Since 2007, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development has hosted an annual Fall Faculty Book Club. This initiative brings together a small cohort of faculty to read and discuss a carefully selected book focused on teaching, learning, and higher education pedagogy. The book club meets once a month from September through November, reading part of the book before each meeting to focus the discussion.
Since 2007, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development has hosted the Fall Faculty Book Club, an annual initiative designed to foster collaborative dialogue around higher education pedagogy. The program convenes a small, dedicated cohort of faculty to read and discuss carefully selected literature focusing on the art and science of teaching.
* Format: Small group discussions (maximum 10 participants)
To ensure intimate and substantive conversations, participation is capped at ten faculty members per cohort. The group meets monthly from September through November, gathering on Monday evenings from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. To alleviate logistical hurdles, all selected texts are provided and delivered to participants at no cost. Because the discussions are paced—with faculty reading designated sections prior to each meeting—participants are expected to commit to attending all two to three sessions throughout the semester.
* Commitment: Participants must attend all scheduled meetings (typically 2-3 sessions per semester)
* Meeting times: Evening sessions, usually 5:00-6:30 pm on Monday evenings
* Resources provided: Books are delivered to participants at no cost
The book club has a strong track record of selecting timely, research-based texts that address contemporary challenges in higher education, including inclusive teaching, digital literacy, student learning strategies, and social justice in academia. Past selections show a consistent focus on evidence-based teaching practices and creating more equitable educational experiences.
The book club maintains a strong tradition of selecting timely, research-based texts that address contemporary academic challenges. Past selections consistently emphasize evidence-based practices and the cultivation of equitable educational experiences, tackling subjects such as inclusive teaching, digital literacy, student learning strategies, and social justice. Ultimately, the initiative provides a structured, supportive space for faculty to critically examine and evolve their teaching strategies.
== Book Club Timeline ==
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== 2025 ==
The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI by Tricia Bertram Gallant and David A. Rettinger
== 2024 ==
[[File:PedagogyOfKindness.jpg|200px|thumb|right|alt=The cover of the book|A Pedagogy of Kindness by Catherine J. Denial]]
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development is pleased to announce
its 17th Annual Fall Faculty Book Club. This fall we will be reading ''[https://www.oupress.com/9780806193854/a-pedagogy-of-kindness/ A Pedagogy of Kindness]'' by Catherin J. Denial.
Here is a description of the book from the publisher:
<blockquote>
Academia is not, by and large, a kind place. Individualism and competition are what count. But without kindness at its core, Catherine Denial suggests, higher education fails students and instructors—and its mission—in critical ways.
Part manifesto, part teaching memoir, part how-to guide, A Pedagogy of Kindness urges higher education to get aggressive about instituting kindness, which Denial distinguishes from niceness. Having suffered beneath the weight of just “getting along,” instructors need to shift every part of what they do to prioritizing care and compassion—for students as well as for themselves.
A Pedagogy of Kindness articulates a fresh vision for teaching, one that focuses on ensuring justice, believing people, and believing in people. Offering evidence-based insights and drawing from her own rich experiences as a professor, Denial offers practical tips for reshaping syllabi, assessing student performance, and creating trust and belonging in the classroom. Her suggestions for concrete, scalable actions outline nothing less than a transformational discipline—one in which, together, we create bright new spaces, rooted in compassion, in which all engaged in teaching and learning might thrive.
</blockquote>
The Fall Faculty Book Club will meet two times this semester, so please only request a space if
you are committed to attending both of the following meetings:
# Monday, October 14, 5:00-6:30 pm
# Monday, November 18, 5:00-6:30 pm
If you are interested, [https://cat.xula.edu/about/contact please contact CAT+FD]. We will accept the first 10
people who respond, and will deliver the books as soon as possible.
We look forward to reading with you and learning with you!
== 2023 ==
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development is pleased to announce
its 16th Annual Fall Faculty Book Club. This fall we will be reading ''[https://wvupressonline.com/inclusive-teaching/Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom]'' by Kelly A. Hogan & Viji Sathy.
Here is a description of the book from the publisher:
<blockquote>
In a book written by and for college teachers, Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy provide tips and advice on how to make all students feel welcome and included. They begin with a framework describing why explicit attention to structure enhances inclusiveness in both course design and interactions with and between students. Inclusive Teaching then provides practical ways to include more voices in a series of contexts: when giving instructions for group work and class activities, holding office hours, communicating with students, and more. The authors finish with an opportunity for the reader to reflect on what evidence to include in a teaching dossier that demonstrates inclusive practices.
The work of two highly regarded specialists who have delivered over a hundred workshops on inclusive pedagogy and who contribute frequently to public conversations on the topic, Inclusive Teaching distills state-of-the-art guidance on addressing privilege and implicit bias in the college classroom. It seeks to provide a framework for individuals and communities to ask, Who is being left behind and what can teachers do to add more structure?
</blockquote>
The Fall Faculty Book Club will meet three times this semester, so please only request a space if
you are committed to attending all three of the following meetings:
# Monday, September 11, 5:00-6:30 pm
# Monday, October 2, 5:00-6:30 pm
# Monday, November 13, 5:00-6:30 pm
If you are interested, [https://cat.xula.edu/about/contact please contact CAT+FD]. We will accept the first 10
people who respond, and will deliver the books as soon as possible.
We look forward to reading with you and learning with you!
== 2022 ==
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development is pleased to announce
its Fifteenth Annual Fall Faculty Book Club. This fall we will be reading ''[https://styluspub.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9781620363164/Teach-Students-How-to-Learn Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation]'' by Saundra Yancy McGuire.
Here is a description of the book from the publisher:
<blockquote>
What is preventing your students from performing according to expectations? Saundra McGuire offers a simple but profound answer: If you teach students how to learn and give them simple, straightforward strategies to use, they can significantly increase their learning and performance.
Dr. McGuire takes the reader sequentially through the ideas and strategies that students need to understand and implement. First, she demonstrates how introducing students to metacognition and Bloom’s Taxonomy reveals to them the importance of understanding how they learn and provides the lens through which they can view learning activities and measure their intellectual growth. Next, she presents a specific study system that can quickly empower students to maximize their learning. Then, she addresses the importance of dealing with emotion, attitudes, and motivation by suggesting ways to change students’ mindsets about ability and by providing a range of strategies to boost motivation and learning; finally, she offers guidance to faculty on partnering with campus learning centers.
</blockquote>
The Fall Faculty Book Club will meet three times this semester, so please only request a space if
you are committed to attending all three of the following meetings:
# Monday, September 12, 5:00-6:30 pm
# Monday, October 3, 5:00-6:30 pm
# Monday, November 14, 5:00-6:30 pm
If you are interested, [https://cat.xula.edu/about/contact please contact CAT+FD]. We will accept the first 10
people who respond, and will deliver the books as soon as possible.
We look forward to reading with you and learning with you!
== 2021 ==
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development is pleased to announce
its Fourteenth Annual Fall Faculty Book Club. This fall we will be reading ''Skim, Dive, Surface: Teaching Digital Reading'' by Jenae Cohn.
Here is a description of the book from the publisher:
<blockquote>
Students are reading on screens more than ever—how can we teach them to be better digital readers?
Smartphones, laptops, tablets: college students are reading on-screen all the time, and digital devices shape students’ understanding of and experiences with reading. In higher education, however, teachers rarely consider how digital reading experiences may have an impact on learning abilities, unless they’re lamenting students’ attention spans or the distractions available to students when they’re learning online.
Skim, Dive, Surface offers a corrective to these conversations—an invitation to focus not on losses to student learning but on the spectrum of affordances available within digital learning environments. It is designed to help college instructors across the curriculum teach digital reading in their classes, whether they teach face-to-face, fully online, or somewhere in between. Placing research from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, learning science, and composition in dialogue with insight from the scholarship of teaching and learning, Jenae Cohn shows how teachers can better frame, scaffold, and implement effective digital reading assignments. She positions digital reading as part of a cluster of literacies that students should develop in order to communicate effectively in a digital environment.
</blockquote>
The Fall Faculty Book Club will meet three times this semester, so please only request a space if
you are committed to attending all three of the following meetings:
# Monday, September 27, 4:30 pm
# Monday, October 25, 4:30 pm
# Monday, November 22, 4:30 pm
If you are interested, please [https://cat.xula.edu/mail/?to=301 email Jay Todd]. We will accept the first 10 people who respond, and will deliver the books as soon as possible.
We look forward to reading with you and learning with you!
==2019==
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/265056.Lives_on_the_Boundary Lives on the Boundary: A Moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements of America's Educationally Underprepared] by Mike Rose
==2018==
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36751217-backlash Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly about Racism in America] by George Yancy
==2017==
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26367751-slow-professor The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy] by Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber
==2016==
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26517530-small-teaching Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning] by James M. Lang
==2015==
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7036409-how-learning-works How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching] by Susan A. Ambrose, Marsha C. Lovett, Richard E. Mayer (Foreword), Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marie K. Norman
==2014==
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/139048.Earth_in_Mind Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect] by David W. Orr
Co-sponsored with Read Today, Lead Tomorrow:
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289751.Proust_and_the_Squid Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain] by Maryanne Wolfe
==2013==
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3557358-sentipensante-sensing-thinking-pedagogy Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation] by Laura I. Rendón
==2012==
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13747795-what-the-best-college-students-do What the Best College Students Do] by Ken Bain
==2011==
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/141593.How_Black_Colleges_Empower_Black_Students How Black Colleges Empower Black Students: Lessons for Higher Education] by Frank W. Hale Jr.
==2010==
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7791813-the-heart-of-higher-education The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal] by Parker J. Palmer and Arthur Zajonc
==2009==
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1395164.The_Skillful_Teacher The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom] by Stephen D. Brookfield
==2008==
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2153560.A_Will_to_Learn A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty] by Ronald Barnett
==2007==
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76696.What_the_Best_College_Teachers_Do What the Best College Teachers Do] by Ken Bain
Revision as of 09:11, 30 June 2026
Since 2007, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development has hosted the Fall Faculty Book Club, an annual initiative designed to foster collaborative dialogue around higher education pedagogy. The program convenes a small, dedicated cohort of faculty to read and discuss carefully selected literature focusing on the art and science of teaching.
To ensure intimate and substantive conversations, participation is capped at ten faculty members per cohort. The group meets monthly from September through November, gathering on Monday evenings from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. To alleviate logistical hurdles, all selected texts are provided and delivered to participants at no cost. Because the discussions are paced—with faculty reading designated sections prior to each meeting—participants are expected to commit to attending all two to three sessions throughout the semester.
The book club maintains a strong tradition of selecting timely, research-based texts that address contemporary academic challenges. Past selections consistently emphasize evidence-based practices and the cultivation of equitable educational experiences, tackling subjects such as inclusive teaching, digital literacy, student learning strategies, and social justice. Ultimately, the initiative provides a structured, supportive space for faculty to critically examine and evolve their teaching strategies.
19th Annual. Although the book was written before the COVID-19 pandemic caused much of the world to go into lockdown, it's focus on the challenges students struggle with in the traditional classroom are more relevant than ever.
