book offers concrete advice about all aspects of college teaching.*Part I is devoted to course planning. It outlines the many decisions instructors face in defining a course as their own and discusses the larger issues that shape a course and constrain some specific choices. Selecting course content, choosing learning goals, deciding how to pace a course, and scheduling tests are some of these issues. A workable timetable for preparing a course is included. *Part II is a mini-course on human learning, memory, and thinking. It provides the conceptual foundation for making teaching decisions, for selecting instructional strategies, and especially for inventing new techniques that might particularly fit a specific course. *Part III deals with the "nitty-gritty" of college teaching, including how to choose a textbook; lecturing and conducting classroom discussions; types and purposes of writing assignments, and how to structure and evaluate them; dealing with plagiarism; strengths and weaknesses of different types of tests, the relation of tests to learning goals, and guidelines for constructing good tests; and grading systems. *Part IV addresses professional and ethical issues of importance and consequence to instructors.New college instructors, more experienced faculty who would like to reflect on their teaching practices and consider making some changes, and teaching assistants will all find this book relevant and useful. Booknews This guide is designed to help college teachers plan their undergraduate courses and deliver high-quality instruction. Based on research in learning, memory, thinking, and problem solving, the book offers advice on all aspects of college teaching. Coverage includes planning courses and implementing instruction, with information on choosing textbooks, lecturing and leading discussions, and understanding various types of writing assignments, tests, and grading systems; and professional and ethical issues. The author is professor emeritus at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
PrefacePt. IIntroduction1Ch. 1Course Planning3Pt. IILearning, Memory, and Cognition19Ch. 2Understanding Attention and Working Memory21Ch. 3Learning and Remembering30Ch. 4Teaching Thinking43Pt. IIIImplementing Instruction65Ch. 5Selecting Textbooks67Ch. 6Lectures and Discussions74Ch. 7Writing Assignments97Ch. 8Test Construction112Ch. 9Grading Systems129Pt. IVProfessional Issues and Concerns141Ch. 10Ethical Issues and Special Situations143Ch. 11Student Evaluations and Improving Instruction157Closing Note168References170Name Index177Subject Index181
