Convergent Teaching: Tools to Spark Deeper Learning in College
248
Convergent Teaching: Tools to Spark Deeper Learning in College
248Hardcover
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Overview
Honorable Mention in the Foreword INDIES Award for Education by FOREWORD Reviews, Winner of the 2021 Bronze IPPY Award for Education II
Amid the wide-ranging public debate about the future of higher education is a tension about the role of the faculty as instructors versus researchers and the role of teaching in the mission of a university. What is absent from that discourse is any clear understanding of what constitutes good teaching in college. In Convergent Teaching, masterful professors of education Aaron M. Pallas and Anna Neumann make the case that American higher education must hold fast to its core mission of fostering learning and growth for all people.
Arguing that colleges and universities do this best through their teaching function, the book portrays teaching as a professional practice that teachers should actively hone. Drawing on rich research on K–12 classroom teaching, the authors develop the novel idea of convergent teaching, an approach that attends simultaneously to what students are learning and the personal, social, and cultural contexts shaping this process. Convergent teaching, they write, spurs teachers to join students' cognitions with the students' emotions and identities as they learn. Offering new ways to think about how college teachers can support and advance their students' learning of core disciplinary ideas, Pallas and Neumann outline targeted actions that campus administrators, public policy makers, and foundation leaders can take to propel such efforts. Vivid examples of instructors enacting three key principles—targeting, surfacing, and navigating—help bring the idea of convergent teaching to life.
Full of research-based, practical ideas for better teaching and learning, Convergent Teaching presents numerous instances of successful campus-based initiatives. It also sets a bold agenda for disciplinary organizations, philanthropies, and the federal government to support teaching improvement. This book will challenge higher education students while motivating college administrators and faculty to enact change on their campuses.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781421432939 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| Publication date: | 12/10/2019 |
| Series: | Reforming Higher Education: Innovation and the Public Good |
| Pages: | 248 |
| Sales rank: | 153,565 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Anna Neumann is a professor of higher education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the author of Professing to Learn: Creating Tenured Lives and Careers in the American Research University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Part I. A Roadmap Chapter 1. American Ambivalence and College Teaching Part II. Convergent Teaching Chapter 2. Targeting: Carving Out What's To Be Taught Chapter 3. Surfacing: Unearthing Students' Prior Knowledge to Foster Learning Chapter 4. Navigating: Orchestrating Subject-Matter Concepts and Students' Prior Knowledge Part III. Policies and Practices Chapter 5. Campus-Level Supports for Convergent Teaching Chapter 6. Supporting Convergent Teaching beyond the Campus Notes References IndexWhat People are Saying About This
"Invaluable. Pallas and Neumann offer both the high-level vision and details on the ground in describing how higher education can be richer and more meaningful."
"Finally, a smart book about good college teaching—what it looks like and why it matters. That the authors lean on K–12 research and wisdom about teaching is uncommon. Using cases of actual professors' classes, Pallas and Neumann underscore the central importance of teaching in higher education. It is about time."
"Both an important policy manifesto and a practical how-to guide, this wonderfully comprehensive book ranges from macro-level analysis of the current state of higher education to suggestions as to how beginning faculty can improve their teaching. A wise, inviting, clear-eyed treatment of a vital but neglected topic."
"I can't wait to share this book with colleagues. It is a much-needed and thoughtful focus on the (seriously neglected) importance of teaching in colleges and universities today. Unless we pay attention to the message of this book, higher education as we know it now is in serious trouble. Convergent Teaching is a well-written, engaging manifesto for a change in direction."
"Colleges today are highly criticized for poor graduation rates and a perceived lack of learning by students. Many proposed solutions focus on financial or structural issues, while too few have addressed the core of the enterprise: How faculty teach. This important volume addresses the problem directly, and provides practical solutions for faculty and administrators alike."
I can't wait to share this book with colleagues. It is a much-needed and thoughtful focus on the (seriously neglected) importance of teaching in colleges and universities today. Unless we pay attention to the message of this book, higher education as we know it now is in serious trouble. Convergent Teaching is a well-written, engaging manifesto for a change in direction.—James W. Fraser, New York University, coauthor of Teaching Teachers: Changing Paths and Enduring Debates
Colleges today are highly criticized for poor graduation rates and a perceived lack of learning by students. Many proposed solutions focus on financial or structural issues, while too few have addressed the core of the enterprise: How faculty teach. This important volume addresses the problem directly, and provides practical solutions for faculty and administrators alike.—Donald E. Heller, University of San Francisco, author of The States and Public Higher Education Policy: Affordability, Access, and Accountability
Invaluable. Pallas and Neumann offer both the high-level vision and details on the ground in describing how higher education can be richer and more meaningful.—Daniel T. Willingham, University of Virginia, author of The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads
Finally, a smart book about good college teaching—what it looks like and why it matters. That the authors lean on K–12 research and wisdom about teaching is uncommon. Using cases of actual professors' classes, Pallas and Neumann underscore the central importance of teaching in higher education. It is about time.—Larry Cuban, Stanford University, author of The Flight of a Butterfly or the Path of a Bullet? Using Technology to Transform Teaching and Learning
Both an important policy manifesto and a practical how-to guide, this wonderfully comprehensive book ranges from macro-level analysis of the current state of higher education to suggestions as to how beginning faculty can improve their teaching. A wise, inviting, clear-eyed treatment of a vital but neglected topic.—Mike Rose, University of California, Los Angeles, author of Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education