Despite its more general title and approach, this is a fabulous book for higher education, and possibly as a text for graduate certificates or similar in higher education, and includes a useful glossary in the back. The book provides a well-balanced survey of key theories and a solid foundation for teaching approaches for a wide range of purposes, not only for the individual teacher but internal and external stakeholders as well. Too often we encounter conflicting orientations which are not identified but can prove to be particularly confusing and frustrating most especially for academic staff within academic development programs trying to ‘figure out what it all means’. In the introduction the authors state: The educator’s role as a facilitator of student learning is dependent upon the theory of learning held. The educator’s views may form a coherent whole; alternatively they may hold scraps of incompatible theory. It is important not to have principles which clash, so bringing them to light will help in their organization so that they can be used more consciously to engage in ongoing inquiry. (p. 1)
The book brings together much of the key writing on education from various disciplinary backgrounds rather than exploring new territory. Chapter structure is well designed and set out. A major strength is the way the authors identify strengths and weaknesses of various perspectives. This is also very useful and helps to ‘provide protection from unproven and faddish ideas’ (p. 1).
The book begins with comprehensive, yet easy to understand discussions of educational philosophy, key psychological theories as well as sociological. Like many others it focuses predominantly on western culture. The chapter on social learning includes both perspectives. The approach provides very useful brief historical background, so we can appreciate the development of certain movements and thinking.
The authors point out, for example: For behaviourists, learning is conditioned individual response to stimuli; for cognitivists, it is the individual application of mental processes; for constructivists, it revolves around the construction of meaning. For social learning theorists however, learning is the product of shared experiences in a range of social settings. (p. 79)
This is very important for designing approaches, curriculum planning and assessment. There are 17 chapters in the book, which for me is too many and I would rather have seen some collapsed.
Student centred learning is referred to in various parts of the book. However, my experience is that there seems to be widespread misunderstanding of the concept among academic staff and so it might have been useful to devote a chapter to this topic, given the prominence of the approach in many universities.
The section on the origins of adult education in Chapter 9 may have been better organised around the four recurrent themes identified in the summary at the end (p. 136). This section just did not seem as smooth as some of the others. I also found the section on critical thinking too brief and there was a mismatch between that section and the summary in terms of organisation. There was room for expansion of this important chapter, especially in relation to the assumptions around student evaluations given the prominence of such evaluations in contemporary higher education and the many years that have passed since Brookfield published his work. The possibility for misuse or misunderstanding of evaluations exists in the competitive higher education environment at the individual and organizational level. As Jordan, Carlile and Stack write in relation to Brookfield’s work, ‘hegemonic assumptions are promoted by powerful interests to protect the status quo, and are internalized by teachers. They include the assumptions that:
? teaching is a vocation that often leads to teacher ‘burn-out’;
? teachers need to be rated as ‘excellent’ in student evaluations (very much a North American concern); and
? good teachers will be able to meet all of their students’ needs all of the time’ (pp. 132–133).
Readers need a better understanding of this and an expansion of the place of power structures would have been very helpful. I also found introduction of new concepts in the section titled ‘Instrumental approaches to adult learning’ (e.g. work-based learning, p. 139) that were not necessarily examined in the chapter. I would have liked to see the authors tackle in greater depth the issue of adult education in relation to the earlier chapter on stages of development and the variety of ages among students in the modern university. For example, difference (or not) between the entering 18-year-old school leavers and the various categories of ‘mature-age’ students, including those pursuing new career direction, and post-retirement students. What might this mean for curriculum in the contemporary university?
The chapter on motivation is excellent with a very useful summary towards the end of the chapter under the heading of ‘Educational implications of motivation theory’. This summary relates to many other aspects and would form a very useful framework for initial training or development for academic staff in higher education, especially tutors and sessional staff. In contrast, however, I found Chapter 12, titled ‘The learning body’, a little dull and less useful for those of us in higher education. Something more on psychological and physical health and some of the issues that teachers should be aware of might have been more useful.
After reading this book, one issue that emerged for me is what may perhaps be a gap in research related to higher education in the current context – a context that is significantly different to, say, 20 years ago. I would really like to see a revised version of this book in the future that is dedicated to higher education because I feel that there are so many sections of this book that are extremely well written, and in ways that so many others are not.
You can buy this book on amazon
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