Pedagogical Literature: What can be Learned and Where to Begin?

Abstract

Teaching is often an isolated activity, with experience and intuition the only sources to spur improvement. One way to move teaching from trial-and-error to a systematic effort to apply research-based strategies is by reading pedagogical literature. Pedagogical literature comes in two varieties: general and discipline-specific. As college faculty identify strongly with their disciplines, those who read the literature on effective teaching often rely on discipline-specific sources. This article aims to illustrate the lessons that can be learned from reading the general literature and reviews a sample of the available books on effective teaching.

Keywords:

• Pedagogical literature
• scholarship of teaching and learning
• book review