U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

 A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh 

What the Best College Teachers Do

By Ken Bain, Vice Provost for Instruction, Professor of History, and Director of the Teaching and Learning Resource Center at Montclair State University

• Winner of the Virginia and Warren Stone Prize, Awarded Annually by Harvard University Press for an Outstanding Book on Education and Society

What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors that 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.

Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out--but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn.

In stories both humorous and touching, Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students’ discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential..

Faculty facilitators will lead the book discusions in 815 Alumni Hall on the following dates/times:

Copies of the book are provided to all faculty who participate in the discussion. Enrollment is limited.

Applying the Science of Learning to the University and Beyond:
Teaching for Long-Term Retention and Transfer

by Diane Halpern and Milton Hakel **

The authors provide principles or guidelines for faculty to use in their teaching in order to enhance students’ long-term retention and transfer of learning. Faculty facilitators will lead the article discussions in Room 815, Alumni Hall, on the following dates/times:

• You can access the article online at http://berger.research.claremontmckenna.edu/asl/applyingthesciencechange.pdf or request a copy from Michelle Lane at 412-383-9729 or mlane@pitt.edu.
• Enrollment is limited.

** Diane Halpern is professor in psychology and director of the Berger Institute at Claremont McKenna College. Milton Halkel is the Ohio Board of Regents Scholar at Bowling Green State University.

Presented by CIDDE
Funded by the Provost’s Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence.

A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh

Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education
1996-2007 © University of Pittsburgh, CIDDE. All Rights Reserved.
Editor: Carol DeArment, Staff Writer: Michelle Lane, Copy Editor: Tim Kyle,
Art Direction, Graphic Design and Illustrations: Alec Sarkas, Photography: CIDDE, Photography & Electronic Imaging
Questions or comments, please contact CIDDE Webmaster, 09/21/2007