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

What does it mean to be a good teacher? Stephen Brookfield, a distinguished professor and award-winning author of texts on adult education, has pondered this question his entire career, and in the second edition of The Skillful Teacher (2006) he shares 35 years of reflections and revelations on this complex subject. The first edition (1990) was composed 15 years earlier on a typewriter (leaving no electronic file to revise), so Brookfield approached this second edition as an opportunity to completely revisit, rethink, and rewrite his work. The result is a contemporary treatise on teaching and learning that has the potential to instruct and inspire novice and experienced educators alike.

Skillful teachers, according to the author, will do what "helps students learn . . . adopt a critically reflective stance towards their practice . . . [and are] constant[ ly] aware . . . of how students are experiencing their learning and perceiving teachers' actions" (2006, p. 17). These core assumptions are detailed in one chapter and resound in themes throughout the entire book. He discusses ways in which we can become more skillful through employing formative assessment techniques (such as the classroom Critical Incident Questionnaire [CIQ]), working to establish credibility and authenticity with students, understanding the emotions (and sometimes resultant resistance) involved in student learning, and using various methods to meet the needs of diverse learners (lecturing, discussion, feedback, and on-line instruction). A chapter examining the political nature of teaching is included, along with a call for educators to create a personal teaching philosophy in order to be more strategic (and successful) in their practice. He closes the text in chapter 14 with 15 "maxims of skillful teaching," which include prompts like "expect ambiguity" (p. 261), "be wary of standardized models and approaches" (p. 265), "don't be afraid to take risks" (p. 268), and "recognize and accept your power" (p. 275), to name just a few. Consistent with his value of critical reflection, the last maxim he shares is "don't trust what you've just read"—encouraging readers to seek and discover our own philosophies, our own solutions, our own maxims in light of ever-changing knowledge and invaluable personal insights. While some of his foundational claims about the need for systematic inquiry and intentional philosophies to inform teacher practices have carried over into this second edition, he has constructively incorporated new chapters on diversity and teaching in on-line environments to address the rapidly changing context of higher education.

The Skillful Teacher is written in an accessible, conversational tone—the reader is drawn in by the author's compassionate language and courageous self-disclosure. Brookfield's honest way of thinking about the challenging realities of teaching is refreshing and models the kind of pedagogical transparency he encourages educators to adopt. He intends this book to be a "survival manual" for the "difficult days" that every teacher is bound to have—helping teachers to "navigate the recurring and inevitable dilemmas, problems, and contradictions they face in their work" (p. xii). In order to travel this terrain with readers, he offers a masterful mix of philosophy of education and conceptual ruminations as well as examples of practical assessment tools and advice supported by vignettes from his personal experience (including educational foibles in addition to triumphs). His recognition of the reciprocal relationship between teaching and learning reminds readers of the (humbling) complexity of our work as educators. Using creative descriptions throughout the text, like comparing teaching to whitewater rafting (containing "calm . . . interspersed with sudden frenetic turbulence" [p. 8]), Brookfield puts the issues teachers face into perspective for readers. He not only discloses the frailties of human nature that mediate our abilities to be successful teachers and learners but does so in a way that casts them as joyful uncertainties to be embraced as part of the human experience.

In my view, two major characteristics make this book unique compared to others in its genre...