Book Review — The College Teacher’s Handbook: A Resource Collection for New Faculty

In 1986, a new faculty member sought advice from his school director. He explained to him that he had only 3 years of teaching experience at the secondary school level but no experience with post-secondary students. The school director said that he was fortunate to have teaching background, since, according to his own experience, few graduate students who get their doctorates have sufficient training in pedagogy. Pedagogy has a broad definition that includes varied teaching styles and methods, regular delivery of feedback to the learner, and appropriate assessment of learning outcomes. In present higher education literature, one can see the same issues emerging related to training and assessment of graduate education and its failure to produce a new generation of teaching professionals.

“The College Teacher’s Handbook: A Resource Collection for New Faculty” by Magna Publications provides all faculty informative guidelines and sound advice on the craft of teaching. The book is a collection of articles from Magna’s popular newsletters, The Teaching Professor and Online Classroom, and covers five salient topics in higher education:

1. Teaching Strategies: Reflections on skillful teaching, classroom management, effective teaching methods, and effective communication through the construction of syllabi, quality assignments, and effective instructional materials.
2. Student Learning: Focuses on communicating with students to enhance motivation and engagement through collaborative group work, facilitation of constructive classroom discussion, utilization of peer review concepts, and delivery of constructive critiques and comments that improve student learning.
3. Testing and Evaluation: Reflections on testing that promotes learning by transparency in the grading process, the value of rubrics, subjective versus objective grading practices, and cumulative tests and finals.
4. Technology and Multimedia: Reflections on technology policies and uses of technologies in class such as using online clickers effectively, analysis of PowerPoint lectures, using formats like PechaKucha and Ignite to improve student presentations, improving online discussions, and utilizing Open Textbooks, digital content, and video to enhance student learning.
5. Special Considerations: Reflections on additional issues such as psychological perspectives on managing conflicts in the classroom, assisting students with learning disabilities, and using Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

The value of this handbook is that certain articles included in the collection are research-based and provide important references that allow a new professor the opportunity to review the source(s) of the information presented in the articles. This provides the reader greater understanding of the ideas described in the key topic areas of the book. While the handbook will be a wonderful read for new faculty, it is also a sound reference book for any professor. For the more seasoned faculty, it might provide a periodic “sensitivity tune up” if needed.