Resources

Chapters in collected volumes and journal articles — including a chapter in "Disciplinary Differences in Teaching and Learning," a forthcoming New Directions paperback from Jossey-Bass — report on some recent findings. But what's "old" is news to those who haven't heard it. The following offer provocative introductions to this very different way of looking at student learning.

- The Experience of Learning, eds. Ference Marton, Dai Hounsell, Noel Entwistle (Scottish Academic Press, 1984). The book, with a forward by Wilbert McKeachie, is a model of what multi-authored books could be. Each chapter builds on an awareness of the preceeding chapters and tailors its contribution to the construction of a larger understanding of where the inquiry is headed, rather than blindly focusing on the findings of some specific research. Thus, the book demonstrates in its methodology how its authors believe deep learning happens.

-- Noel Entwistle, Styles of Learning and Teaching: An Integrated Outline of Educational Psychology for Students, Teachers, and Lecturers. (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1981). While more a textbook than a narrative, Entwistle's outline really does speak to each of his named audiences. The hard data appear in tables and footnotes, but so do engrossing excerpts from forgotten classics on learning and telling narratives from student interviews. The book also contains a short self inventory to test one's approach to studying, and it is broken up with "Stop and Think" questions that invite engagement with the meaning of the text.

-- Paul Ramsden, Learning to Teach in Higher Education. (Routledge, New your, 1992). Ramsden lays out material clearly and is not afraid to speak bluntly when needed. He seems readier than most to offer specific advice on how to go about shifting the orientation of college teaching toward actual learning.