McKeachie's Teaching Tips is a handbook designed to provide helpful strategies for dealing with both the everyday problems of teaching at the university level, and those that pop up in trying to maximize learning for every student. The suggested strategies are supported by research and are grounded in enough theory to enable teachers to adapt them to their own situations. The author does not suggest a "set of recipes" to be followed mechanically, but gives teachers the tools they need to deal with the ever changing dynamics of teaching and learning.
Author: Wilbert McKeachie
Author: Marilla Svinicki
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
Customer Reviews
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highly recommended for all phd students
You could stumble into each class paying as much attention as possible, trying very hard to understand how to become a better teacher, reflecting after class upon what you did well and what you did not do well ... or you could read McKeachie's book and take all of his experience and that of his co-authors into your repertoire of teaching tips.
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<br />One could dread reading a book that talks too much about the details and administrative issues that may arise in teaching. One could also dread a book that speaks only about philosophical issues in teaching. One does not need to dread this book because it addresses both practical and philosophical matters but not in excruciating details. It is written by an intelligent group for intelligent readers and yet it is simple prose, not the pretentious academic jargon that I so often encounter.
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<br />I loved it and highly recommend it to all PhD students, junior faculty, and faculty teaching others how to teach.
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This book gets better with each new edition
For the 12th edition of this book, McKeachie has added more valuable chapters that will benefit experienced as well as novice college instructors. Each chapter is fairly short -- often no more than 5 or 6 pages -- and edited to eliminate "fluff." Each quickly gets to the point and offers practical suggestions for such things as how to handle problem students in the classroom, how to create good test questions, and how to handle sticky issues that come up in grading. McKeachie has kept up with technology, too, and there is a new chapter on "teaching with technology" and an awareness throughout the book that today's students often prefer electronic media to face-to-face communication. The book is loosely structured and thus chapters can be read in any order. I especially recommend the series of chapters on testing and grading, as they provide great advice even for instructors who think they've heard everything. I use this book in my course on college teaching, along with Joe Lowman's book Mastering the Art of College Teaching and Robert Boice's Advice for New Faculty Members. This trio of books will serve you well, especially if you have never been formally trained in how to organize and run a college course.
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