What the Best College Teachers Do

Many traditional college instructors focus on material to cover, centering themselves rather than students. According to this view, “teaching is something that instructors do to students, usually by delivering some truths about the discipline” (48)—which is problematic. Effective educators approach teaching “as a kind of scholarship” (49). Among Bain’s subjects, common approaches to course planning include backward design: They focus on questions, knowledge, and skills that students should use in and outside of the classroom—including, but not limited to, the existential. These instructors facilitate student reasoning, not rote learning. They consider questions like, “How can I encourage them to grapple collectively, to practice their reasoning abilities” (51)? They contemplate students’ mental models and how they might test them. Overall, they consider course content in conjunction with how it will help students foster reasoning—focusing on process rather than coverage.

Effective teachers recognize the shifting nature of knowledge: Bain’s subjects in both the humanities and science integrated problems into their courses through comparative analyses, debates, and the like—and allowed students to suggest their own questions. These subjects also surveyed student understanding throughout a formal or informal course timeline, and made changes mid-semester if necessary. They provided formal instruction on reading for their specific discipline, often creating collaborative activities to tackle challenging reading. They also informally assessed students on a regular basis, decoupling this assessment from formal grading. This method created a sense of security for students, as they could try, struggle, or even fail, without fear of a poor grade. Effective educators also considered how to communicate with students beyond lecturing, including discussion moderation, digital responses, visual aids, and body language.

The best teachers considered how they could help students judge, and thus improve, their own work. They asked questions like, “How can I help them understand, appreciate, and adopt the standards of good reasoning that the course expects of them” (59)? They also considered how they would assess student learning, and how the students could assess themselves. This approach fosters trust between teachers and students. Many instructors designed courses around a central project to facilitate learning. Sociologist Chad Richardson did so through an ethnographic research project at the University of Texas in the late 1970s. The project focused on how human behavior is shaped by society, and if social determinants are more significant than biological ones. Students’ interest in their own lives and communities was integrated into Richardson’s class, and helped them better understand themselves, their communities, and other people. This project culminated in the creation of an archive, news reporting, and some students pursuing graduate degrees in sociology. Many of these students came from low-income backgrounds and were first-generation university students. Overall, the project facilitated reasoning and produced confident students with higher learning abilities.