CFT Library

Overview

The Center has a steadily growing library related to teaching and learning, including books, journals, videotapes and DVDs, and articles.

Located at the CFT in Calhoun Hall 116, the library holdings are listed in ACORN, Vanderbilt's online library catalog. These holdings address a variety of issues, and are particularly rich in the areas of active and collaborative learning, course design, assessment, educational theory, and professional development.

New at the CFT Library

Note that clicking on the book titles below will lead you to the ACORN records for the books listed. These records provide information on call numbers and availability of these books in the Vanderbilt library system.

Beyond Tests and Quizzes: Creative Assessments in the College Classroom, by Richard J. Mezeske and Barbara A. Mezeske, Jossey-Bass, 2007.

From the publisher: Because the drive toward external assessment speaks almost exclusively in terms of standardized testing, we need to be reminded of the internal purposes of assessment: measuring learning for both student and teacher so that instruction can be adjusted and improved. This book is written for college instructors who are striving to creatively change assessment practice to better reflect learner-centered teaching. It is intended to consider not only the multiple ways in which individuals learn content, but also the multiple avenues to assessment the variety of learning styles demands.

Excerpts of this book are available online from the publisher. See the book's ACORN record for call number and availability.

 

Collaborative Learning Techniques

Blueprint for Learning: Constructing College Courses to Facilitate, Assess, and Document Learning , by Laurie Richlin, Introduction by Shirley Ronkowski, Stylus Publishing, LLC, 2006.

From the publisher: This book familiarizes readers with course design elements; enables them to understand themselves as individuals and teachers; know their students; adapt to the learning environment; design courses that promote deep learning; and assess the impact of the teaching practices and design choices they have made. The author provides tools to create a full syllabus, offers guidance on such issues as framing questions that encourage discussion, developing assignments with rubrics, and creating tests. The book is packed with resources that will help readers structure their courses and constitute a rich reference of proven ideas.

See the book's ACORN record for call number and availability.

 

On Being a Mentor

Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles, & Guidelines, by D. Randy Garrison and Norman D. Vaughan, Jossey-Bass, 2007.

From the publisher: This groundbreaking book offers a down-to-earth resource for the practical application of blended learning in higher education as well as a comprehensive examination of the topic. Well-grounded in research, Blended Learning in Higher Education clearly demonstrates how the blended learning approach embraces the traditional values of face-to-face teaching and integrates the best practices of online learning. This approach has proven to both enhance and expand the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning in higher education across disciplines.

See the book's ACORN record for call number and availability.

 

Student Success in College

Teaching the Large College Class: A Guidebook for Instructors with Multitudes, by Frank Heppner, Jossey-Bass, 2007.

From the publisher: Teaching large classes is a fact of life for professors at many institutions. In addition to pedagogy, instructors of these courses must also be concerned with legal, ethical, financial, technological, personnel, and management issues. Virtually all introductory courses are large ones, as are the popular intermediate courses at large institutions. Typically, little or no training or instruction is provided to new professors about how to manage large classes successfully. This book is a valuable resource for any college teacher, adjunct or full-time, facing a large class. It will also be useful for college administrators who might want to issue it to teachers, especially adjuncts, assigned to large classes for the first time. A distillation of years of experience by the author who started his college teaching career in 1969 in teaching large classes and in coaching other professors to do the same, this guide is concise and user-friendly. It employs teaching-as-acting as a common theme, with many practical examples covering all of the major aspects of organizing, managing, and teaching a large lecture course in any field.

Excerpts of this book are available online from the author. See the book's ACORN record for call number and availability.

 

The Formation of Scholars: Rethinking Doctoral Education for the Twenty-First Century, by George E. Walker, Chris M. Golde, Laura Jones, Andrea Conklin Bueschel, and Pat Hutchings,
Jossey-Bass, 2008.

From the publisher: This groundbreaking book explores the current state of doctoral education in the United States and offers a plan for increasing the effectiveness of doctoral education. Programs must grapple with questions of purpose. The authors examine practices and elements of doctoral programs and show how they can be made more powerful by relying on principles of progressive development, integration, and collaboration. They challenge the traditional apprenticeship model and offer an alternative in which students learn while apprenticing with several faculty members. The authors persuasively argue that creating intellectual community is essential for high-quality graduate education in every department. Knowledge-centered, multigenerational communities foster the development of new ideas and encourage intellectual risk taking.

Excerpts of this book are available online from the publisher. See the book's ACORN record for call number and availability.

 

The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons, by Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchins, Jossey-Bass, 2005.

From the Publisher: A publication of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, this important resource builds on the work of Carnegie's best-selling books, Scholarship Reconsidered and Scholarship Assessed. The Advancement of Learning explores the premise that the scholarship of teaching and learning holds the key to improving the quality of higher education.

The Advancement of Learning answers questions readers are likely to have:

  • What are the defining elements of the scholarship of teaching and learning?
  • What traditions does it build on?
  • What are its distinctive claims and possibilities?
  • What are the implications of the scholarship of teaching and learning for academic culture and careers?
  • How does it shape the student experience?
In addition, authors Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings introduce a new concept that expands on the scholarship of teaching and learning--the teaching commons. As the authors explain, the teaching commons is a conceptual space in which communities of educators committed to inquiry and innovation come together to exchange ideas about teaching and learning and use them to meet the challenges of educating students for personal, professional, and civic life.

Excerpts of this book are available online from the publisher. See the book's ACORN record for call number and availability.

 

Books

Below is a sampling of the books in the CFT Library. Each book's title is a link leading to a review of the book originally published in the CFT's former newsletter, Teaching Forum.

Journals

Current Subscriptions

Following is a list of the journals to which the CFT currently subscribes. These journals do not circulate, but Vanderbilt affiliates are welcome to browse our holdings in Calhoun 116. Click on the button, where available, for electronic access to particular journals. Click the journal name to visit that journal's web site.

About Campus
Active Learning in Higher Education
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning
Chronicle of Higher Education
College Teaching
Diversity Digest  
Educause Review
EQ: Educause Quarterly
Innovate - Journal of Online Education Free Online
Innovative Higher Education
Journal of College Science Teaching
Journal of Higher Education
Journal on Excellence in College Teaching
Liberal Education
National Teaching and Learning Forum  
New Directions for Teaching & Learning
Pedagogy
Peer Review
Teaching Professor  
To Improve the Academy  
TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Quarterly  

Past Subscriptions

Below is a list of journals to which the CFT has subscribed in the past that are now available online through the Vanderbilt Central Library. Certain back issues of these journals (and others not listed here) are available for browsing at the CFT library in Calhoun 116.

AAHE Bulletin
Academic Leader
Administrator
Cause/Effect
Educom Review
Innovative Higher Education
Journal of Legal Education
New Directions for Higher Education
New Directions for Institutional Research
Teaching in Higher Education

Discipline-Specific Journals on Teaching

There are a variety of journals that published articles on teaching and learning in higher education in particular disciplines. See this list of discipline-specific teaching journals to find journals in your discipline.

Many journal publishers and journal databases provide table-of-contents alert services by which you can sign up to receive emails listing the tables of contents of new issues of selected journals as they are published. Using such services with teaching journals in your field is an efficient way of keeping up with teaching issues in your discipline.

Videos

The CFT keeps a variety of videos in both VHS and DVD formats in its library, including videos produced by the Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and tapes of past CFT events and workshops. Here is a sampling of the library's video holdings.

  • A Private Universe (21 min)

    In this video by A Private Universe Project, several Harvard College graduates are interviewed just after commencement. They are asked to explain why we experience different seasons, and their explanations are woefully incorrect. The point is made that students are very good at maintaining misconceptions in the face of education to the contrary and that teachers don't always know if their students are learning what they should be learning.

  • What Students Want (25 min)

    Online Preview

    "Teachers make assumptions about what motivates, excites, and frustrates their students. But how do students themselves view teaching? What do they find exciting and frustrating in the classroom? To help answer these questions, the [Harvard University] Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning interviewed over forty Harvard undergraduates in the spring of 1992. What Students Want presents their reflections on what facilitates learning, definitions of good and bad teachers, and the nature of the student-teacher partnership." -- from the video description

  • Race in the Classroom: The Multiplicity of Experience (19 min)

    Online Preview
    CFT Newsletter Review

  • Women in the Classroom: Cases for Reflection (27 min)

    Online Preview

    CFT Newsletter Review

Articles and Essays

  • Teaching Forum Newsletter Articles

    Between 1998 and 2003 the CFT published a newsletter called Teaching Forum which printed articles about a variety of teaching topics as well as notices of CFT news and events. Back issues of Teaching Forum are available online at the link above and in the library.

  • Essays on Teaching Excellence

    The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network is the professional organization to which teaching centers such as the CFT belong. POD publishes several "Essays on Teaching Excellence" each semester, and these are available at the link above. Note that you must have a VUNet ID and password to view these articles.

 



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