The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom

This third edition is both a revision and an extension. It restates some of the chief insights of previous editions but interprets them in new contexts, such as online learning environments and increasingly diverse classrooms. The third edition also revisits some of the books earlier themes with the benefit of another decades experience and practice. The Skillful Teacher is a personal statement on surviving and flourishing as a college teacher. As such, it is full of anecdotes, reflections, personal insights, and advice, all of which are based in Brookfield's own experiences and philosophy. As each year passes and new questions are posed in workshops and presentations, new ideas, new practices, and new reflections continually come to light. Based on the assumption that skillful teaching is grounded in constant research into how students experience learning, the book explores the 3 R's of skillful teaching: respect, research, and responsiveness. This edition includes six new chapters, each of which represents new work and experience in the area of college teaching: teaching critical thinking; teaching in teams; teaching about racism; using play and creativity in the classroom; helping students take responsibility for learning; and exercising teacher power responsibly.