College Teaching: Developing Perspective through Dialogue (review)

Michael Galbraith’s intention in writing College Teaching: Developing Perspective through Dialogue is to provide those who do, or will, teach college courses with practical information about how to be more successful in the classroom. In nine short chapters, Galbraith distills more than 20 years of teaching experience into a set of questions college teachers should be asking themselves. He approaches teaching holistically in the sense that it is something that “happens before, during, and after the classroom” (p. viii) and addresses many of the specific activities and considerations that should go into each.

In Part 1, Galbraith begins by suggesting that good teaching requires self-awareness. He offers the reader activities and questions helpful in answering some basic questions about beliefs, values, attitudes, and philosophy that influence how an instructor approaches teaching and the learning process. Galbraith continues by presenting a compilation of what a “good college teacher” does and how he or she behaves (or performs), concluding with an overview of different teaching perspectives.

Part 2, “Preparing to Teach the Course,” applies the activities and knowledge learned in Part 1 to instructional design, focusing mostly on syllabi design and creation. While Galbraith provides a good overview of the need to understand a student population and learning orientations, he also requires the reader to seek outside references and knowledge by presenting only a general overview of issues and considerations for student learners. Galbraith takes the reader down to a very micro level of syllabus design in walking through course meeting times, course description, objectives, resources, and finally assignments.

Part 3, “The First Class Session,” addresses the need to pay attention to setting a proper tone so as to create a “sense of community.” College Teaching does not spend any time recognizing the differences between large lecture hall classes and the more intimate seminar format. Additionally, there was little to no focus on any differences in or suggestions for addressing undergraduate versus graduate-level courses.

Part 4, “Issues in the Classroom,” attempts to address diversity, special needs, incivility, academic dishonesty, plagiarism, learning styles, and learning resistance. Galbraith provides a starting point for understanding each of these issues; however, due to the book’s brevity, the reader must again follow up with the other sources he references. For example, he does not adequately explain what diversity means in a college environment; therefore, it is difficult to develop a plan of action. There is also no discussion on multi-culturalism and international student populations. For example, he states that a teacher should “be attentive to how you develop a course as well as how you carry out your role in the classroom” (p. 39) and yet, during Part 1, there were no activities to help one understand one’s personal biases. He suggests that, to address race, class, and gender, the instructor should present a “wide range of perspectives” but does not address the need to examine the authors of such books and perspectives, i.e., are they all White males or are women and minority writers representing their perspectives?

Part 5, “Teaching Methods and Techniques,” reviews how to be more effective with lectures, discussions, and demonstrations in the classroom. Galbraith begins by deciding which method to use in the classroom based on context and then walks the reader through the process of designing and perfecting the technique.

In Part 6, “Teaching with Technology,” Galbraith, who self-identifies as a primarily online instructor, addresses some of the pros and cons of using computers as a method of instruction. He addresses the differences in online instruction with the more traditional face-to-face method.

Part 7, “Evaluating and Grading Approaches” presents these two areas as a formative process with an aim of providing constant feedback to the student on their learning. While Galbraith begins by creating evaluation criteria, he addresses the need for the instructor to self-evaluate his or her own teaching efforts through the use of a “critical incident questionnaire” (CIQ), colleague observations...