Title: Small Teaching
Author: James M. Lang
Brief description: A freshly updated edition featuring research-based teaching techniques that faculty in any discipline can easily implement
Research into how we learn can help facilitate better student learning—if we know how to apply it. Small Teaching fills the gap in higher education literature between the primary research in cognitive theory and the classroom environment. In this book, James Lang presents a strategy for improving student learning with a series of small but powerful changes that make a big difference―many of which can be put into practice in a single class period. These are simple interventions that can be integrated into pre-existing techniques, along with clear descriptions of how to do so. Inside, you’ll find brief classroom or online learning activities, one-time interventions, and small modifications in course design or student communication. These small tweaks will bring your classroom into alignment with the latest evidence in cognitive research.
Each chapter introduces a basic concept in cognitive research that has implications for classroom teaching, explains the rationale for offering it within a specific time period in a typical class, and then provides concrete examples of how this intervention has been used or could be used by faculty in a variety of disciplines. The second edition features revised and updated content including a newly authored preface, new examples and techniques, updated research, and updated resources.
- How can you make small tweaks to your teaching to bring the latest cognitive science into the classroom?
- How can you help students become good at retrieving knowledge from memory?
- How does making predictions now help us learn in the future?
- How can you build community in the classroom?
Higher education faculty and administrators, as well as K-12 teachers and teacher trainers, will love the easy-to-implement, evidence-based techniques in Small Teaching.
Picture of book:
Important aspects (quotes): The suggestions in this book really do adhere to the idea of ‘small teaching’. The teaching approaches all fall into one of three categories: Brief (5-10 minute) classroom or online learning activities, one-time interventions in class, or small modifications in course design or communication with students. The structure of each chapter includes:
- Introduction - examples of how the approach might appear in everyday life
- In Theory - explains the research that supports the recommendation
- Models - detailed models of how instructors can incorporate the approach in their class
- Principles - the principles are intended as a starting point for instructors to then make their own
- Quick small teaching - one sentence reminders of the simplest way to incorporate that strategy
- Conclusion - a final reflection
At the end of the book, the author says “If you have been inspired even more deeply, perhaps you will gather a group of colleagues together to share your best ideas for small teaching and learn from one another in addition to learning from the literature on teaching and learning in higher education. The prospects can be as wide or narrow as you wish. Most important, you have class tomorrow morning. How will you begin?”
Chapters:
- Retrieving
- Predicting
- Interviewing
- Connecting
- Practicing
- Self-Explaining
- Motivating
- Growing
- Expanding
Books like this: What the Best College Teachers Do (Bain), Student Engagement Techniques (Barkley)