Cannon and Newble's Handbook for Teachers in Universities and Colleges

Teaching at University Ramsden P. Learning to teach in higher education. New York: Routledge, 1992. McKeachie W. McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, 11 ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Cannon R, Newble D. A Handbook for Teachers in Universities & College: A Guide to Improving Teaching Methods: Kogan Page Ltd, 2000. Biggs J. Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999. Medical teaching attracts more and more interest, especially in journals focusing on the subject (e.g., Medical Education: http://www.mededuc.com;Medical Teacher: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0142159X.html;Teaching and Learning in Medicine: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0142159X.html;Academic Medicine: http://intl.academicmedicine.org/). Journals dealing with general medicine, such as the BMJ, regularly publish research on medical education (http://www.bmj.com). A recent editorial in Medical Teacher clearly illustrates that doctors studying medical education are keen to improve their teaching (1). Among the most requested articles online from December 2000 to December 2001 in Medical Teacher were “Twelve Tips for Potential Distance Learners”(2), “Simulation and New Learning Technologies”(3), “Rewarding Teaching Excellence . . .”(4), “AMEE Guide No 21: Curriculum Mapping . . .”(5) and “AMEE Guide no 22: Refreshing Lecturing: A Guide for Lecturers”(6). More and more, scientists are growing aware that teaching is not only about transmitting basic facts. We want students to learn. In his book Learning to Lead in Higher Education, Paul Ramsden (7) lists six key principles [page 96] of effective teaching: Interest and explanation Concern and respect for student and student learning Appropriate assessment and feedback Clear goals and intellectual challenge Independence, control and active engagement Learning from students. Teaching is fun; reading a book about teaching may even make it hilarious! There are several teaching books on the market. The purpose of this article is to review four such books (Table 1). CANNON AND NEWBLE'S HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES The foreword of this book (9) reads: “This is the fourth edition of a handbook . . .”. The best argument for using this book is that it is a very practical book. The second best argument for buying the book is the wonderful illustrations by Zig Kapelis that appear on virtually every page in the book! And thirdly, the authors have a background in medicine and most JPGN readers will recognize the examples in this book. While Ramsden lists “Whitehead; Workloads, excessive” under “W” in the index, Cannon-Newble mention “web-page builders; well-organised speakers; whiteboards; women students; world wide web; publishing material on; writing out conference paper”. The indices of these two books well illustrate the different approaches taken by their authors. The references are few but relevant. Few of them refer to educational research; instead, they are more about “how to do this, how to do that”. This is well in line with the foreword by Professor Entwistle who notes that “other texts on teaching and learning draw on dubiously relevant research findings . . .”. Neither relevant nor irrelevant research findings are the topic of this book. In the preface the authors also write: “our philosophy . . . has been to produce something helpful for busy university and college teachers that is both practical and easy to read. It is not intended to be a fully referenced textbook.” The authors gather all references at the end of each chapter (“Guided Reading”). A disadvantage of that is that some references may be missed. On page 49 the authors write “Before using brainstorming, we suggest you have a look at Stein's book on creativity”. The problem is that Stein's book is nowhere to be found under “Guided Reading”. The book is full of small boxes containing facts on various topics. We get to know new concepts such as “snow-balling group discussion” and alternate small discussion techniques. The authors are well aware that their interpretation of certain teaching techniques may differ from that of others (what is brain storming (?), what is problem-based learning(?)) and are humble enough to admit that. Chapter five surprises me. “Making a Presentation at a [Scientific] Conference” is about attending professional meetings and giving a presentation in front of colleagues. This is an important topic but most medical professionals will already have reflected about preparing a paper, arranging the introduction, stating the purpose etc. Two pages deal with how to prepare a poster. This chapter therefore feels somewhat misplaced (even if it is short!). Though I must admit I enjoyed reading how to handle questions from the audience [page 95] and the description of different speakers [page 100]. For those interested in tips on speaking at scientific meetings I would instead suggest reading Booth's Communicating in Science (12). More instructive and of good practical use is Chapter 10, which discusses how to write one's teaching portfolio. In Sweden, the teaching portfolio is increasingly valued on par with the scientific portfolio (13). Chapter 10 is also helpful when it comes to evaluating teaching and learning. After all, we want to improve our teaching and this can only be done through feedback. For that purpose it is important to make a distinction between evaluations for developmental purposes (formative evaluations are not used for assigning grades) and evaluations for administrative purpose (summative evaluation are used for assigning grades). More can be read about assessment in Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross (14). To summarize, Cannon and Newble have written a practical handbook about university teaching. There is even a word about how to use the whiteboard/blackboard and some fresh ideas about self-assessment (the learning portfolio).