The Skillful Teacher (3^rd Ed.) On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom

Students say the best teachers get them excited about learning, stretch their thinking, and keep them actively involved in class. But with increasingly diverse classrooms and constantly changing technology, each semester throws up new challenges for engaging students.

Discover how to keep your teaching, and your students, energized with The Skillful Teacher, a practical guide to effective techniques, approaches, and methods for today's college classrooms. Providing insights, reflections, and advice from his four decades of college teaching, Stephen Brookfield now adapts his successful methods to teaching online, working with diverse student populations, and making classrooms truly inclusive. As well as being completely revised, updated, and rewritten, this edition adds six brand new chapters on:

• Teaching critical thinking
• Using play and creativity in the classroom
• Teaching in teams
• Helping students take responsibility for learning
• Teaching about racism
• Exercising teacher power responsibly

Readers will delve into what learning feels like from a student's perspective, as well as absorb the wisdom of veteran college faculty with whom the author has worked. Themes from the bestselling previous editions remain, but are revisited and expanded with the perspective of an additional decade in the classroom. This authoritative guide is now even more comprehensive to better serve teachers looking to improve. Whether you are new to the classroom or are looking to rise to new challenges, The Skillful Teacher will provide answers, expand your repertoire of techniques, and invigorate your teaching and your classrooms.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xix

About the Author xxi

1. Experiencing Teaching 1

2. The Core Assumptions of Skillful Teaching 15

3. Understanding Our Classrooms 27

4. What Students Value in Teachers 41

5. Understanding and Responding to Classroom Emotions 55

6. Lecturing Creatively 69

7. Using Discussion Methods 83

8. Teaching in Diverse Classrooms 97

9. Teaching About Racism 111

10. Using Imagination, Play, and Creativity 125

11. Teaching in Teams 141

12. Teaching Students to Think Critically 155

13. Teaching Online 169

14. Giving Helpful Evaluations 185

15. Helping Students Take Responsibility for Learning 199

16. Understanding Students’ Resistance to Learning 213

17. Responding to Students’ Resistance to Learning 227

18. Exercising Teacher Power Responsibly 239

19. Negotiating the Politics of Teaching 253

20. Staying Sane: 16 Maxims of Skillful Teaching 265

References 279

Name Index 297

Subject Index 303

STEPHEN D. BROOKFIELD is the John Ireland Endowed Chair at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more than 45 years, he has taught in England, Canada, Australia, and the United States. A six-time winner of the Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education, he is the author or coauthor of numerous books on teaching, including Engaging Imagination, Teaching for Critical Thinking, Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults, and Discussion as a Way of Teaching, all from Jossey-Bass.