The Art of Teaching. Gilbert Highet.

The Art of Teaching
Gilbert Highet
New York: Vintage Books
1955

Why read it? So you think teaching is standing in the front of the room telling students what you know that they don't and that they will pay attention to your every word. This book is an antidote to that assumption about teaching. Even though it deals primarily with lecturing, it still provides fundamental ideas about what is involved in good teaching.

Sample ideas from the book:

Teaching is an art because it involves emotions. Show the students the challenges available in their chosen fields of study. Good teachers continue to learn their subjects. Know your students as individuals. In dealing with problem students keep the relationship impersonal. Do not try to make brilliant students replicas of yourself. Your audience should not feel that they know exactly what you are going to say next.

Irony and sarcasm imply intellectual domination. Try to get all the members of the class working together. STUDENTS NEED TO FEEL THAT THE TEACHER WANTS THEM TO LEARN. Students need to understand the purpose of what they are learning. Show students the semester's or the year's plan. Review what you have taught. Don't make the mistake of assuming that students have thought about the topic you are teaching them.

Quote: "I believe that teaching is an art, not a science.... Teaching involves emotions which cannot be systematically appraised...and human values, which are quite outside the grasp of science."

Quote: "The first essential of good teaching, then, is that teachers must know the subject. That really means that they must continue to learn it."