What the Best College Teachers Do

Facilitated by Dia Penning & Megan Stielstra, CTE

"While others might be satisfied if students perform well on the examinations, the best teachers assume that learning has little meaning unless it produces a sustained and substantial influence on the way people think, act, and feel."

—Ken Bain

Inspired by Ken Bain’s book, What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard, 2004), this four-part series of conversations will explore what works and what does not work to promote authentic learning within and beyond our classrooms at Columbia. Our purpose is to challenge and support each other to become more reflective and effective practitioners of the art of teaching. Our approach will be to facilitate dialogue (an open exchange of ideas and questions) about what we do—and what we should do—when we teach, as well as about how we know whether what we do actually helps students learn.

Session 1
What do you know about how your students learn?
Offered Thursday, September 24, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
and Monday, September 28, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Session 2
What do you expect of your students?
Thursday, October 15, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
and Monday, October 19, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Session 3
How do you treat your students?
Thursday, November 5, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
and Monday, November 9, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Session 4
How do you bring it all together?
Monday, November 30, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
and Thursday, December 3, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Sessions will be framed in relation to a pair of chapters of Bain’s book, though it will not be necessary to have read the chapters in order to participate fully and benefit from the dialogue. Copies of What the Best College Teachers Do are available in Columbia’s bookstore, as well as in our library.

Please see our Fall 2009 schedule for information and locations.

Spaces are limited; please RSVP at cte@colum.edu.