1st Edition
Teaching Well Understanding Key Dynamics of Learning-Centered Classrooms
What does it mean to teach well? In short, it means a willingness to do anything that helps students learn. Teaching Well investigates the fundamental principle of what teaching effectively entails by exploring the key dynamics of a learning-centered classroom.
Based on interviews with renowned scholar Stephen D. Brookfield, this book covers a wide range of topics – such as classroom democratization, critical thinking and reflection, race and power, and more. Each chapter is framed by key questions meant to hone teachers’ crafts and encourage important conversations. Further, this engaging book examines the crucial steps of bringing educators’ identities and backgrounds into practice by soliciting and responding to student feedback, negotiating power dynamics, and the ways institutional constraints, students, and self-concepts can sabotage efforts.
A timely text, Teaching Well is the ideal companion for all college and university educators and experienced practitioners across the globe who continue to reflect critically about their teaching practice.
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. What does it mean to teach well?
2. How do our experiences as students frame our teaching?
3. How do we do learning-centered teaching?
4. How do we deal with classroom and self-sabotage?
5. How does power show up in classrooms?
6. How do we democratize classrooms?
7. How can we promote good discussions?
8. Teaching critical thinking
9. How do we teach about race?
10. How can we become critically reflective teachers?
11. How can we enact the power of modeling?
12. How do we teach well as leaders?
13. How do we learn and grow as teachers over a career?
References
Index
Biography
Stephen D. Brookfield is Distinguished Scholar at Antioch University, Adjunct Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Professor Emeritus at the University of St. Thomas, USA.
Jürgen Rudolph is Co-Editor in Chief of Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching and Director of Research at Kaplan Singapore.
Shannon Tan is Journal Manager of Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching and Research Executive at Kaplan Singapore.
“This is a wonderful book about teaching. It is encyclopedic in the range of topics it covers, yet impeccably clear and useful in analyzing those topics. For those looking for guidance about how to become a critically reflective and learner-centered teacher, Teaching Well is the perfect first stop. Whether you’re a novice or a highly experienced instructor, studying this text and taking its recommendations to heart will lead necessarily to better teaching and more satisfied students.”
Stephen Preskill, Professor Emeritus, Wagner College, USA
“Teaching Well is a profoundly engaging volume that explores courageously many dimensions at the heart of emancipatory education. Reflective of the knowledge, brilliance, and wisdom gleaned from extensive interviews with Stephen Brookfield on his critical insights on democratizing classrooms, pedagogy, and teachers as leaders, the book makes a radically hopeful contribution to the scholarship in the field. This is most significant in the midst of the difficult conditions that teachers and students are facing today.”
Antonia Darder, Professor Emerita, Loyola Marymount University, USA
“Imagine fifty years of the wisdom, knowledge and experience of one of the world’s most foremost experts on adult teaching; distilled, curated and uploaded to your cerebral cortex. This is what it is like to read Teaching Well – a highly accessible and practical book in which Jürgen Rudolph and Shannon Tan are able to share the very best inspirational insights of Stephen Brookfield on how we may all ‘teach well’.”
Peter Waring, Pro Vice Chancellor Transnational Education and Singapore Dean, Murdoch University
“The release of this book is timely as the authors provide provocations for all to reassess, rethink and reframe educational practices and to return to the heart of education: enabling student success in equitable and engaging ways. The confluence of theoretical argument, practical possibilities and deep thinking and reflection will inspire those who are questioning their future as teachers and offer new insights into moving forward with hope and confidence that reform in education continues to open opportunities for all. Repositioning ourselves as facilitators of learning beside our students in innovative and exciting ways is an outcome we can share as we embrace the key ideas of this text.”
Tania Aspland, Professor Emerita, Vice President (Academic), Kaplan Australia and New Zealand
“This book provides insightful and practical advice to help educators create engaging and meaningful learning experiences for their students. Through its guidance, teachers can find the most appropriate approach to teaching based on their students’ individual needs. The authors have done an impressive job of providing an invaluable resource for the education community.”
Samson Tan, Director of Regional Strategy & Operations (Singapore), Civica Asia Pacific, Singapore
"It is worth noting that the book's only flaw lies in its captivating nature, which may disrupt the reader's plans if they've allocated time for other activities. Once picked up for reading, it becomes a compelling force, making it challenging for the reader to set it aside until every page has been explored."
Mirvan Xhemaili, AAB College, Kosovo
“There is much to be admired about ‘Teaching well’, from the accessibility of its conversationally-driven narrative to the juxtaposition of practical teaching ideas with thoughtful consideration of established pedagogical theory. For teachers at any level of education, the book offers unique access to the considerable wisdom of Professor Brookfield on a broad range of topics skillfully presented by Rudolph and Tan.”
Peter Waring, Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching
“This highly informative book seeks to help university instructors, via a spine of self-reflectivity, to better respond to the changing needs of learners. It highlights the importance of being hyper aware of the context of both learners and teachers and simultaneously provides considered, thoughtful, diverse, wisdom gleaned over years of engagement.”
Justin O’Brien, Learning: Research and Practice
"Whether you are embarking on your teaching or lecturing journey or seeking to refine your practice, "Teaching Well" is a beacon that lights the path toward creating transformative, learning-centered classrooms."
Rita Day, DBS Applied Research and Theory Journal
