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Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning 1st Edition

by James M. Lang (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 402 ratings
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Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning
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Employ cognitive theory in the classroom every day

Research into how we learn has opened the door for utilizing cognitive theory to facilitate better student learning. But that's easier said than done. Many books about cognitive theory introduce radical but impractical theories, failing to make the connection to the classroom. In Small Teaching, James Lang presents a strategy for improving student learning with a series of modest but powerful changes that make a big difference&;many of which can be put into practice in a single class period. These strategies are designed to bridge the chasm between primary research and the classroom environment in a way that can be implemented by any faculty in any discipline, and even integrated into pre-existing teaching techniques. Learn, for example:

  • How does one become good at retrieving knowledge from memory?
  • How does making predictions now help us learn in the future?
  • How do instructors instill fixed or growth mindsets in their students?

Each chapter introduces a basic concept in cognitive theory, explains when and how it should be employed, and provides firm examples of how the intervention has been or could be used in a variety of disciplines. Small teaching techniques include brief classroom or online learning activities, one-time interventions, and small modifications in course design or communication with students.

Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    1118944496
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1118944493
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
  5. Publication date
    March 7, 2016
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  8. Print length
    259 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and biologists all have produced a revealing body of research over the past several decades on how human beings learn, but often translating these findings into the classroom is overwhelming for busy instructors. Small Teaching bridges the gap between research and practice by providing a fully developed strategy for making deliberate, structured, and incremental steps towards tuning into how your students are hardwired to learn.

Developed by a global authority on teaching and learning, the practice of "small teaching" enables every type of educator in all disciplines to energize and boost student understanding by introducing small activities that require minimal preparation and grading. The models inside are specifically designed to be used as both one-time experiences to innovate a course session or unit plan as well as a menu of options that can be combined into an entirely new teaching approach. Each chapter gives examples of how a particular learning phenomenon appears in everyday life, supporting research and findings, up to five small-teaching models, guidance for customizing your own models, and quick-reference features when you need inspiration fifteen minutes before class. Small teaching techniques include brief classroom or online learning activities, one-time interventions, and small modifications in course design or communication with students that let you:

  • Capture or recapture the students' attention, provide quick opportunities for student engagement, and introduce or wrap up new learning
  • Deepen student understanding of material and expand their ability to analyze and improve their own learning
  • Give students the tools, techniques, and principles to effectively practice a range of cognitive skills

Small Teaching gives you all the know-how and how-to for making big improvements to your learning environment.

From the Back Cover

Cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and biologists all have produced a revealing body of research over the past several decades on how human beings learn, but often translating these findings into the classroom is overwhelming for busy instructors. Small Teaching bridges the gap between research and practice by providing a fully developed strategy for making deliberate, structured, and incremental steps towards tuning into how your students are hardwired to learn.

Developed by a global authority on teaching and learning, the practice of "small teaching" enables every type of educator in all disciplines to energize and boost student understanding by introducing small activities that require minimal preparation and grading. The models inside are specifically designed to be used as both one-time experiences to innovate a course session or unit plan as well as a menu of options that can be combined into an entirely new teaching approach. Each chapter gives examples of how a particular learning phenomenon appears in everyday life, supporting research and findings, up to five small-teaching models, guidance for customizing your own models, and quick-reference features when you need inspiration fifteen minutes before class. Small teaching techniques include brief classroom or online learning activities, one-time interventions, and small modifications in course design or communication with students that let you:

  • Capture or recapture the students' attention, provide quick opportunities for student engagement, and introduce or wrap up new learning
  • Deepen student understanding of material and expand their ability to analyze and improve their own learning
  • Give students the tools, techniques, and principles to effectively practice a range of cognitive skills

Small Teaching gives you all the know-how and how-to for making big improvements to your learning environment.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jossey-Bass Inc Pub; 1st edition (March 7, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 259 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1118944496
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1118944493
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 402 ratings

About the author

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James M. Lang

James M. Lang

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James M. Lang writes about higher education and writing. Currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame, he served for two decades a Professor of English and Director of the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University. His books include Distracted (2020), Small Teaching (2016) and Small Teaching Online (2019), and Cheating Lessons (2013). His work has appeared in multiple newspapers and magazines, including Time, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Conversation, and more. He received a Fulbright Specialist award in 2016 and has consulted for the United Nations on the development of educational materials on ethics and integrity. He has a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University and a B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame.

Jim lives in Worcester, MA with his wife, a public school teacher. They have five children in various stages of college or their early careers. Jim and Anne together operate the Lang Family Foundation, which provides grants in the areas of the arts, the environment, education, and initiatives to alleviate poverty and homelessness.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
402 global ratings
Theory, literature, and practical tips!
5 Stars
Theory, literature, and practical tips!
This book is a good read, and has sufficient references to the teaching literature, and short exposition of the theory behind each technique, and a list of practical steps that can be taken to achieve each technique. Very accessible.The picture is an example of the Quick Tips section that accompanies each chapter.
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Top reviews from the United States

Noomin
5.0 out of 5 stars Really useful
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2018
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Those education specialists know a thing or two, it turns out. But I like it even better that this guy isn't one--he does what I do (he teaches college literature) and he has digested some of the new cognitive )science, boiled it down to principles, and organized them very pragmatically. He suggests that one read the book all the way through between semesters so you can get the lay of the land--but also says, truly, that one can also dip into it for a quick blast of useful practical suggestions one can implement at any time in order to increase student engagement and learning. He also writes clearly and succinctly, without eduspeak jargon. (The only jargon I have any stomach for is that of my own specialty, thank you very much.)

There are lots of tips here about little things one can do at the beginnings and ends of classes, or things hat one encourage (or require) students to do between classes, in order to take advantage of the way the brain learns. (I'm inclined to think that these things are more about the way the mind works than about physiological processes in the brain, but I won't quibble.) My book is in my office and I'm not, or I might be tempted to list some of them and STILL encourage you to buy the book to get the bigger picture. The point is that these are *little* things--hence "small teaching"--that can make a big difference. I haven't had enough time yet to see how things go after the bloom of a new semester is off the rose. If I have anything to add when we get to the dread midpoint of the term, I'll let you know.
17 people found this helpful
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Sarah Appleton
5.0 out of 5 stars and it is amazing. It contains a number of ready-to-go lessons and ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2016
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I recently picked up James M. Lang's new book: Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, and it is amazing. It contains a number of ready-to-go lessons and activities that can be included in every class on every day, and--more importantly--he articulates the science and pedagogy behind the exercises, how to connect the exercises to promote cumulative learning, and (yes!) how to make the transition from gaining knowledge to critical and creative problem solving. It is the best higher education pedagogy text I've read (and it uses one of my favorites--Bloom's Taxonomy). Lang himself is an English professor and writes for the Chronicle and particularly understands the challenges that we face in our introductory and non-major courses, and, as the title suggests, he demonstrates small steps and advocates for meaningful changes to accumulate (rather than a massive and dramatic overhaul).

A quote: "a simple way of understanding how to build comprehension in our students would be that it consists of helping them forge rich, interconnected networks of knowledge--ones that enable each existing piece of information in our content area to connect with lots of other information, concepts, and ideas."

Responding to scientific explanations of "learning" as the creation of new neural network paths, he shares strategies for forming and retaining the new pathways. He also addresses common binary thinking, the rigid "mindset," and concludes with some popular BIG teaching innovations. (I think I have made notes on every single page).

This book will not only change the way we teach, but it will also teach us the foundations for those changes.
15 people found this helpful
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Suzanne M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Small Teaching offers Big Ideas on How to Induce Robust Learning
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2020
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During a professional development seminar this summer faculty participants read Flower Darby with James Lang’s book SMALL TEACHING ONLINE, an immensely helpful book for the transference of traditional courses to an online format. Darby recommends early on that readers also get some familiarity with Lang’s SMALL TEACHING because his principles inspired her. Lang isolates key findings from educational research on learning that inform his suggests on how to teach content and interact with students. Discussions induce active learning; however, without quizzes and exams, students’ memories won’t get activated, and opportunities to achieve mastery could fade.
Making connections, regular, repeated practice, and self-explanation (when guided and double-checked) enhance learning, build confidence, and steer students toward mastery. Lang’s chapters on Motivating, Growing, and Expanding illuminate critical do’s and don’t s that either stimulate learning such as the instillation of a “growth” mindset or inhibit learning such as a exclusive emphasis on “fixed” ability or skills.
Lang’s concentration on practical skills and references to research findings on student behaviors and attitudes that generate substantive progress in learning make this book invaluable for teachers.
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Mark
4.0 out of 5 stars Informative and inspiring
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2016
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James Lang has assembled a lot of information on college learning of students to help instructors focus on how to improve their teaching. The most important aspects of the book were to set the learning environment for students to rethink their class room experiences. Learning is about growing not about talent.
12 people found this helpful
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Jeff DeSurra
5.0 out of 5 stars Practical applications of great cognitive science insights
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2016
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I work as an instructional designer in a graduate school, and this is the book that I'm going to be handing to all the faculty I work with to give them ideas about how to improve their courses. Lang writes in an easy-to-read but insightful way, drawing on his experience as a teacher to highlight small changes that can have a huge impact on students' learning. He talks about changes not only for traditional face-to-face classes but also changes for online classes and hybrid classes. Having read a number of the books he cites throughout his book, I can say that his research base is solid. He's drawing off some of the best recent research that's come out in cognitive psychology while showing practical steps to implement those ideas into an actual class. If you teach in higher education settings (or any setting for that matter), this is a must-have book for your bookshelf. If you're an instructional designer, instructional technologist, or curriculum designer, this book will help you translate important learning concepts into practical applications for your constituents. This is one of the best books to come out on the practical applications of cognitive science in recent years, and it's definitely worth your time and money. A wonderful book.
34 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Arkaydee
5.0 out of 5 stars If you can't find value in this book you are doing it wrong.
Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2020
Verified Purchase
Small Teaching is an awesome collections of tips, all of which can be put into play in the classroom during your next class or the one after that. No mind-numbing chapters on how the brain works or how to re-design your entire curriculum. Just a lot of "small-ball" for the classroom.
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Cliente de Kindle
5.0 out of 5 stars Eficaz y eficiente
Reviewed in Mexico on June 1, 2018
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Seguro que mañana por la mañana aplicaré una de las estrategias descritas en este gran libro. Small teaching es lectura obligatoria para todo docente que desee mejorar su práctica en el siglo XXI.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2017
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Really helped my teaching, it has made me consider things from a different perspective.
One person found this helpful
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Julia
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and easy-reading book
Reviewed in Germany on October 2, 2016
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The book is interesting and gives many examples as well as tips as to how to implement the small teaching in your own course.

Very usefull for junior university lecturers/professors.
One person found this helpful
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RO
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for Professional Development
Reviewed in Canada on November 5, 2019
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed this book, it's approach t o professional development is at a university level which works better for me than the standard high school pro-d books.. I find it works great for teaching programming and I am already seeing results from implementing some of the strategies covered in it and hope to see more.
One person found this helpful
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