Why am I passionate about this?

I am a graduate of Williams College and Princeton University and now a professor and former dean of arts and letters at the University of Notre Dame. As dean, I learned that too many of Notre Dame’s students were majoring in business. Invariably, when I asked them about their rationale, they would confess that their favorite courses were in the arts and sciences. They might have followed their passions, I thought, if they and their parents had a deeper sense of the value of a liberal arts education, so I wrote this book to answer their questions and give them justified confidence in the value of liberal arts courses.  


I wrote

Why Choose the Liberal Arts?

By Mark William Roche,

Book cover of Why Choose the Liberal Arts?

What is my book about?

In a world where the value of a liberal arts education is no longer taken for granted, Roche lucidly and…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing

Mark William Roche Why did I love this book?

I read this book when it came out in 1985, as I was polishing my first book. I recommended it to a senior colleague who had written several books and edited a leading journal. He took it with him to some beach on winter vacation as he was completing his next book. When he returned, he said he was so engrossed in the book that his wife got mad at him for not putting it down. He loved it as much as I did.

If you have mastered this book, your writing will improve dramatically, and you will not need another style manual for the rest of your life. 

By Claire Kehrwald Cook,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Line by Line as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The essential guide for all writers. With over 700 examples of original and edited sentences, this book provides information about editing techniques, grammar, and usage for every writer from the student to the published author.


Book cover of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

Mark William Roche Why did I love this book?

When I was an undergraduate, I prepared for exams by reviewing my notes and books. When I was a graduate student, I prepared for exams by thinking through possible questions and answering them in my head.

Which was the best strategy? Brown et al. make clear that self-testing is best.

Testing yourself involves active learning and effortful learning, which are far more likely to stick. The book draws on empirical research to help students (and adults) understand how best to learn.

By Peter Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Make It Stick as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners.

Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights…


Book cover of Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds

Mark William Roche Why did I love this book?

I wish I could have read this book before I entered college.

Based on in-depth interviews with students at Harvard, Light’s well-written book offers superb academic and personal advice for students entering college and for faculty members who wish to help their students develop.

The book covers the full range of college experience and offers many counter-intuitive insights, including students’ enthusiasm for foreign-language classes, which tend to be small and offer students regular feedback. The anecdotes are, in turn, engaging, surprising, and helpful.

By Richard J. Light,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Making the Most of College as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why do some students make the most of college, while others struggle and look back on years of missed deadlines and missed opportunities? What choices can students make, and what can teachers and university leaders do, to improve more students' experiences and help them achieve the most from their time and money? Most important, how is the increasing diversity on campus-cultural, racial, and religious-affecting education? What can students and faculty do to benefit from differences, and even learn from the inevitable moments of misunderstanding and awkwardness?

From his ten years of interviews with Harvard seniors, Richard Light distills encouraging-and surprisingly…


Book cover of The Secret Syllabus: A Guide to the Unwritten Rules of College Success

Mark William Roche Why did I love this book?

When students come to college, everything is new. This book offers well-seasoned advice on how to make the most of office hours, how to study effectively, why not to worry about your major or career path too early, and at the same time, how to plan ahead.

Lots of nuts and bolts advice, a perfect high school graduation gift.

By Jay Phelan, Terry Burnham,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Secret Syllabus as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The unwritten rules of success that every student must follow to thrive in college

The Secret Syllabus equips students with the tools they need to succeed, revealing the unwritten rules and cultural norms and expectations not included in the official curriculum. Left to figure out on their own how the academic world works, students frequently stumble, underperform, and miss opportunities. Without mastery of the secret syllabus, too many miss out on the full, rich experience available to them in college.

Jay Phelan and Terry Burnham share the essential lessons they have learned from struggling, unfocused students as well as award-winning…


Book cover of What the Best College Students Do

Mark William Roche Why did I love this book?

When I heard Ken Bain give a talk on what the best college teachers do, his arguments so impressed me that I changed my syllabus that night before the start of classes the next day. 

This book follows a similar model of drawing on interviews to search for best practices. In this case, Bain culls his best practices from interviews with successful college students. From a student’s perspective, reading the book is a bit like speed-dialing peer advice.

Bain devotes an entire chapter to working through failure and spends considerable time on deep versus superficial learning.

By Ken Bain,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked What the Best College Students Do as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"The 'best' students are curious risk-takers who make connections across disciplines. By following those instincts-rather than simply chasing 'success'-the best students achieved it...A wonderful exploration of excellence."-Fortune

"Skillfully weaves together some of the best research about effective learning strategies with moving stories about remarkable life-long learners. Some of them had great teachers. But most of them succeed because of what they did for themselves."-Thomas Luxon, Dartmouth College

"We are always telling students to 'find their passion.' Now we have a book that looks at how that happens...Ken Bain can really tell a story...it is very rare for a book based…


Explore my book 😀

Why Choose the Liberal Arts?

By Mark William Roche,

Book cover of Why Choose the Liberal Arts?

What is my book about?

In a world where the value of a liberal arts education is no longer taken for granted, Roche lucidly and passionately argues for its essential importance.

Drawing on more than thirty years of experience in higher education as a student, faculty member, and administrator, Roche deftly connects the broad theoretical perspective of educators to the practical needs and questions of students and their parents.

Book cover of Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing
Book cover of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Book cover of Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds

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Book cover of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

Jonathan Mugan Author Of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Jonathan's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

The Curiosity Cycle is a book for parents and educators who want to teach their children to be active explorers of the world. Learning through curiosity leads to adaptive thinking because your child is continually trying to improve his or her understanding of the world, and new facts and ideas become embedded in the knowledge that your child already has. Curiosity will also enrich your child's life because curiosity-based learning is internally directed and intrinsically motivated.

Our world is rapidly changing, and our children must be able to filter the cacophony of voices in cyberspace to stay true to their…

The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

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Through curiosity, children carve out concepts from the environment that they assemble into models to describe the world. Children then test those models to see how well they predict what they observe, and they use the results from those experiments to form new concepts and models---leading to the next round of the curiosity cycle. However, our children are more than passive observers. They are an embodied part of the world and have brains that are predisposed to see the environment in particular ways. To get the most from their curiosity, children must build models about the intentions of those around…


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