Invigorate your instruction with these recommended books on teaching and learning from the Drake Institute's Reading List.
Learn about the science of learning, discover evidence-informed strategies for engaging and supporting students both in-person and online, find new approaches to course design, reflect on the impact of your teaching and much more.
The ABCs of How We Learn
An explosive growth in research on how people learn has revealed many ways to improve teaching and catalyze learning at all ages. The purpose of this book is to present this new science of learning so that educators can creatively translate the science into exceptional practice. Based on a popular Stanford University course, this book uses a novel format that is suitable as both a textbook and a popular read. With everyday language, engaging examples, a sense of humor, and solid evidence, it describes 26 unique ways that students learn.
Schwartz, D.L., J.M. Tang, & K.P. Blair. (2016). The ABCs of how we learn. New York: Norton.
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Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty
James Lang, English professor and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College, geared this book to academic faculty as well as administrators who support teaching faculty. His research focuses on academic dishonesty as an inappropriate response to a specific learning environment, rather than a tendency of some individual students.
Lang, J. M. (2013). Cheating lessons : learning from academic dishonesty. Harvard Univ. P. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674726239
Classroom Assessment Techniques: Formative Feedback Tools for College and University Instructors
This revised and expanded third edition provides practical, research-based guidance for using classroom assessment and formative feedback to improve teaching and learning in higher education. It features more than 50 classroom assessment techniques (CATs), with guidance for implementing them in face-to-face, hybrid and online courses. The book also introduces a Course Learning Outcomes Inventory to help instructors identify and prioritize learning outcomes for assessment, along with case studies illustrating assessment in practice.
Angelo, T. A., & Zakrajsek, T. (2024). Classroom assessment techniques : formative feedback tools for college and university teachers (Third edition.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
Reference:
Palmer, P. J. (2007). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses
Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. Revised and updated. Jossey-Bass.
Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College
Walvoord, B. E. (2011). Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College (V. J. Anderson, Ed.; Second edition.). Jossey Bass.
Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Bishop-Clark, C. (2012). Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A Guide to the Process, and How to Develop a Project from Start to Finish (B. Dietz-Uhler, Ed.; First edition.). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003444497
Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty
Stanley, C. A., & Porter, M. E. (2002). Engaging large classes : strategies and techniques for college faculty. Anker Publishing Company.
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Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning: A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective and Enjoyable College Teaching
Arend, B. D. (2025). Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning: A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective, and Enjoyable College Teaching (J. R. Davis, Ed.; Second edition.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003567509
Generation Z Unfiltered Facing Nine Hidden Challenges of the Most Anxious Population
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How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories Behind Effective College Teaching
How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching
Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching
Bruff, D. (2019). Intentional tech : principles to guide the use of educational technology in college teaching (First edition). West Virginia University Press.
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Brown, P. C. (2014). Make it stick : the science of successful learning. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674419377
Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology
Miller, M. D. (2014). Minds online : teaching effectively with technology. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674735996
The Missing Course: Everything They Never Taught You about College Teaching
David Gooblar, author of the popular column “Pedagogy Unbound” in the Chronicle of Higher Education, provides a guide for scholars on teaching and learning. This guide is accessible for scholars of any discipline and at any level of teaching experience. Readers can learn a variety of information such as course design, encouraging student discussion, and strategies to foster active learning in the classroom. While most academics are trained to research first, this guide helps instructors strengthen their teaching skills.
Gooblar, David. The Missing Course: Everything They Never Taught You about College Teaching. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019.
Optimizing Teaching and Learning: Practicing Pedagogical Research
Overcoming Student Learning Bottlenecks: Decode the Critical Thinking of Your Discipline
Quick Hits for New Faculty: Successful Strategies by Award-Winning Teachers
Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College
From their positions as prominent teaching and learning leaders at Elon University, Peter Felten and Leo Lambert deliver their educational perspectives after interviewing hundreds of students, faculty, and staff nationwide. They find that strong human relationships, forged by supportive and inclusive scholastic environments, are perhaps the greatest contributors towards a student’s success in higher education. This especially applies to first-generation students, who often face additional hurdles and inequities.
Felten, P., & Lambert, L. M. (2020). Relationship-rich education : how human connections drive success in college. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scientific Teaching
Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes
The concept of small teaching is simple: small and strategic changes have enormous power to improve student learning. Instructors face unique and specific challenges when teaching an online course. This book offers small teaching strategies that will positively impact the online classroom.
Darby, F.; Lang, J. M. Small Teaching Online : Applying Learning Science in Online Classes; Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand: San Francisco, CA, 2019.
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Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning
James Lang, English professor and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College, explains how small but powerful modifications in course design and teaching can yield positive results in higher ed settings. He groups these modifications into three broader categories: 5-10 minute classroom activities; one-time course interventions; and small modifications in course design or communication.
Reference:
The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion
In friendly, readable prose, Sarah Rose Cavanagh argues that if you as an educator want to capture your students' attention, harness their working memory, bolster their long-term retention, and enhance their motivation, you should consider the emotional impact of your teaching style and course design. To make this argument, she brings to bear a wide range of evidence from the study of education, psychology, and neuroscience.
Cavanagh, S.R. (2016). The spark of learning: Energizing the college classroom with the science of emotion. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.
Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty
This book offers college teachers a dynamic model for engaging students and includes over one hundred tips, strategies, and techniques that have been proven to help teachers from a wide variety of disciplines and institutions motivate and connect with their students. The ready-to-use format shows how to apply each of the book's techniques in the classroom and includes purpose, preparation, procedures, examples, online implementation, and more.
Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques a handbook for college faculty. Jossey-Bass.
Teach Students How to Learn
For over a decade Saundra McGuire has been acclaimed for her presentations and workshops on metacognition and student learning because the tools and strategies she has shared have enabled faculty to facilitate dramatic improvements in student learning and success. Her methods can often be accomplished in a single session, transforming students from memorizers and regurgitators to students who begin to think critically.
McGuire, S. Y. (2023). Teach students how to learn: Strategies you can incorporate into any course to improve student metacognition, study skills, and motivation.
Teaching at Its Best: A Research-based Resource for College Instructors
This bestselling, research-based toolbox for college instructors at any level is packed with practical guidance, proven techniques, and expert perspectives. This new fourth edition features five new chapters on building critical thinking into course design, creating a welcoming classroom environment, helping students learn how to learn, giving and receiving feedback, and teaching in multiple modes, along with the latest research and new questions to facilitate faculty discussion.
Nilson, L. B. (2016). Teaching at its best : a research-based resource for college instructors (Fourth edition). Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint.
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Teaching Interculturally: A Framework for Integrating Disciplinary Knowledge and Intercultural Development
Amy Lee, Robert Poch, Mary Katherine O'Brien and Catherine Solheim wrote this book to lay out a pedagogical framework for allowing a diversity of voices and experiences to emerge in the classroom. By implementing certain practices in the classroom, instructors can draw on the diverse perspectives of all students to create an inclusive, student-centered learning environment.
Lee, A. (2017). Teaching interculturally : a framework for integrating disciplinary knowledge and intercultural development (1st ed.). Stylus. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003447399
Teaching What You Don't Know
Huston, T. (2009). Teaching what you don't know. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Understanding by Design
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe introduce the concept of backward design to curriculum development as the "UbD model", which encourages instructors to begin their course planning with learning outcomes in mind and to then fit the lectures, activities and materials around these desired learning outcomes. The authors draw on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD model to greatly expand their work.
Wiggins, G. and J. McTighe. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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What the Best College Teachers Do
What makes a great teacher great? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study, supports it's not what teachers do, it's what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Most of all, they believe in two things: that teaching matters, and that students can learn. Ken Bain describes examples of ingenuity, compassion, and students discovering new ideas and the depth of their own potential.
Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.