Joshua R. Eyler

This book digs a little deeper into lots of research so is a somewhat slower read than Small Teaching. What I liked about the book is how it connects current scientific understanding of how the brain works with how we teach, giving us a clearer sense of the why - why certain teaching and learning methods are more effective than others. The chapters focus on curiosity, sociality, emotion, authenticity, and failure, with some teaching ideas. If you want just a lot of teaching ideas, this book may be a bit much, but if you want some deeper sense of what is going on in our brains while we are learning, this is probably a good fit.… (más)

In How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College Teaching, Joshua Eyler brings together the latest in sociological and neurological research and asks what it can tell us about processes of teaching and learning. Eyler's synthesis is lucid and succinct and he makes some helpful points as to how these pedagogical insights can be applied in the college classroom.

However, I couldn't help feel a little frustrated at various moments while reading this book. I absolutely agree with his observations about how toxic grades are, and how limited a motivational tool they are—but are any of the tweaks he offers to the system really going to change that much for the vast majority of us who teach at institutions which mandate grades and which use them as a proxy for success? What I think hampers Eyler's analysis a little is his lack of engagement with the systems within which the teaching takes place. Perhaps this is an unfair criticism—only so much can fit into a 200-page book, after all—and regardless, this is still a worthwhile read for any college educator.… (más)