"Insights and practical suggestions to college educators for whom teaching students is a major part of their professional responsibility...[Brookfield] will become to the field of education what Peter Drucker has become to management: a scholar who educates and influences practitioners in the field through incisive and challenging writing. " --Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education "Readable, innovative, and perceptive...The final chapters on the political realities and phenomenological truths of college teaching alone are worth the price of the book, especially for prospective, new, or veteran college, adult, or continuing education teachers. " --Choice "In an educational world that seems to be dominated by prescriptive exhortations...this book provides a refreshing step back from those preoccupations to look at the human relations that always are at play between teacher and student and between student and student. " --TESL Canada Journal Award-winning author Stephen D. Brookfield offers insight, inspiration, and down-to-earth advice to new and seasoned teachers, showing how to thrive on the unpredictability and diversity of classroom life.
He draws on decades of professional experience and research on teaching and learning to identify key concerns in the teacher-learner relationship, such as building trust with students and overcoming resistance to learning. Readers will also find practical advice on lecturing, discussions, role-playing, simulation, and other instructional techniques. Written for the thoughtful professional, The Skillful Teacher is a hands-on survival manual to restoring confidence, effectiveness, and zest to the critical practice of teaching.
Table of Contents
1. Teaching: A Complex and Passionate Experience. 2. Developing a Personal Vision of Teaching. 3. Teaching Responsively. 4. Understanding the Tensions and Emotions of Learning. 5. Adjusting Teaching to the Rhythms of Learning. 6. Lecturing Creatively. 7. Preparing for Discussion. 8. Facilitating Discussions. 9. Using Simulations and Role Playing. 10. Giving Helpful Evaluations. 11. Overcoming Resistance to Learning. 12. Building Trust with Students. 13. Dealing with the Political Realities of Teaching. 14. Some Truths About Skillful Teaching.
Author Biography
STEPHEN D. BROOKFIELD is Distinguished Professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to moving to Minnesota, he was professor in the department of higher and adult education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he is still adjunct professor. A three--time winner of the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education, he also serves as a consultant to the adult education doctoral program at National Louis University in Chicago.
