Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Inspired College Teaching
"The thoughtfulness, personalization, and consideration Maryellen Weimer demonstrates in discussing the experience of faculty members; her ability to identify issues that are shared and solvable; and her suggestions and solutions to commonly experienced stressors and difficulties in college teaching are major strengths of this volume. In addition, her personal and professional reflections on her long career as a faculty member, writer, and faculty developer expose tantalizing research questions that young education researchers might want to examine. The originality of this volume is its exploration of and reflection on a faculty member's career from a long-term perspective. The focus on iterative self and course renewal is personal and thus practical. In a way, it is a 'workshop between book covers' or perhaps several workshops!" Laura L. B. Border, director, Graduate Teacher Program and Collaborative Preparing Future Faculty Network, University of Colorado at Boulder
"A book by Maryellen Weimer always displays her wonderful grasp of the literature on college teaching and learning, her ability to tell good stories, and her wit and wisdom. This one is no exception." Nancy Van Note Chism, professor, Indiana University School of Education, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
"Although I work at a faculty teaching center and encounter many books on teaching, I have seen very few that span the full arc of the teaching career and what steps can be taken at each stage in order to retain vitality all the way through the way that this book does. I look forward to getting my own copy and using it as a resource in the faculty development activities of my center. It will have a wide readership." Mano Singham, University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education, Case Western Reserve University
Synopsis
Inspired College Teaching challenges faculty to be responsible for their professional growth and development as an ongoing, career-long quest. Written by an experienced college teacher and editor of The Teaching Professor newsletter, this book explores the journey and growth of college teachers. It provides goals best positioned for beginning, mid-career, and senior faculty as well as activities faculty can use to ignite intellectual curiosity from both students and themselves. This book presents a way for faculty members to obtain and sustain teaching excellence throughout their career.
Synopsis
Good teaching requires a lot from teachers: emotional energy, the will to keep caring, intellectual stamina, creative approaches, vigilance, perseverance to find the way back from failure, and faith in the power of feedback to promote learning.
In this groundbreaking work, Maryellen Weimer, acclaimed education author, experienced college teacher, and editor of The Teaching Professor, posits that the growth and development of a college teacher should be seen as a journey and shows how this career-long quest can be just as exciting as its destination.
Inspired College Teaching reveals what faculty at all levels (beginning, mid-career, and senior) are best positioned to accomplish as teachers. It proposes activities that faculty can use across their careers to awaken their intellectual curiosity, develop instructional prowess, and keep alive the motivation to teach with passion.
Filled with wisdom and a healthy dose of wit, Inspired College Teaching puts the spotlight on how faculty can best use Weimer's tested improvement process. Step by step, she shows how to select changes, how to adapt them, how to implement them, how to assess their effects, how to revise them, and when to infuse these changes elsewhere in the classroom. This method rests on Weimer's premise that faculty can and should play the central role in their own improvement process.
Only by being truly involved can faculty undertake the transformative activities that result in vibrant, invigorated teaching.
Inspired College Teaching is the hands-on resource that can help faculty understand and plan for all that it takes to sustain teaching excellence across a career.
About the Author
Maryellen Weimer has more than thirty years of experience teaching college. She was the director of the Instructional Development Program at Pennsylvania State University for ten years and served as associate director at the National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. She is the editor of The Teaching Professor, a monthly newsletter on college teaching, and she is the author of numerous books, including Learner-Centered Teaching and Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning, both from Jossey-Bass.
Table of Contents
Preface.
About the Author.
1. Principles for the Professional Growth of College Teachers.
2. Reflection for Growth and Change.
3. Rewriting the End-of-Course Ratings Story.
4. Feedback for Teachers That Improves Learning for Students.
5. Colleagues as Collaborators.
6. Implementing Change Successfully.
7. New Faculty: Beliefs That Prevent and Promote Growth.
8. Maintaining Instructional Vitality: The Midcareer Challenge.
9. The Journey Continues: Senior Faculty.
10. Conclusion.
References.
Index.