Professional Reading Series

Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church build on Harvard’s Project Zero research to show how thinking routines, questioning, listening, and documentation help students think more deeply. Their approach also helps instructors see and respond to student thinking in any discipline.

José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson explore how generative AI is changing teaching and learning in higher education. They offer practical guidance for writing AI policies, redesigning assignments and assessments, and helping students use AI in ways that support their learning, whether instructors choose to limit AI or bring it into their courses.

Thomas Tobin and Kirsten Behling show how college instructors can apply UDL to strengthen engagement and learning. The book offers case studies, practical techniques, and ways to adopt UDL in small steps, starting with the parts of a course where students most often get stuck.

James Lang argues that instead of trying to remove every distraction, instructors can design courses that capture and hold students’ attention. He offers practical strategies for building attention through community, curiosity, and active learning.

Carol Dweck explains how people’s beliefs about their abilities shape the way they learn. People with a fixed mindset see ability as set, while people with a growth mindset see it as something they can develop through effort, strategy, and feedback. The book explores how instructors’ feedback and expectations can encourage a growth mindset in their students.

Saundra Yancy McGuire shows instructors how to teach students to learn more effectively. She explains metacognition and the study cycle, and offers simple strategies that help students take responsibility for their own learning.

Ken Bain profiles college courses that engage students with intriguing questions and real problems. He shows how these courses build deep learning, critical thinking, and creativity, and how instructors can redesign their own courses around the same principles.

Flower Darby and James Lang offer small, research-based changes instructors can make in their online courses. The strategies help instructors build presence, design clear course structure, and keep students engaged and motivated.

Sarah Rose Cavanagh argues that emotion is central to effective learning, not separate from it. Drawing on psychology and neuroscience, she shows how instructors can use emotion to strengthen student attention, memory, and motivation, with practical classroom examples.

Psychologist Jean Twenge examines the generation that grew up with smartphones and constant connectivity. The book helps instructors understand how today’s students spend their time, how connectivity affects their attention and development, and what that means for teaching and supporting them.

James Zull explains in clear, accessible language how learning physically changes the brain. He connects brain function to the realities of the classroom and offers practical guidance for designing experiences that lead to lasting learning.

Norman Eng offers a practical guide to effective college instruction, especially for early-career instructors. It covers strategies for engaging students, encouraging participation, and improving learning, from syllabus design and active learning to presentations and motivating students to complete readings.

Peter Brown, Henry Roediger III, and Mark McDaniel show that effortful learning is often the most effective. Drawing on cognitive psychology, they explain why strategies like retrieval practice and spaced practice produce more durable learning than highlighting and rereading, and how instructors can build these strategies into their courses.

Ken Bain draws on a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred exceptional college teachers. He shows that what sets them apart is how they think about learning, prepare for class, challenge students, and evaluate their progress, and he offers lessons instructors at all levels can apply.