The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom (review)

Any teacher who has ever ended a class and thought, "Well, that could have gone better," will find solace and perhaps a renewed sense of purpose from reading Stephen Brookfield's second edition of The Skillful Teacher.Brookfield adopts an empathetic and practical approach to discussing the demands, dilemmas, and contradictions of college teaching, offering insights into pedagogical practice and straightforward tips on dealing with difficulties in the classroom.

Drawing from his teaching practice and the experience of other teachers, he depicts a realistic story of the demands of college teaching and presents useful strategies to address these challenges. By offering helpful suggestions and common-sense techniques, the book lives up to its characterization as a teaching "survival manual" (p. xii).

The topic of skillful teaching is introduced through authentic, at times gut-wrenching, accounts of teaching experiences detailing the unpredictability of the classroom, elaborating the struggles, and documenting how educators grow into their own truths about college teaching. As I was reading with the aim of completing this review I found myself distracted. I contemplated my own teaching practice, replayed my attempts to satisfy every student learning preference in each class meeting, and thought about the uncomfortable times when I just kept talking, even after determining that the students were frustrated by impenetrable readings. The Skillful Teacherprompts this sort of reflection through its depictions of the challenges of teaching while providing inspiration for the adoption of new techniques.

One of the most insightful points of the first chapter is that understanding one's struggles with teaching should begin by identifying assumptions and reflecting on personal teaching experiences. Chapter 2 identifies core assumptions of skillful teaching and offers more opportunities for reflecting on one's practice. It adds the foundational practice of becoming aware of how students are thinking and feeling in the class. Chapter 3 presents techniques for understanding students' learning experiences through classroom assessments such as the popular one-minute paper, the Muddiest Point exercise, and the especially useful "Critical Incident Questionnaire."

In Chapter 4, Brookfield shares lessons about what students value in teachers. Chapter 5 offers insights into student development and what Brookfield labels the "emotional" side of learning. Readers are invited to consider the psychological, cultural, and contextual rhythms of students' experience in college. The alignment of teaching practice to different learning styles through "creative" lecturing is discussed in Chapter 6.

Chapters 7 and 8 devote needed attention to using active learning effectively, including preparing students for discussions, getting discussions started, and managing discussions. Teaching in diverse classrooms is the subject of Chapter 9. Chapter 10 discusses the difficult task of evaluating students' performance. Teaching online is the topic of Chapter 11.

Understanding and responding to students who resist learning, due to a variety of reasons including self-image, social factors, and teacher behaviors, are examined in Chapter 12. Chapters 13 and 14 explore two rarely acknowledged aspects of work as a teacher: the political dimensions of teaching and the emotional health of teachers. The last chapter concludes with a comprehensive summary: "Fifteen Maxims of Skillful Teaching" (p. 261) a survival list of helpful reminders.

This book and other publications by Brookfield offer valuable resources for improving teaching practice. This book focuses squarely on teaching issues from a personal point of view and suggests how to address practical challenges. Brookfield provides ample examples of teaching struggles so that every teacher is assured of seeing his or her own practice reflected in several scenarios. This sympathetic writing style works nicely with the dispensation of practical advice about effective teaching methods and ideas about what it means to teach in college. The experiences revealed in each chapter are sure to resonate with all campus educators.

Although the primary audience for the book seems to be teachers who are dispirited about their teaching, or at least genuinely concerned about becoming better teachers, it deserves to be required reading for all future...