Several Hamilton faculty members contributed to a new book, Pathways to Excellence in Teaching, edited by Ernest H. Williams, the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Biology, and published by The Couper Press.
This book is based on the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Conference held at Hamilton in April 2011. There were six presenters at the conference, each of whom has been recognized as a U.S. Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The presenters contributed essays from their presentations. Williams, as moderator of the conference and editor, contributed a final essay.
Hamilton’s faculty presenters were Hong Gang Jin, the William R. Kenan Professor of Chinese and director of the Associated Colleges in China Program; Barbara Tewksbury, Professor of Geosciences and Upson Chair of Public Discourse; and Vivyan Adair, Elizabeth J. McCormack Associate Professor of Women’s Studies.
The essays and their authors are: “Kindling the Fire in Undergraduate Biology Students,” Stephen H. Loomis, Jean C. Tempel ’65 Professor of Biology, Connecticut College; “Lessons from Apollo: What do You Want Your Students to be Good At? How Will You Get Them There?,” Barbara J. Tewksbury; “True Grit: I Am Not Your Mother and This Is Not A Democracy,” Jo Beth Mertens, associate professor of economics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges; “Effective Teaching is a Relationship Building Process,” Hong Gong Jin; “Navigating Porous Intellectual Boundaries: Knowledge, Power and Ethics Within and Beyond the Classroom,” Vivyan Adair; “Learning to Let Go,” John Elder, College Professor Emeritus, Middlebury College; and “Epilogue: What Students Tell Us,” Ernest H. Williams.
