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  • Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional
  • Nancy Van Note Chism
Greg Light, Roy Cox, and Susanna C. Calkins. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional( 2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2009. 360 pp. Cloth: $47.95. ISBN: 978-1-8486-0008-9.

Until the mid-1980s, books on college teaching were few and far between. Since then, the early classics of such authors as Wilbert McKeachie (originally published in 1950), Kenneth Eble (originally published in 1977), and Joseph Lowman (originally published in 1984) have been succeeded by a bewildering array of books that deal with general teaching issues as well as specific subtopics, such as grading, course design, and even syllabus construction.

Thus, the most important questions one might ask about the second edition of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professionalare: "How is this book distinct? How is it distinct from the first edition and how is it distinct as a book on college learning and teaching?" The short answer to the first question is that the book has been updated to include more current and international references and topics. The short answer to the second is that the new edition offers a blend of several genres—teaching philosophy, faculty professional development, and teaching tips. This mix affords interesting advantages and disadvantages.

The book begins with three chapters that are dense and difficult to read, chapters that might lead the faculty member who is seeking immediate [End Page 506]ideas for improving practice to conclude that the book is for another audience. The educational developer or philosopher, however, might find welcome depth. Light, Cox, and Calkins distinguish between the familiar notion of the reflective practitioner, promoted by Schön (1983) and others, and the book's central notion of the reflective professional. The difference seems to be that the latter focuses on the broader context that is now characterized by change and external demands for accountability rather than solely on individual teaching practice.

After articulating their own allegiance to a social constructivist theory of learning, the authors then explore the relationship between teaching and research, arguing that both activities have the same structure and root in learning. They align with the now-popular distinctions drawn by Boyer (1990) that stress the commonalities across these activities; yet like Boyer, they minimize the status distinctions and structural realities that do, in fact, keep the two activities quite separate in reality. The authors next stress the social nature of this learning for both the faculty member and the student, situating such learning within community, in opposition to academic individuality.

Having described the concept of the reflective professional, the authors then turn to their second conceptual framework, the critical matrix of learning in higher education. They organize their discussion of the "weave of learning" according to five "gaps." The first of these, the gap between recall and understanding, is illustrated with reference to the works of Marton and Säljö (1976) and Entwistle and Ramsden (1983), which draw distinctions between transformational and reproductive learning and deep and surface learning.

The second gap, between understanding and ability to practice, builds on ideas such as Kolb's (1984) experiential theory and description of learning environments to emphasize situating learning in the context of the learner's experience. The third gap, between having skills and abilities and actually wanting to use them, enters into the motivational aspect of learning. The rationale for then discussing Perry's (1970/1998) theory of development (with a nod to Belenky and Associates, 1986) is somewhat unclear; the authors allude to an inability to make commitments at certain Perry stages, which seems a less pertinent reference than various motivation theories would provide.

The fourth gap, between having the abilities, wanting to use them, and actually doing so, is discussed in terms of adult learning theory and the need to become self-directive. The fifth gap, between actually using the abilities and changing, refers to the need to change over time.

Exploration of the five gaps leads to the generation of the critical learning matrix that culminates the discussion of this second conceptual basis for the book. The authors cross...

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