Customer Reviews

McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers

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President Clinton wants to make college more accessible to all Americans, but to make post-secondary education more effective, he ought to first put this book in every university instructor's hands. Higher education in America is a multi-billion dollar business taught by professional researchers who often are amateur teachers. University professors, college instructors, and teaching assistants have (or are getting) Ph.D.s in their areas of expertise, but few are trained to be teachers; they know linguistics, but often know nothing about how to teach linguistics. They have Ph.D.s in chemistry, but have little understanding of how to create the "chemistry" of a good class. They are experts in political science, but are often ignorant of campus politics. This book is meant to be a one-volume guide for the new professor, the first-year teaching assistant, or the old hand who wants a new perspective. Thirty-four short chapters tackle every subject and problem from "Teaching Large Classes" to "Teaching in the Age of Electronic Information," from "Organizing Effective Discussions" to "How to Win Friends and Influence Custodians." These chapters are pithy, often tantalizing and sometimes too brief, but each has a short list of references and the volume as a whole has a very good bibliography.
This is a book that everyone who teaches college should own. It is a manual, a "cookbook," a list of suggestions. It does not have a single agenda nor does it push a particular method. Don't look to this book for long-winded obscure discussions of theories of cognition, methodology or extensive research notes. It is not the last word in pedagogy, but it probably should be the first.

I appreciate that the new views of learning are accounted for and applied by the author(s) of this book. I like the new chapters about using new technology in teaching and about helping students to learn and how to plan for students' independent study. The hints in every chapter about books and articles for further study are very helpful. It is easy to understand why this book is one of the most popular handbooks about university teaching not only in the US but also in Europe. Many copies of the earler editions have been sold in Finland and Sweden. It is very useful also for teachers in vocational education and training. Every new college teacher should have this book. However, many experienced teachers will also get a lot of ideas from it.

When a book like this appears in ten editions it must be a proof that many professors and university teachers have found it useful. And ... this tenth edition is still better than the earlier versions. To me it is the handbook # 1 for university teaching. No wonder that professor McKeachie has been called "Mr Improving University Teaching"

Rainer Nyberg, EdD. Professor of Education, Abo Akademi University, Finland

I was given this book when I began teaching graduate students; the school gave it out to all new professors and instructors in an attempt to apprise the new faculty members of current teaching theory. I was the first of the staff (most of whom were technical professionals teaching higher level technical classes) to actually read the book cover to cover, and came away with decidedly mixed opinions.

McKeachie has spent his entire adult life in a social science classroom, and while his methods may be well suited to areas like psychology or schools of education, I don't believe that his tips are universally applicable, especially in courses that have more concrete content (e.g. math, science, engineering, etc.) Many of his tips are concrete, and in general I found these to be excellent. In particular the discussions about how to handle cheating, plagiarism, and academic dishonesty were very insightful, as were the discussions of problem students, and in particular "attention seekers and students who dominate discussions" (p.179,) a problem I encountered in my second term of teaching. His discussion of grading in Chapter 15 is also generally quite good, and while I disagree with some of his reasoning (p.198) on using criteria grids for grading, I was pleased to see his defense of allowing a single overwhelming failure in one part of the grid to reduce the overall project grade to unsatisfactory (p. 206.)

While the real-world aspects of this book are generally quite good, some of his theories are inappropriate for a college classroom. In particular he discusses the technique of telling a class at the start of a term that he will give everyone a B in the course to reduce their apprehension, but that to get an A will require individual merit. Needless to say this is an unsatisfactory technique. Everyone has apprehension and fears, including the fear of academic failure. This type of social promotion, rooted in promotion of student self esteem, has no place in a college classroom; these students are becoming adults, and with the freedoms that entails come responsibilities. This is a policy that harms the students in the long run, potentially promoting them into follow-on courses they are woefully unprepared for, and obviously encouraging inattention to the material in all but the genuinely self-motivated students. It is also unfair to students taking another professor's section of the course who don't have a guaranteed B, students who have to actually work for their C, the supposed average grade. McKeachie's technique is a recipe for grade inflation, which is of enormous concern to universities today.

Another issue with the book is the tendency to hide behind the trendy doubletalk so popular in social sciences and schools of education. McKeachie speaks of a "dyad" when he could just use the word "pair" or "two" depending on context. This kind of language permeates much of the book, and should be purged in the next edition. Quick: how many people can tell me what "armamentarium" means without looking it up? I thought so.

While I found parts of this book rewarding, much of it is questionable academic theory, and much of the book is not applicable to concrete scientifically based courses, especially hard sciences, mathematics, or engineering. When he discusses real-world classroom problems the text is generally good, but there are numerous places where I completely disagree with him (most students I know loathe group projects, for instance, his theories notwithstanding; I certainly did when I was a student.)

If you are in need of advice on how to run your classroom I recommend this book with a caveat: take heed of information on how to deal with specific issues; beware of some of the more esoteric theoretical information.

The goal of McKeachie's teaching tips is to provide higher education teachers useful tips to improve teaching in the classroom. In its own words "'Teaching Tips' was originally written to answer the questions posed by new college teachers, to place them at ease in their jobs, and to get them started effectively in the classroom." McKeachie goes on to note that it is also a useful resource for experienced teachers.

If you are an experiental learning theorist this book will not be as useful as if you are a teacher teaching students in a college classroom. I know a lot of faculty who use this text as a resource when planning and teaching. As a Learning Design Consultant, I use this book to help faculty reflect on and improve their teaching practices.

If you want a "resource" book on typical/practical issues of teaching in the college classroom, this is your book.

On my instructional maiden voyage into the sea of communication, this text was my life vest. In 28 concise chapters, Wilbert McKeachie offers pearls of wisdom on everything from drafting a syllabus to dealing with excuses, and everything in between. His straightforward writing lends itself to quick reading and makes it a handy "flip-to" guide for refreshers.
Whether you're wrestling with a "discussion dominator" or trying to finesse responses from silent students, this book offers proactive approaches and solutions to unforeseen challenges.
Keeping things fresh and interesting for students and yourself makes the learning experience more enjoyable. Reading, attending workshops and talking to experienced faculty are some of the suggestions the author offers. As someone who used to teach natural resource seminars, I was pleased that he acknowledged the energizing power of an effective workshop. In addition, the text also offers tips on applying new changes learned in those courses to classes.
As any instructor worth their salt is aware, teaching is an ever-evolving process, that must be honed and refined to suit both instructor and student. For anyone adrift in some arena of college instruction, grabbing onto this 379 page text will prove a worthwhile undertaking.

This text provides college faculty with strategies to become a better instructor and to deal with the challenges of the profession.

Creating objectives, test design, learner goals, lecture formats, teaching to a diverse audience, grading, handling suspected cheaters - you name it and it is in there.

I believe it will be beneficial to any college instructor regardless of size of school. I teach at a small school and the text, though maybe slanted a bit toward the experience at the large research university, was tremendously helpful to me.

The book is easy to read. I have incorporated a lot of the strategies into this fall semester.

For the 12th edition of this book, McKeachie has added more valuable chapters that will benefit experienced as well as novice college instructors. Each chapter is fairly short -- often no more than 5 or 6 pages -- and edited to eliminate "fluff." Each quickly gets to the point and offers practical suggestions for such things as how to handle problem students in the classroom, how to create good test questions, and how to handle sticky issues that come up in grading. McKeachie has kept up with technology, too, and there is a new chapter on "teaching with technology" and an awareness throughout the book that today's students often prefer electronic media to face-to-face communication. The book is loosely structured and thus chapters can be read in any order. I especially recommend the series of chapters on testing and grading, as they provide great advice even for instructors who think they've heard everything. I use this book in my course on college teaching, along with Joe Lowman's book Mastering the Art of College Teaching and Robert Boice's Advice for New Faculty Members. This trio of books will serve you well, especially if you have never been formally trained in how to organize and run a college course.

There's a reason this book has gone through 12 editions over several decades, and that's because Wilbert McKeachie is the most widely respected expert on matters of college teaching. This latest edition is up to date with the latest theory and practice, and McKeachie has certainly not fallen into the pattern that is common with many multiple-edition books, in that he has avoided simply adding quick cosmetic updates. A look at the table of contents will tell you all you need to know about this expansiveness and inclusiveness of McKeachie's tips, and it's hard to imagine any area of the discipline that he hasn't covered. The only real issue with this book is that it is focused on teaching environments in which small class sizes or receptive administrators will allow for more personalized teaching strategies. However, not everyone will have that luxury, and other environments (especially large classes) are typically treated as mere exceptions and receive only cursory coverage. Another issue with the quality of this edition is some of the chapters that have only been edited by McKeachie but have been written by his colleagues, because these outside submissions damage the overall consistency of the book and the authors tend to focus on their own research and theories, as opposed to McKeachie's universal wisdom. [~doomsdayer520~]

You could stumble into each class paying as much attention as possible, trying very hard to understand how to become a better teacher, reflecting after class upon what you did well and what you did not do well ... or you could read McKeachie's book and take all of his experience and that of his co-authors into your repertoire of teaching tips.

One could dread reading a book that talks too much about the details and administrative issues that may arise in teaching. One could also dread a book that speaks only about philosophical issues in teaching. One does not need to dread this book because it addresses both practical and philosophical matters but not in excruciating details. It is written by an intelligent group for intelligent readers and yet it is simple prose, not the pretentious academic jargon that I so often encounter.

I loved it and highly recommend it to all PhD students, junior faculty, and faculty teaching others how to teach.

This is a book on teaching that can be read straight through with useful information on all areas of teaching. This is a book that can also be used as a reference source. Having read many books on teaching, this is still the best.