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CAUT Bulletin Archives
1996-2016

November 2005

The Joy of Teaching:A Practical Guide for New College Instructors

Peter Filene. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press., 2005; 160 pp; ISBN: 0-8078-5603-7, paper $27.95 ca.
Gathering concepts and techniques borrowed from outstanding college professors, The Joy of Teaching provides helpful guidance for new instructors developing and teaching their first college courses. Award-winning professor Peter Filene proposes that teaching should not be like a baseball game in which the instructor pitches ideas to students to see whether they hit or strike out. Ideally, he says, teaching should resemble a game of Frisbee in which the teacher invites students to catch ideas and pass them on. Rather than prescribe any single model for success, Filene lays out the advantages and disadvantages of various pedagogical strategies, inviting new teachers to make choices based on their own personalities, values and goals. Filene tackles everything from syllabus writing and lecture planning to class discussions, grading, and teacher-student interactions outside the classroom.
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