Sources for Further Learning

The New Teacher of Adults Second Edition
By Professor E. Michael Brady and Allen Lampert
New Teacher Concepts (2007)

The Spirit of Teaching
Edited by E. Michael Brady and Desi Larson (2001)

Assessing Adults Learning: A Guide for Practitioners
Joseph Moran
Krieger Publishing Co. (2001)

This is a good resource to help understand the intricacies of assessment. Moran makes a major distinction between formal and informal assessments, e.g. informal assessments do not rely on published materials and standardized procedures but depend on the creativity of educators to develop appropriate and authentic ways to evaluate and improve learning. The author provides readers with practical guidelines for designing relevant tests, making the most of test results, mastering performance portfolios, and applying assessment strategies in adult education.

Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher
Stephen D. Brookfield
Jossey-Bass (1995)

This could be considered a sequel to the author's 1990 book. This text provides an in-depth discussion of what critical reflection is, how it works, and methods to achieve it. Specific tools are offered including learning autobiographies, seeing yourself through the students' eyes, working with "at risk" students, use of critical incident questionnaires, and looking at the theory and practice of critical reflection from many different perspectives.

Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community
Palloff, R. and Pratt, K.
Jossey-Bass (2005)

This book is designed to help online teachers be more creative in engaging their students to work with one another. It has four sections: An overview of online collaboration, special challenges, assessment and evaluation of collaborative work, and 13 specific ways teachers can encourage collaboration (e.g., use of simulations, jigsaw activities, fishbowls, etc.)

The Courage to Teach
Parker Palmer
Jossey-Bass (1998)

This book, written by a well-known contemporary educator and consultant, takes the reader on an emotional and spiritual journey on why we teach. Palmer effectively discusses the important of learning environments, developing a sense of connectedness between teacher and student, issues of identity and integrity, fears and barriers, and the creation of teaching/learning communities. This is expressly not a "methods" book, as the author believes and argues in these pages that the source of good teaching is "the human heart".

Discussion as a Way of Teaching
Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill
Jossey-Bass (1999)

Subtitles "Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms", Discussion as a Way of Teaching is dedicated entirely to exploring the art and science of discussion facilitation in educational settings. We consider this to be an extremely important resource if you are interested in learning more about the use of discussion facilitation methods of instruction. It provides a blend of theoretical and practical advice on issues such as preparation, keeping discussion going through questioning, and discussion in diverse settings.


Education for Judgment: The Art of Discussion Leadership
Edited by Roland Christensen, David Garvin, and Ann Sweet
Hardvard Business School Press (1991)

This is one of the best books we have ever read about facilitating discussions. The Harvard Business School is renowned for its use of the case discussion method of teaching and learning. Many of the contributing authors to this book are experienced teachers in that program. Education for Judgment consists of 17 essays - some more theoretical and others more practical in nature - about the various joys and challenges of discussion facilitation.


Help Yourself: How to Take Advantage of Your Learning Styles
Gail Murphy Sonbuchner
New Readers Press (1991)

This is an excellent resource to discover both your learning style and the learning styles of your students. This practical handbook provides you with a step-by-step method of learning how you (and your students) learn. The book goes further and helps you understand how your style relates to organization and time management, memory, listening, reading and reading comprehension, writing, mathematics, and even test taking. This is an essential book for the new teacher who wants to understand how adults learn and how learning styles can influence teaching.

If You Can Talk, You Can Write
Joel Saltzman
Warner Books, Inc. (1993)

This is a fun, insightful, "blue-collar" handbook on writing. The author takes you through a series of suggestions designed to improve writing style and get you writing. Chapters cover such topics as overcomin gprocrastination and ways to getstarted, the technique of talking on paper, choosing topics to write on, the value of writing and rewriting, and basic suggestions and ideas to remember as you write. Many chapters include a series of fun exercises and "pop quizzes" designed to build confidence along with a variety of interesting quotes from writers, musicians and philosophers.


If You Want to Write
Brenda Ueland
Gray Wolf Press (1936)

This book has been around a long time and has served as the inspiration for many later texts about the art and craft of writing. The famous American poet Carl Sandburg called If You Want to Write the best book ever written on this topic. The author is an unabashed "cheerleader" for you to write with originality and spirit. Many readers walk away from reading this with renewed enthusiasm for their own writing practice. While some of the stories and examples used in this book will sound "old fashioned" to the contemporary reader (it was, after all, written during the Great Depression), there are gifts and qualities in these pages that transcend time.

Making Classroom Assessment Work
Anne Davies
Connections Publishing (2000)

Davies makes a core distinction between assessment (the ongoing collection of information about student progress that helps to inform teaching) and evaluation (a judgment about whether or not students have achieved goals). In this small book - it is less than 90 pages - the author guides the teacher through a process of using classroom assessment as a tool. Numerous samples and stories help to ground this book in reality and enhance its useful.


The Meaning of Adult Education
Eduard C. Lindeman
Harvest House Ltd. (1961)

This book, originally written in the early part of the 20th century but re-issued in 1961, is considered a seminal work in the field of adult education. While primarily a book describing the philosophical underpinnings of adult education, Lindeman argues convincingly at the end of The Meaning of Adult Education for the use of discussion as the best was for adults to teach and learn. The author is highly quotable and readers of this book often say how they find themselves underlining nearly every page. We highly recommend The Meaning of Adult Education to anyone who is interested in exploring the foundations of this field of practice.

The Right to Write
Julia Cameron
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam (1998)

We consider this a more contemporary "sibling" of the Brenda Ueland book on writing. Julia Cameron, who has also written several famous books about creativity, shares her strong humanistic philosophy as she gives words of encouragement to the reader. Especially usefu are the "Initiation Tools" provided at the end of each chapter. These are exercises that invite the reader to practice an idea or principle that has been discussed earlier.



The Skillful Teacher
Stephen D. Brookfield
Jossey-Bass (1990)

This book, written by a well-known professor of adult education, can serve as an excellent introductory resource for the new teacher. Brookfield focuses on practical methods and includes useful guidelines for lecturing, facilitating discussions, using simulations and role-play, giving helpful evaluations, overcoming resistance to learning and dealing with special problems in teaching. Although he is an academic, the author is highly readable and does a nice job mixing research findings with practical advice.

The Tao of Teaching
Greta Nagel
Primus/Donald L. Fine (1994)

The author links the ancient Chinese book of wisdom, The Tao Te Ching, to modern teaching practice. Organized into 81 brief chapters, each a meditation on one of the tenets of Taoism, this book treats many core aspects of teaching. We find the quotations at the beginning of each chapter that serves as that chapter's theme to be especially refreshing: "Tranquility is more important than perfection"; "Do not try to rule through cleverness"; "Know one's own roots to embrace others." While most of the examples the author uses come from primary and secondary education, the adult education practitioner will find many opportunities to use and benefit from this book.

Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers
Wilbert McKeachie
Houghton Mifflin (2002)

This book, currently in its 11th edition, has been remarkably successful as a basic primer for college teachers. While it integrates research findings from psychology, education, and other salient disciplines, the tone is very much a "how to" manual. The titles of the book's six sections, each of which includes several chapters, will give you a feel for the content: Getting Started, Basic Skills for Facilitating Student Learning, Understanding Students, Adding to Your Repertoire of Skills and Strategies for Facilitating Active Learning, Teaching for Higher Level Goals, and Lifelong Learning for the Teacher. While McKeachies overall does an excellent job, most of the focus is on teaching traditional aged college students.

Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the Classroom
Donald Leu and Deborah Diadiun Leu
Christopher-Gordon Publisher, Inc. Norwood, MA (1999)

This is an applied guide for teachers thinking about using the Internet in their teaching. The book focuses on how to teach effectively using the Internet. Its primary audience is public school teachers but it can be adapted for use by adult educators in ABE, GED, High School Diploma, or job training programs. This book provides four instructional models (workshop, activity, project, and inquiry) to use the Internet in the classroom. It covers diverse teaching tips in areas of using the Internet, navigation strategies, communicating eith e-mail and mailing lists, exploring various sites, institutional strategies and examining Internet use in such disciplines as English, social studies, science, and mathematics.

Tools for Teaching
Barbara Davis
Jossey-Bass (1993)

This is a large (430 pages) manual that very much fulfills the promise of its title. Barbara Davis offers a large range of specific tools to help the classroom teacher. There are thorough sections (each including 3 or more specific chapters) on themes such as responding to a diverse student body, discussion strategies, lecture strategies, writing and homework assignments, and evaluation to improve teaching. Tools for Teaching is easy to read and each chapter ends with a rich set of references. Although this book is now somewhat dated - especially the parts that deal with media and technology - it would still make an excellent addition to the adult education teacher's bookshelf.

The Winning Trainer
Julius E. Eitington
Gulf Publishing Co. (1996)

The specific audience of this book is the corporate trainer. However, it can also be used as an excellent reference tool for adult education classroom teachers. It contains ideas for getting a class started, including icebreakers, a variety of ideas for small group learning, role-playing, different types of games and simulations, and problem-solving exercises. In addition, The Winning Trainer provides team building ideas and exercises, methods of lecture, and tools for student-based evaluation of the course. This is an applied handbook designed to help give you ideas on how to create learning teams in your classroom. While its orientation is corporate based, this book can serve as a reference and resource for new ideas.