DEREK BOK CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

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The Derek Bok Center publishes handbooks, guides, and videotapes. Harvard University Teaching Fellows and members of the Faculty should visit the Bok Center to obtain copies of publications or to view or borrow videotapes. Books and videos are also available for purchase, as described below.

Handbooks and Guides

Teaching American Students: A Guide for International Faculty and Teaching Assistants.

Third Edition, 2006.

A handbook for international faculty and teaching assistants to help teachers adjust to the culture of the American classroom. It treats topics such as the assumptions of American students, giving presentations that students can understand, providing direction and continuity in discussions, and understanding nonverbal communication. Appendices include essentials of the first day of class, issues in science teaching, and grading problem sets.
Excerpts and ordering information.

Voices of Experience: Reflections from a Harvard Teaching Seminar.

Essays from a Bok Center seminar for teachers early in their academic careers. Topics include: effective teaching techniques, students' and teachers' motivation, discussion in the classroom, collaborative learning, lecturing, diversity, grading and feedback, and balancing teaching and professional concerns.
Contents, reviews, and ordering information.

The Art and Craft of Teaching.

A collection of essays covering topics such as: preparing for the first day of class, lecturing, holding discussions, questioning, leading sections, teaching essay writing, grading and evaluating, and using the rhythms of the semester.
Order online from Harvard University Press.

Teaching Fellows Handbook.

Teaching and resource information for Teaching Fellows at Harvard University. A basic overview of how to secure a teaching appointment, teaching skills and strategies, evaluating and improving teaching. An appendix includes tips on how to create a course section evaluation questionnaire, sample guidelines for oral reports, writing letters of recommendation, and a bibliography of useful books on teaching. Published annually, approximately 90 pages.

The Teaching Fellows Handbook can be downloaded in PDF format from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences' Web site.

  


The following two videotapes are available only from the Bok Center, not from Anker Publishing.

Teaching Elementary French

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Teaching Elementary French, Volume One. Developed in collaboration with Harvard University's Department of Romance Languages, this tape will acquaint new teachers of French with a variety of effective teaching techniques. Drawing on actual classroom examples and on students' perspectives, the tape illustrates how to create an environment that fosters active learning -- where students feel comfortable taking risks, and learn through using the language. The tapes follow the sequence of topics in a normal lesson plan. Volume One addresses effective ways for beginning class: creating a transition into a French world through warm-ups, dialogues and different types of pronunciation drill.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 37 minutes

Teaching Elementary French, Volume Two. Continuing the lesson plan and the active learning approach of the previous tape, Volume Two addresses successful ways for building grammar and vocabulary skills, and for creating activities and discussions based on literary texts. It ends with examples of effective warm-downs
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 37 minutes

Order from the Bok Center

Videotapes

Harvard Faculty members and Teaching Fellows may view or borrow tapes by visiting the Bok Center. The videotapes are also available to the general public for purchase. Order videos online from Anker Publishing.

We regret that videotapes are not available for rental.

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The Act of Teaching

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The Act of Teaching: Part 1, Theatre Techniques for Classroom Presentations. Teachers can learn to convey ideas more powerfully by improving their presentation skills. In this video, Nancy Houfek, Head of Voice and Speech for the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, directs a workshop that stresses the importance of communication with the whole self in order to reach an audience more effectively.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 42 minutes.

The Act of Teaching: Part 2, Physical and Vocal Exercises. Exercises designed to prepare teachers for the physical challenges of the classroom. In three parts, this video stresses the importance of warming up your body and voice so that you can be fully present to your audience as you begin to teach.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 15 minutes.

The Art of Discussion Leading:
A Class with Chris Christensen.

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Professor C. Roland "Chris" Christensen, who has taught for nearly fifty years at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, initiates a group of apprentice teachers into the challenges of discussion leading. Under his guidance, the group analyzes a teaching case. Includes classroom scenes, reflections on teaching by Professor Christensen, and interviews with participants.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 30 minutes.

The Art of the Lecture:
Justice, A Harvard University Course in Moral Reasoning.

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Much can be learned about a good lecture by observing Michael Sandel, a popular professor of government at Harvard. Students find his lectures elegant, witty, and articulate. Professor Sandel also involves students in their own learning by giving them a voice. Justice shows how a traditional lecture style can be successfully combined with a more interactive approach to teaching.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 28 minutes.

From Questions to Concepts
Interactive Teaching in Physics.

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This video features the preparation and delivery of a lecture by Harvard University Professor Eric Mazur in his innovative elementary physics course. Using the techniques of peer instruction and just-in-time learning, Mazur demonstrates how lectures and active learning can be successfully combined and how students can monitor their own understanding of class material and offer feedback to faculty. The result is a practical introduction to two valuable techniques whose use extends far beyond physics alone.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 29 minutes.

How to Speak: Lecture Tips from Patrick Winston.

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In this skillful lecture, Professor Patrick Winston of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers tips on how to give an effective talk, cleverly illustrating his suggestions by using them himself. He emphasizes how to start a lecture, cycling in on the material, using verbal punctuation to indicate transitions, describing "near misses" that strengthen the intended concept, and asking questions. He also talks about using the blackboard, overhead projections, props, and "how to stop."
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 45 minutes.

Race in the Classroom: The Multiplicity of Experience.

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Five vignettes depicting moments in college courses when the race or culture of participants, a race-related topic, or racial dynamics become a major factor in teaching and learning. Each vignette is based on an actual classroom incident. These scenes do not offer specific answers, but are intended instead to spark discussion on these important and difficult issues. Co-produced with the Harvard Office for Race Relations and Minority Affairs. (Includes a 60-page Facilitator's Handbook)
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 19 minutes.

Teaching in America: A Guide for International Faculty.

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Practical advice on the culture of the American classroom, student expectations, and techniques for successful teaching. Interviews with more than twenty international faculty members and teaching assistants at Harvard University deal with topics ranging from language problems to how to keep discussions lively. Classroom scenes from courses in anthropology, economics, and physics with an analysis of successful teaching strategies adopted by international faculty. (Includes the handbook Teaching American Students.)
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 38 minutes.

Teaching Poetry with Helen Vendler

How does a master teacher introduce students to poetry? What critical choices can be made to help students read with greater pleasure and understanding? As part of the Bok Center series Reflections on Teaching, poetry critic and scholar Helen Vendler (Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard) answers these questions as she guides students through a reading of William Butler Yeats's masterpiece, "Among School Children" (1928). The video records an actual lecture delivered to an undergraduate audience and is interspersed with Professor Vendler's reflections on the challenges and pleasures of making poetry come alive for undergraduates.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 39 minutes.

Thinking Together: Collaborative Learning in Science.

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Three models of collaborative learning -- an introductory physics lecture, a lesson in celestial navigation, and a section in physical chemistry -- taped in Harvard classrooms. In each class, students discuss problems and devise solutions with the help of their instructors and peers. Includes interviews and classroom scenes.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 18 minutes. Blue Ribbon Winner, 1993 American Film and Video Festival.

What Students Want: Teaching From a Student's Perspective.

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Teachers make assumptions about what motivates, excites, and frustrates their students. But how do students themselves view teaching? What do they find exciting and frustrating in the classroom? To help answer these questions, the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning interviewed over forty Harvard undergraduates in the spring of 1992. What Students Want presents their reflections on what facilitates learning, definitions of good and bad teachers, and the nature of the student-teacher partnership.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 24 minutes.

Women in the Classroom: Cases for Discussion.

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Five short vignettes depict classroom moments when the role of women is an issue, either because of the gender of the teacher or students, or because of the topic under discussion. The examples can be used to initiate discussions about how gender issues affect learning, with an underlying goal of making classrooms more open for women. The problems illustrated include gaining authority, gendered modes of expression, male and female dominance, race and gender conflicts, and faculty responsibility. A Facilitator's Guide is included with each tape.
1/2 inch VHS tape. Running time: 27 minutes.

Order videos online from Anker Publishing.

Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning Science Center 318 | One Oxford Street | Cambridge, MA 02138-2901
Voice: (617) 495-4869
| Fax: (617) 495-3739 | Web: http://bokcenter.harvard.edu

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