Chapter 7: How do the best teachers evaluate students?

Reproduction of lectures OR ability to reason with concepts
What are they thinking about OR how do they think
Performance OR learning

Is counting off for late papers related to the course objectives?

Teaching students to use their time and helping them get organized might be more effective and in line with best teaching practices. I think of the Pomodoro Technique which I wrote a short report on for a different course. Equipping students with study and time management skills is more effective than threatening to mark them down for late papers.

As a parent, should I say "don't do that" or "do this instead". It seems like the latter is more effective for enacting change in future behavior because it equips the child with knowledge on how they can approach a situation differently. The same is true in teaching any age.

Of no surprise....evaluating the teaching also comes down to the same theme running strong through this book: the focus is on student learning. An true assessment of an instructor is based, not on colleagues' ratings or students' ratings, which reflect other priorities than that of true learning, but on a true understanding of what the students are learning from a given instructor.

What are your thoughts on cumulative examinations? They seem to have fallen out of favor, but this book suggests they encourage more long term learning because the information has to be learned and in place for more than one test. That makes sense. It sounds to me like a type of forced review and once again, good study habits.

Chapter 6: How do the best teachers treat their students?

Whatever it is based on, it is NOT based on personality. Let's get that out of the way first. It is the underlying principles (do we hear a theme here) which the best teachers all follow, either consciously or unconsciously I would imagine.

As I read this chapter, as with the rest of the book yet more so, I considered where I would fall in the continuum of the instructors described. Do I care about the learning that takes place or that they can perform well on an assessment and that becomes the goal? I was inspired by the story of the instructor who knew his "stuff" (in this case calculus) AND students/people so well that he conducted an informal oral exam and through his interaction with the student, lessened that student's text anxiety such that he could actually get a decent grade.

Trust...
Openness...
Focus on learning....
Understanding...
Humility....
Investment in students....

I wonder what a wordle of this book's contents would look like?

Chapter 5: How do the best teachers conduct class?

In our methods class, we explored and discussion various methods of teaching and learning. And lecture kept coming up as a tried and true and yet more recently misaligned method of instructor.  The premise of this book is that it is not WHAT method is used (lecture, case study, discussion, assignments, etc.) that are the key to success. Any method can work or any method can fail. In Chapter 5 Bain identifies (as he does through the book) the underlying principles which are the keys to know for success:

1. Create a natural critical learning environment - be in through lecture or activities, the students should be faced with the material in a way that they find interesting and arouses their curiosity and also critically, in that they learn to reason and examine in the process, not to just accept. He says the best teachers "tend to embed the discipline's issues in broader concerns, often taking a multidisciplinary approach to problems." (p. 101) an example given relates chemistry to history, poetry and human stories.
?? How does what I teach interrelate with the world at large and how can I make those connections for my students??


The way NOT to lecture is to "answer a question that no one has raised." (p. 107)
One challenge is instead of lecturing for 50 minutes, create a written presentation of the lecture material that the students can read in 20 minutes and use the remaining time to discuss in groups, then address misconceptions, answer questions, etc.

2. Get their attention and keep it. What comes to mind here is that physics professor whose lectures were the top watched on iTunesU because of how he presented the material so creatively.

3. Start with the students rather than the discipline. Here he references the Socratic dialogue approach. Start with what the students think they know and go from there.

4. Seek commitments. This principle seems unusually easy to apply. Layout the course and explain what the instructor is committed to doing for the course and the obligations expected of the students in participating.

5. Help students learn out of class. This ties in with the concept of preparing the class... the activities chosen should all fit together for a purpose in helping students reach the end objective of the course.

6. Engage students in disciplinary thinking. The instructor sharing their thought processes with the students (modeling) is a way that I think helps me the most. Understanding what is involved in the thinking processes, what was considered and why, would help me as a student to learn to think that same way.

7. Create diverse learning experiences. Variety! the spice of life! sequentially, globally, written, auditory, images, discussion. Diversify, diversify.

Chapter 4: What do the best teachers expect from their students?

The chapter opens with an example from a psychology study about the effect of negative social sterotypes have on students. I know from personal experience the debilitating effect of anxiety and stress and found fascinating that researchers discovered "if they can keep people from thinking that someone else might be viewing them through the lens of a negative stereotype, they can significantly change what those people accomplished." (Bain, p. 70)

As I was reading, I extrapolated this idea out beyond educational settings and pondered how this plays out in regular social situations (e.g. parenting, with friends, family, etc.) I am observing as I read and study about education and what the best teachers do that the best teachers understand people, are gracious, assume the best of others and strive to encourage others on their journey. Isn't that what the best friends, parents, etc. do?

For instance.... the best teachers: "look for and appreciate the individual value of each student." (p. 72); have 'great faith in the students' ability to achieve," and the key related point is their trust was realistic. (p. 75)

Those sound like qualities we look for in friends, the approach we seek to take with our children and so on. Being a best teacher is directly related to who we are as people and how we treat others.

Chapter 3: How do the best teachers prepare to teach?

I have heard it said that to get the right answers, we need to ask better questions. In Chapter 2, Bain considers how the best teachers prepare to teach. And what comes out immediately is what questions they ask themselves as they are preparing.

For instance, a novice instructor might ask things like: what will I lecture on? how many exams will I give? and other questions related to what the teacher does, as opposed to what the students will be learning.

In contrast, the book presents the ideas that the best teachers are considering...which is focused on what the students should be learning and how can they support that process.

One teacher started with the biggest question the course would address and then thought of the questions that would need to be answered to get there.

The best teachers also considered what concepts students might already have about the topic and how they could help them approach the idea, what information the students would need, and how they could guide the students to asking the questions.

Chapter 2 summary: What they know about how we learn

The book is organized simply and straightforward -- six questions the study sought to find the answers to about the "best teachers". (See previous post for summary of those.) The remaining chapters go more indepth about each question and what they found.

What do the best teachers know about how we learn?


Knowledge is constructed, not received.  Like Dewey asserts, we all bring prior experiences and paradigms to a learning situation and that affects how we view what we are learning.  I like the quote from Josh Billings (p. 27): "The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so!"

Mental models change slowly. The best teachers use questions to help students see their own mistakes in their thinking. Like I recall Vella talks about in Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach, they build "scaffolding" for their students to help bring them along the learning path.  Following the concepts I've read in Vella and Dewey, Bain talks about the best teachers teaching in context.

Questions are crucial. In order to connect the information we are learning, we must have a place where it fits in our thinking. Questions help order the information to "index" it.


Caring is crucial. People learn when they have generated a question they are seeking to answer because they care about finding the answer.


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Does what you learn change your thinking?   I made a note in the margin as I was reading this chapter that Calculus was that way for me. I got an A in Calculus but have no idea of how it connects with any "real-world situation."

Have you ever taken a class where you learned how to operate in the class (plug in the right answers) but have no understanding of how that connects with real life? 

Chapter 1 summary: Defining the Best

Chapter 1 summary: Defining the Best

Bain concludes the first chapter with a summary of the major conclusions of the study he is writing on. As I mentioned two posts ago, deep, critical thinking is necessary on the part of the instructor. Here are the other questions their study asked and their conclusions from the responses:

1.       What do the best teachers know and understand?

a.       Their subject matter

b.      Have an interest and can think critically and creatively about their field

c.       Can think “metacognitively”

d.      Understand human learning

e.      View learning as having a “sustained and substantial influence on the way people think, act, and feel.” (p. 17)

2.       How do they prepare to teach?

a.       Start with the learning objectives

b.      Focus on what the student will do, not the instructor

3.       What do they expect of their students?

a.       Expect a lot but it is related to real life thought and actions

4.       What do they do when they teach?

a.       Create a “natural critical learning environment”

b.      Use authentic problems and tasks

c.       Give learners control over their learning

d.      Encourage collaborative work

e.      Provide feedback

5.       How do they treat students?

a.       Have a strong trust in students

b.      Are open, share their journey and inquiries

6.       How do they check their progress and evaluate their efforts?

a.       Use a systematic approach

b.      Student assessment flows from learning objectives

Other thoughts:

Even the “best” teachers will fail or not always hit the mark

Best teachers take responsibility for themselves and their situations

Best teachers are committed to the learning community at large, not just their own classroom success