“Palmer is a little bit gushy about the great ineffable glory and torment of being a teacher, and I found myself skimming vast swaths of the book. However, I did find several important points to that I am trying to integrate into my thinking about teaching.
One is a frank acknowledgment that teaching is scary, that we can be so desperate to be liked by our students and to get them to learn that we can lose track of our own identities. We should not become over-invested in technique. Not every technique is right for every teacher. This flies in the face of evidence-based teaching in physics—but while pre- and post- testing with large groups can prove certain techniques that should be successful for most teachers, this ignores the unique things that we can do that work well for me and my students that may or may not work for anyone else. As teachers, we can embrace the techniques that reinforce our integrity, and not be worried about the rest.
Another important idea that I took away from the book is the "subject-centered" classroom, in contrast to the teacher-centered or student-centered classroom. I really like the idea of all of us approaching the subject together, with the instructor, not a source of knowledge or an ultimate authority, nor a sometimes distant "guide on the side", but an active participant who serves to model our approach to knowledge in our field.
This book is widely recommended amongst academics who care about teaching, and I will probably recommend it to others, though I personally am more practical-minded and probably got a lot more out of Advice for New Faculty Members by Robert Boice.”
Britt wrote this review Tuesday, July 22 2008.
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