Book Review: Taking college teaching seriously: Pedagogy matters! by Mellow, G. O., Woolis, D. D., Klages-Bombich, M., & Restler, S. G.

Abstract

Mellow, G. O., Woolis, D. D., Klages-Bombich, M., & Restler, S. G. (2015). Taking college teaching seriously: Pedagogy matters! Sterling, VA: Stylus. 124 pp. US$29.95 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-62036-079-8 US$95.00 (eBook). ISBN 978-1-62036-082-8.Teaching and learning are at the core of the work of colleges. The focus of this book on teaching in community college settings is particularly important given the expectations of student learning outcomes in today's 2-year institutions and the number of students at these colleges enrolled in developmental education courses. The authors of the book concentrate on the need to provide professional development of all faculty who teach the hardest to serve (p. xix). The focus on developmental course instructors offers strategies that can translate to other programs in community colleges. Their attention to faculty development builds on what the authors identify as the role of reflecting on teaching practices and on building competencies in faculty members regarding good classroom pedagogy. Unlike their public school counterparts who are steeped in knowledge and practice about how to teach, college faculty rarely receive any training on how to teach. College faculty have little exposure to student learning orientations or effective teaching strategies prior to entering their first classroom as an instructor. The intent of the book is to provide faculty in the trenches with an accessible tool to improve their teaching, and ultimately to influence and increase student learning.The book reports out on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded program titled The Global Skills for College Completion (GSCC) that involved faculty members from multiple colleges. The project moved beyond other historically-funded studies of curricular structures and policy implications to focus squarely on the impact of the faculty in the classroom. Based on programmatic feedback, the authors suggest that up to one third of student success emerges from what goes on with teaching in the classroom. Thus, attention to what goes on in the classroom matters to student improvement.The book presents an argument for how focused faculty development can help improve classroom teaching, and therefore contribute to heightened student success. The volume contains six easily accessible chapters that contain pull-out boxes with quotes from faculty who participated in the grant-funded faculty development and screen shots from the Internet-based community created for faculty participants. Graphs and figures are also effectively used to display data and to demonstrate how templates can be used by faculty for their own practice.The introduction sets the context for the volume. The authors situate community college students in comparison with students at other institutional types, highlighting how 2-year colleges enroll more low-income students, more students of color, and more academically unprepared students compared with 4-year universities. At the same time, community colleges are the lowest funded institutions in the higher education sector. Scholars and practitioners in the nation's community colleges are well aware of these facts, but the overview provides condensed background information for those less familiar or new to community colleges. The introduction documents how faculty participants were chosen for the first cohort (Math and English full-time faculty nominated by their presidents and selected based on their high pass rates) and how their teaching practices were distilled to create a listing of effective practices. The second cohort consisted of full-time and adjunct faculty with average student pass rates. The use of online communities, digital tags, and other technology create a new way to think about faculty development. Participants were required to post lesson information that was viewed by colleagues around the country and to also engage in community team dialogues. The concurrent use of self-reflection and regular online engagement with colleagues created a robust learning environment for the involved faculty. …