Tools and Tips for Teachers

Being a newcomer to the craft of teaching can be an overwhelming experience, and many new faculty members haven’t received the kind of mentoring that allows them to move into the classroom with minimum anxiety and maximum effectiveness. Moreover, they may find that their new colleagues are too busy with their own teaching and research to serve as guides to the mysteries of educating students. Even experienced teachers sometimes face new challenges if they agree to teach a course that requires an approach that differs from their custom, such as a first-year seminar course based on readings and discussions. CBE—Life Sciences Education is a fount of thought-provoking and inventive ideas, but it doesn’t address all the day-to-day issues that any teacher faces. Thus, for both novice and experienced teachers, it would be helpful to have a handbook that provides a quick and accessible overview of the craft of teaching. Each of these books aims to be that handbook, a one-volume entrée into the literature on teaching and learning coupled with practical advice on issues such as preparing a syllabus, choosing textbooks, or dealing with disruptive students. These books, aimed primarily at beginning teachers but with much to recommend them to veterans, take somewhat different approaches.McKeachie’s Teaching Tips is shorter and smaller (but more expensive). Tools for Teaching is longer and thus goes intomoredetail onmany topics. For example,Teaching Tips spends fewer than three pages discussing the creation of a course syllabus;Tools for Teachingdevotes a chapter of∼15