Book Circles

Faculty book circles consist of small, self-organized groups of faculty who come together to read and discuss common material. They are designed to encourage

• Sharing reflections and ideas about teaching and learning in an informal setting,
• Engaging in interdisciplinary thinking, learning, and (present / future) collaborating,
• Sense of community and interdisciplinary networks across campus, and
• Fostering innovation in teaching

Sign up to be a participant or facilitator of a faculty book circle.

Fall 2022 List of Titles

Connected Teaching argues that the role of teachers is as important as ever and is evolving profoundly. Harriet Schwartz believes the relationships faculty have with individual students and with classes and cohorts are the essential driver of teaching and learning. This book explores teaching as a relational practice—a practice wherein connection and disconnection with students, power, identity, and emotion shape the teaching and learning endeavor. The author describes moments of energetic deep learning and what makes these powerful moments happen. She calls on readers to be open to and seek relationships, understand their own socio-cultural identity (and how this shapes internal experience and the ways in which they are met in the world), and vigilantly explore and recognize emotion in the teaching endeavor.

The authors of What Inclusive Instructors Do asked the hundreds of instructors surveyed as part of a national study to define what inclusive teaching meant to them and what inclusive teaching approaches they implemented in their courses. The instructors’ voices ring loudly as the authors draw on their responses, building on their experiences and expertise to frame the conversation about what inclusive teachers do. The authors also describe their own insights and practices, integrating and discussing current literature relevant to inclusive teaching to ensure a research-supported approach. The book unfolds as an informal journey that allows the reader to see into other teachers’ practices. With questions for reflection embedded throughout the book, the authors provide the reader with an inviting and thoughtful guide to develop their own inclusive teaching practices. By utilizing the concepts and principles in this book, readers will be able to take steps to transform their courses into spaces that are equitable and welcoming and adopt practical strategies to address the various inclusion issues that can arise.

Teaching College divulges secrets like “focusing on students, not content” and building a “customer” profile of the class will change the way you teach. Dr. Norman Eng argues that much of these approaches and techniques have been effectively used in marketing and K-12 education, two industries that could greatly improve how college instructors teach. Find out how to hack the world of college classrooms and have your course become the standard by which all other courses will be measured against. Whether you are an adjunct, a lecturer, an assistant professor, or even a graduate assistant, pedagogical success is within your grasp.

• Think like advertisers to understand your students
• Adopt the active learning approach of the best K-12 teachers
• Write a syllabus that gets noticed and read
• Develop lessons that stimulate deep engagement
• Create slide presentations that students can digest
• Get students to do the readings, participate more, and care about your course

If you have ever been apprehensive about initiating classroom discussion, fearing silences, the domination of a couple of speakers, superficial contributions, or off-topic remarks, Creating Engaging Discussions is for you. The authors provide strategies for creating a positive learning experience and demonstrate how to create the conditions to facilitate deep and meaningful learning as well as to assess the effectiveness of discussions. They identify, analyze, and solve common problems in both classroom and online discussions and in both small and large classes. They take a direct, practice-oriented approach that—in acknowledging common challenges—provides principles, guidance on design, examples of activities and techniques, and eight detailed case studies. These cases demonstrate successful approaches that faculty across disciplines and from a variety of institutions have adopted in their face-to-face, blended, or online courses at the undergraduate or graduate level.

This book is built on the model for Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework grounded in the neuroscience of why, what, and how people learn. The authors show that, although it is often associated with students with disabilities, UDL can be profitably broadened toward a larger ease-of-use and general diversity framework. Captioned instructional videos, for example, benefit learners with hearing impairments but also the student who worries about waking her young children at night or those studying on a noisy team bus. Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone is aimed at faculty members, faculty-service staff, disability support providers, student-service staff, campus leaders, and graduate students who want to strengthen the engagement, interaction, and performance of all college students. It includes resources for readers who want to become UDL experts and advocates: real-world case studies, active-learning techniques, UDL coaching skills, micro- and macro-level UDL-adoption guidance, and use-them-now resources.

An entry point for individuals interested in exploring social justice education, Is Everyone Really Equal? is a detailed and engaging textbook and professional development resource presenting the key concepts in social justice education. It is designed to be accessible to a wide range of students, including faculty willing to put themselves into students’ shoes to tackle the most common stumbling blocks to understanding social justice. The text includes features such as a chapter on intersectionality and classism; discussion of contemporary activism (Black Lives Matter, Occupy, and Idle No More); material on White Settler societies and colonialism; and pedagogical supports related to "common social patterns" and "vocabulary to practice using." Readers can use the text for personal professional development or as a resource for developing classes with an eye toward social justice.