Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors

Dr. Linda B. Nilson has spent a good part of her professional career in higher education speaking, writing, and teaching about how to be an effective college instructor. Her latest contribution to that effort, Teaching at its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, 2nd Edition, may be the most comprehensive work to date on the subject. This is a "real world" book about teaching at the college level. Written in a comfortable 2nd person style, it takes a would-be instructor through all the steps from preparing to teach to evaluating how effective the instruction has been. The discussion on understanding different learning styles and using appropriate teaching strategies to reach diverse learners is straight forward and easy to understand. In her preface to the book, Nilson says that "Like the first edition, this revision is designed primarily for use in colleges and universities with high standards of instructional excellence". Believe it - and don't teach without it!

If you are teaching at the college-level or higher, this book is full of great ideas on everything from setting the tone in the first class to assessing students. Making your classes ones they look forward to attending.

This is a must-have book for college faculty. I use it to assist new faculty in developing their teaching abilities and I found many good ideas to improve my syllabus, enhance classroom interactions and help in creating an effective program for evaluating teacher effectiveness. My only complaint is that it is hard to get--too bad that such a valuable resource can't come via overnight express!

Linda has done an excellent job of compiling and explaining some of the best available techniques for teaching and survival as a professor in the modern university environment. The text is highly readable and extremely practical. I have taught for 24 years in a variety of colleges and each time I open the book I find something new to try.

This book is a great resource for teachers in general and college profs in particular. It presents solid, innovative pedagogical ideas in a practical context. My copy is becoming worn out from nearly constant use.