Teaching on Solid Ground: Using Scholarship to Improve Practice - Hardcover

The landscape of higher education is changing drastically: students are changing in terms of who they are and how they learn, institutions are being called to greater accountability, and teachers are under pressure to adapt the practices of teaching and learning to these new conditions. This book brings together the foremost authorities in the field to illustrate the new notion of a "scholarship of teaching"--a scholarly orientation to improving instruction.Teaching on Solid Ground connects recent educational research with the real classroom practice of teaching and learning. Diverse authors illustrate key research findings on topics including collaborative learning, creating effective assignments, giving feedback, and dealing with diversity. They explain how teachers can put this knowledge to use to strengthen both their own skills and the learning that takes place in their classrooms.The book reveals the importance of a more complete understanding of students and learning, for example, in chapters on the transition to college and motivation. It presents new ways of thinking about instruction, such as by giving students more of a voice in the classroom. And it explores the issues that demand faculty attention at the institutional and professional level, including faculty motivation and quality of teaching. Underlying this entire book is the critical premise that educational researchers and teachers must become partners in the ongoing task of teaching improvement.(Better Teaching and Learning in College was in place of Teaching on Solid Ground is now)

ROBERT J. MENGES is professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University, where he also heads the Center for the Teaching Professions.

MARYELLEN WEIMER is senior lecturer in speech and Facilitator of Learning Initiatives at the Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus. She is also editor-in-chief of The Teaching Professor newsletter.