Of Note: Small Change

Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning by James M. Lang
Jossey-Bass, March 7, 2016

James Lang, a regular columnist for the Chronicle of Higher Education and also director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA, has written a first-rate book on quick, minor adjustments teachers can make in their practice. Both grounded in research and easy to implement, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning should be on the shelves of all teachers, novice and veteran alike. Lang organizes the book in such a way that the reader can delve deeply into the research behind the pedagogy or just look at the techniques and easily experiment with them at any time. Lang summarizes and cites research from other important books on teaching - like Make It Stick by Roediger, McDaniel, and Brown - digesting a wide variety of educational findings in short chapters and then giving helpful suggestions for practical implementation. Divided into three sections - Knowledge, Understanding, and Inspiration - the book invites teachers to use it in any order they choose, depending on what kind of teaching problem they seek to solve. Lang has given educators, at both the college and secondary levels, a great gift in Small Teaching.