Any attempt to explain why someone is a good teacher--or is strongly motivated to teach effectively--involves a complex discussion of one of the oldest questions in human history: Why do people do what they do? In Teaching Well and Liking It, a distinguished group of internationally known scholars offers a sophisticated and stimulating look at the issues involved in motivating teachers to teach well in the challenging environment of the modern university.
With college and university administrators worried about how to encourage faculty to devote energy to teaching, and students and their parents concerned that faculty are not dedicated to their teaching responsibilities, and faculty themselves feeling guilty and disappointed at their own failure to find satisfaction in teaching, the time is right for a book that explores the factors that inspire, nurture, and reward good teaching. Motivation, as volume editor James L. Bess points out, is a key factor when it comes to commitment, preparation, sustained effort, and performance in any work.
In fact, the effectiveness of any system of higher education is highly contingent on the quality of the teaching enterprise. What is learned, how much is learned, and progress in the psychosocial maturation of the student learner depend on the willingness of college and university faculty to devote long hours to all aspects of teaching. This collection of essays examines personal motivation to teach--both internal and external--as well as organizational conditions such as job characteristics, leadership, and student diversity, and system-wide conditions such as career phases, public policy, politics, and the vagaries of the academic marketplace. It addresses the issues both theoretically and practically, drawing on the academic and hands-on experience of authors from many fields, including psychology, higher education, business, public policy, and sociology.
Contributors: Max Bazerman, James L. Bess, Janice M. Beyer, Robert T. Blackburn, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Soosan Daghighi, Edward L. Deci, Diane M. Dunlap, Martin Finkelstein, Dorothy E. Finnegan, Judith S. Glazer, Douglas T. Hall, J. G. Hunt, Tim Kasser, Gary P. Latham, Edwin A. Locke, Wilbert J. McKeachie, Robert J. Menges, Richard T. Mowday, Sang H. Nam, Walter R. Nord, Violina P. Rindova, Arja Ropo, Richard M. Ryan, Jack H. Schuster, Daryl G. Smith, Joseph Stetar, Stephen A. Stumpf, Cynthia Symons, Martin Trow, Charles J. Walker
James L. Bess is professor of education at New York University. His many books include Creative R& amp;D Leadership: Insights from Japan, Collegiality and Bureaucracy in the Modern University, and University Organization: A Matrix Analysis of the Academic Professions.
