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What the Best College Teachers Do

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 415 ratings · 77 reviews

What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators.

The short answer is--it's not what teachers do, it's what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture...more

Hardcover, 207 pages

Published April 30th 2004 by Harvard University Press

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Aug 05, 2007 Seth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: professional

This book covers almost exactly the same ground as The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life without, fortunately, Parker Palmer's cloying woo-wooness. As with The Courage to Teach, it raised lots of interesting questions in terms of what I teach and how I think about teaching (and assessments and evaluations). Unfortunately, also like The Courage to Teach, it was a little vague on the details. While broad concepts were illustrated with touching and fascinating anec...more

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Nate I will prove my status as one of these "best teachers" by sharing that it was former Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart who uttered that very quotab...more
Aug 05, 2007 06:23am

Kamal I agree with your observations about this book regarding how obvious it seems that someone who is passionate about his or her work will do a better jo...more
updated Apr 13, 2010 11:10am

Seth Supercylon wrote: "I suspect that one of the reasons that he is so vague about the nuts and bolts of great teaching is because his book is directed at...more
Mar 25, 2010 07:37pm

Jan 12, 2009 Melanie is currently reading it

So far, not much new, though I'm working at keeping an open mind. Having read Finding Freedom in the Classroom ages ago, and Parker Palmer (ARGH YUK) more recently, I will say that so far, this is more accessible to instructors in disciplines other than humanities, and for that reason alone it may well be more effective than PP, for instance.

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Feb 04, 2013 David Marquet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teaching

Isn’t it all about getting people to think?

College costs since I graduated in 1981 have risen twice as fast as medical costs, three times as fast as family incomes and four times as fast as inflation. With average private school costs approaching $40,000 a year and public school costs approaching $20,000 a year, the OECD estimates that the United States spent 2.6% of GDP in 2008 on education, about $370 billion. Given the investment, understanding what the best educators do is important.

Ken Bain...more Isn’t it all about getting people to think?

College costs since I graduated in 1981 have risen twice as fast as medical costs, three times as fast as family incomes and four times as fast as inflation. With average private school costs approaching $40,000 a year and public school costs approaching $20,000 a year, the OECD estimates that the United States spent 2.6% of GDP in 2008 on education, about $370 billion. Given the investment, understanding what the best educators do is important.

Ken Bain, Director of the Research Academy for University Learning at Montclair State University is attempting to answer that. He has written about it in his 2004 book What the Best College Teachers Do.

The book is based on research done studying (observing, videotaping, interviewing) what the best college teachers do. One could poke holes at the rigor of the study (who defines what “best” is, who identified the “best” teachers, is it anything close to the complete set, and so forth) and claim that the findings are essentially expert opinion. Even so, the book is supremely useful.

The findings are presented along the following lines:
1. Outstanding teachers know their subjects, including the history of their subject, extremely well.
2. Exceptional teachers treat their lectures, discussion sessions and classes as serious intellectual endeavors.
3. The best teachers expect more thinking from their students.
4. The best teachers create environments where learners feel a sense of control over their education, work collaboratively with others, believe their work will be considered fairly.
5. Highly effective teachers tend to reflect a strong trust in students.
6. All the best teachers have a systematic program to assess and continue to improve their own efforts.

In the end I was struck that it all amounts to getting people to think. Of course, this is exactly what businesses with knowledge workers are trying to do, so the question that begs to be asked is this: to what degree are these ideas applicable to business leaders, and to what degree should businesses attempt to replicate the best practices, environment of these college professors? In other words, shouldn’t a business that is trying to get people to think feel like a college classroom where we are trying to get people to think?

Criticism of the book has been along the lines of it being “too idealistic,” “not applicable to the real world,” “only would work with highly motivated students in Ivy League schools.” I’m not worried about all of that. However, one area that I did miss was an emphasis on stories. From my speaking experience, I have learned that stories are a wonderful way to make an emotional connection and convey content that people will remember. Bain cites examples where the best teachers have used stories, like Feynman’s frog in the swimming pool, but he doesn’t specifically call it storytelling, he calls it “good explanations.”

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Oct 10, 2011 Jeffrey Niles rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: education

It was his first day of class and mine. One week fresh from Central America, Hannah approached the class with a grimace and drove panic into our souls. Little did we know that the same fear gripped him and served as the catalyst for his abrasive approach and harsh demeanor. But he then began to do what the best college teachers do. Ken Hannah created an environment in which the students began to realize their potential to learn. He spoke, he connected, he changed our thinking, he affected our wo...more

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Mar 11, 2010 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would highly recommend this book to all college educators for researched-based and thoughtful advice garnered from the best of the best.

Hope to write more about what I learned in my blog. Not to brag, but this blog basically confirmed all of my instincts. The focus should be not on what teachers do, but on what students learn. Specific techniques or methods matter less than constantly evaluating what works or what doesn't and thinking critically and seriously about teaching as a passion and an...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Gian Fiero rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you are a seasoned educator looking to improve your classroom performance and get greater academic results from your students, this book is for you. If you are a new teacher who would like to get on the right track to teaching success - without having to endure the painful learning curve that most teachers go through, this book is for you.

The book's author, Ken Bain, set out with the objective of capturing the collective scholarship of some of the most outstanding teachers in the United Stat...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Mel Murata rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: criticism-theory-anthology

This is a lovely book that surveys cross-disciplinary teaching in search of answers to the question: How do you teach effectively or what do the best teachers do? The thoughtful and well surveyed answers focus on how to approach the classroom successfully. In short, the book argues that the best teachers are student focused and see their teaching as a way to develop deep thinking and sustained learning. The overall goals of their courses are not to have their students memorize a series of factoi...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Brendon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teaching

An excellent book! Very timely that I read it right now as we are making lesson plans and waiting to go to Papua to begin teaching young adults.

This book is an accessible yet thorough report on an extensive 15-year qualitative study of 63 great college teachers. The book answers six questions:
1) What do they know about how we learn?
Short answer: Learning is NOT a bunch of knowledge I open your head and pour in. Learning is always built on previous knowledge and experience, and takes place when t...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Javi rated it 4 of 5 stars

La intención es buena: no hay demasiados libros que enseñen esto, y el tema es importante. El libro es muy interesante, pero me temo que una buena parte de los contenidos no se pueden aplicar a la docencia universitaria española. Es un libro centrado en la praxis en una sociedad y una estructura universitaria muy diferentes a las españolas, y eso hace que algunas estrategias sean, francamente, inútiles, o, a lo peor, perniciosas si a alguna mente pensante de la administración le da por trasplant...more

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May 08, 2013 Aaron U. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought Bain's "What the Best College Teachers Do" was excellent. It is well-written and packed with useful insight throughout.

In terms of criticism, two things come to mind.

First, the book seems to be an academic paper expanded to book form. As such, there is plenty of fluff. Some of the fluff is useful and adds embellishment to Bain's main points, but some of the fluff is just fluff.

Second, Bain's tone throughout the book is one of objective reporter. The tone is a perfect fit for the subjec...more

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Jun 01, 2010 Bill Guinee rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read Bain's book several years ago, and just re-read it this summer. It actually seems to me to be a better work this time around. In fact, I think that this book is undoubtedly one of the finest works yet produced about college teaching. While one could question some of Bain's research methods --> the selection process may be biased towards the conclusions of the work, the book is nonetheless provocative and even profound with regard to modern college teaching.
The greatest difficulty, for...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Andrea rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-books-read, nonfiction, library-book, professional-development

I wasn't really impressed with this book, like I thought I would. It has generated some productive discussion in our professional development sessions, but I don't think that there's anything really revolutionary in it. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just read a bunch of weird stuff during my undergraduate years, but a lot of this is common sense education stuff - scaffolding, caring about your students, being flexible, thinking about essential questions and learning objectives. I also found the writi...more

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Nov 24, 2009 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was useful in that it examined what really good teachers have done in the classroom to inspire and motivate students but it ignores the larger issues in terms of what can be done to institutionalize practices so that what examples of teaching excellence become more than isolated instances in single classrooms. It is heartening, however, to see that excellent teachers pay attention to the needs of individual students, creating optimal learning environments and opportunities for each tha...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: textbooks, education

I began What the Best College Teachers Do, my first required reading for graduate school, with enthusiasm; however, my enjoyment of and agreement with the book waned as I read through it. The style is one of the thousand variations on self-help books, and it lapses into one of the greatest faults of the genre: needless repetition and explanation of the main points. As an essay, it would be useful, but as an entire book, its redundancy snowballed. In tandem with this, Dr. Bain emphasizes and extr...more I began What the Best College Teachers Do, my first required reading for graduate school, with enthusiasm; however, my enjoyment of and agreement with the book waned as I read through it. The style is one of the thousand variations on self-help books, and it lapses into one of the greatest faults of the genre: needless repetition and explanation of the main points. As an essay, it would be useful, but as an entire book, its redundancy snowballed. In tandem with this, Dr. Bain emphasizes and extrapolates some points which, to me, seem ridiculously obvious. Would anyone reading this book be enlightened by reading that good teachers care more about student learning than building their own personal reputations?

I did appreciate some of the points Dr. Bain drew from his findings. Socratic questioning is a method which at times has been forgotten, but here it is praised. Additionally, the theme of structuring courses "backward"--determining the end goals and then the ways in which they will be accomplished--is a refreshing reminder of good practice, although, again, the point may seem rather obvious. All course testing being cumulative was another idea that intrigued me. Finally, I admired the emphasis on the trust relationship between teacher and student which promises the great rewards of learning while expecting responsibility from the learner.

Toward the end, though, the edu-jargon truly began to irk me. Classes must be "student-centered." Teachers should emphasize "learning" over "performance." Students should learn "facts" only in the context of also learning to reason with the facts. These points are not entirely misguided, but Dr. Bain insists that the goal of students learning should take precedence over nearly every variable. One particular example of this stood out to me. Dr. Bain is quite clearly opposed to the practice of docking points for late work, and holds that so long as the student demonstrates that he has done the work well (thus demonstrating that he has learned what the professor hoped to teach), he should receive a grade based only on the work. After all, runs his example, is the Sistine chapel any the less a worthy work because Michelangelo didn't finish it on time? Well, no. But Pope Julius viewed Michelangelo himself less favorably because of this fact.

I think, actually, I am in agreement with Dr. Bain more than it currently appears to me, but what prevents me from accepting his research and suggestions more heartily is the confusing fact that he will state unequivocally in one place that there is no one formula or method that good teachers use, and then a page later he will advocate some specific formula or method. If this book were summarized in one sentence, it might be: The best college teachers care deeply about their students and do whatever they can to help each of them learn. Who will quibble with that? I certainly won't. On the other hand, I also could have told you that without reading 190 pages on the topic.(less)

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Mar 27, 2013 Todd Miles rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: education

Bain gathered an enormous amount of data, most of it based upon interviews with students and teachers in the writing of this book. There is very little in the way of direct application, but it does cause a reevaluation of the paradigms of teaching. Many times I could recognize that what was being described as bad teaching was in fact describing some of my impulses. There was much to stimulate thought regarding the goals of teaching and the manner of achieving those goals. The book actually bette...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Bridgitte rated it 5 of 5 stars

Books like this can tend to be trite and/or idealistic without practicality. Bain deals with the topic complexly and fleshes out how effective teachers build an environment rather than just a set of best practices. I've shifted in my thinking about teaching. It's something that I've always considered I needed to keep fresh with... work on new strategies, new activities, talk with other instructors, keep up with my own research and reading on the topics I'm teaching... but Bain's research helps m...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Robert Hironimus-Wendt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book reports on the approaches to teaching-and-learning used by professors who are consistently evaluated by students to be the very best among us. Based on interviews with these professors, the reported approaches are not all that path-breaking - they are simply ignored or never considered by most of us. A common thread that runs throughout is a focus on the social relations between teachers and learners. This book will be particularly useful for mid-career higher ed. faculty who (a) were...more

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Jun 25, 2010 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

A good overview of excellent teaching and what it entails. But, little about how to actually do these things while maintaining your sanity, and more importantly, avoiding lynching from parents and colleagues. If I had tenure I might try some of these things, but the program really falters when it comes to assessment; which is also the thing that will most likely get you into trouble with administration, parents, and students. Nevertheless, found the book very helpful in getting me to think about...more

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Oct 30, 2009 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Educators, Parents

I am a college teacher--I teach part-time at my local community college--so I bought this book with the hope that I would learn some tips on how to be a more effective teacher. It did not disappoint.

In many ways this book both reinforced and challenged some of my own ideas and opinions about teaching. The main emphasis of the "best teachers" in Dr. Bain's study is student learning. It also seemed that attitude and mindset on the teacher's part are almost more important than any specific teaching...more I am a college teacher--I teach part-time at my local community college--so I bought this book with the hope that I would learn some tips on how to be a more effective teacher. It did not disappoint.

In many ways this book both reinforced and challenged some of my own ideas and opinions about teaching. The main emphasis of the "best teachers" in Dr. Bain's study is student learning. It also seemed that attitude and mindset on the teacher's part are almost more important than any specific teaching methods. He seemed to say that if teachers will approach their students with the right attitude and goals, they will find ways to figure out the methods that work the best for them.

So, what do the best teachers do? I'll just lay out some of the more important points, and leave the details and explanation to the book. First, good teachers understand ways to learn and what kinds of learning are the most effective, long-term. They understand the differences between deep learners, strategic learners, and surface learners, and strive to help their students become deep learners.

Second, their focus is more on the students' learning than on their teaching. It's not about what the teachers can teach to the students, it's about what the teacher can do to help the students learn. It's a focus on the student's needs rather than the teacher's knowledge.

Third, the best teachers appreciate every student's value, have faith in all students' ability to achieve, and set high standards while conveying to the students that they trust and believe the students can meet those high standards. This faith in the students means that they leave learners in control of their own education, while assuring students that they are there to help them achieve.

When it comes to teaching practices, the best teachers try to create natural critical learning environments. Bain explained it this way:

More than anything else, the best teachers try to create a natural critical learning environment: "natural" because students encounter the skills habits, attitudes, and information they are trying to learn embedded in questions and tasks they find fascinating--authentic tasks that arouse curiosity and become intrinsically interesting; "critical" because students learn to think critically, to reason from evidence, to examine the quality of their reasoning using a variety of intellectual standards, to make improvements while thinking and to ask probing and insightful questions about the thinking of other people. Some teachers create this environment within lectures; others, with discussions; still others, with case studies, role playing, field work, or a variety of other techniques (p. 99).

He then goes on to provide more detail in how these critical learning environments can be encouraged and gives examples of the ways that the best teachers in his study accomplished this.

One of the important points that really made me think was this: the best teachers are flexible and change the rules to fit individual student needs in the interest of learning. I guess in that area I tend to be a bit rigid. I don't like to have a lot of late work coming in because I'm afraid that students will fall behind and never catch back up. I may try some more flexible deadlines in future classes as an experiment on this idea, but my usual experience in my classes is that students wait until the very last minute to turn in their work, for better or worse. I'll have to think on this one.

The other point that I thought broke with convention was that the best teachers emphasize learning rather than performance in their assessment of students. This really makes sense, yet my natural instincts (based on my own experiences as a student) are to do timed, closed book exams with test performance as an important part of the grade. The best teachers in this study, however, look for alternatives to performance to assess learning. They might drop those in-class exams in exchange for term projects or take-home essays. They try to encourage critical thinking rather than strategic memorization.

But in the end, Bain concludes, there is no single "best way" to teach--adaptation and invention is necessary because students and situations will vary.

Overall, I thought the book was quite logical and thought-provoking. It has given me much to think about and I found myself brainstorming on ways to improve my classes to try to help my students think critically, become more interested in the subject, and learn more. I also think that this book is not just for college teachers. I think anyone in a position of trying to help a student learn would find inspiration and motivation in this book. That would include teachers at any level of education and parents as well.(less)

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Jan 20, 2009 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Robert by: my dad

Really fantastic book that my dad introduced me to during this last christmas break. Upon reading, I've been able to identify with many of the tips and ideas the 'best college teachers' shared as methods that I use as well. However, coming from a non-teaching background, the book has helped me tremendously in becoming more aware of certain things I do as strategies, research of my students' demographics, and attending to their needs specifically. It's really really good for any college teacher,...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Kristin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: teaching-and-learning

This book asks an interesting and important question: What do the best college teachers do? The contrast between the average instructor and the best instructor is played out on nearly every page by many, many comparisons. For instance, the average instructor is focused on the points to be acquired for performance in the course, including reductions for late work, while the best instructors have concrete and specific criteria for learning and do not reduce grades when it comes in late (since teac...more

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Jul 30, 2008 Natasha rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: college and/or high school instructors

For me, this book was a terrific reminder of the foundational principles to keep in mind when teaching---something one can neglect when getting caught up in the details of each semester. Inviting students to learn and inspiring them: how simple and this gentle reminder was welcomed by me this summer. The trees make up the forest--ahh, yes, I remember that! :-)

I was okay with there being no specific techniques touted, but there was one idea I disagreed with considerably: the author does not like...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sotl, educational-theory, academy-2-0

As the director of our university's teaching and learning center, I used this book in a faculty reading group. All agreed that it has provided valuable, evidence-based insights into the kinds of teaching approaches that lead to transformative learning. It has also left plenty of room for further debate and discussion. And best of all, it's readable and engaging, and well-organized. Well done, Ken Bain! I'd buy a copy for each professor at our university if I had the funds.

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May 19, 2008 Liz Wright rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read about this book on a psychology teaching email list that I belong to and it seemed like it would be a great book. It turns out that the recommendations were correct. The author and his colleagues created a study where they followed college teachers form many disciplines and found what exactly made these people “the best college teachers.” The author describes what they know about how students learn, how they prepare to teach, what they expect from their students, how they conduct class, h...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Some good advice, but in many ways a frustrating read. First to me, a scientist, it's annoying early on when it talks about this study it did and how it selected participants, but then there's no solid data, no means of quantification, no controls, no hypothesis, nothing that one would typically consider part of a "study". You can say "we chose to study these individuals to see how they taught", but, to call it "a study" implies some sort of scientific vigor that wasn't there. Also, the book spe...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Joe Matson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Bain's target audience is all college teachers, so much of the book was generic by necessity. However, the goal of the book (improving college teaching) is admirable and vital, and there were a few key takeaways that I can apply to my own teaching. My favorite sentence is a good summary: Teachers don't teach classes; teachers teach students.

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May 10, 2012 Yamanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

The author does a solid job of 1) outlining the long, slow process of becoming a great teacher and 2) describing the emotional toll it often takes. Also, reading this book brought back many fond memories of my favorite teachers. It's clear that he really loves what he does and is probably an excellent teacher himself.

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Feb 17, 2011 Hom Sack rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent! I now understand why Jeanette Norden is such an excellent and engaging teacher when I took the Learning Company course Understanding the Brain taught by her. Author Ken Bain referred to her extensively in the book.

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Jan 28, 2013 Isadora Wagner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teaching

If you read only one book before you walk into the classroom and teach for the first time, make this the one. Highly recommended for an intelligent, humane, no bull take on how to structure effective learning discussions and events in the classroom.

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Oct 22, 2010 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teaching

This is an excellent book. Every college teacher should read this though the title is a bit misleading. This isn't really a book of what the best teachers DO. It's not a book of techniques, or even how to make your performance better. Rather it is an investigation into how the best teachers THINK -- the thought they put into the design and the intention of every part of their course from what the want the students to learn, how to create the best environment to learn, and how to evaluate that le...more

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