Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide.  Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing (2004)

Suskie, Linda

The first edition of this book has become the standard reference for college faculty and administrators who are charged with the task of assessing student learning within their institutions.  Suskie describes assessment as a four-step continuous cycle of establishing learning goals, providing learning opportunities, assessing student learning, and making good use of results. She provides rubrics for evaluating a variety of learning opportunities and media, and supplies model examinations, surveys, checklists, and reports for publication.

Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (2nd Ed.)  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (1993)

Angelo, Thomas A. & Cross, K. Patricia

This book features fifty valuable Classroom Assessment Techniques, each presented in a format that provides an estimate of the ease of use, a concise description, step-by-step procedures for adapting and administering the technique, practical advice on how to analyze the data, pros, cons, caveats, and other useful information. These fifty Classroom Assessment Techniques are cross-indexed so that teachers can easily locate the appropriate techniques for assessing their particular teaching goals in their academic disciplines. Techniques are also indexed for their usefulness in assessing content knowledge, higher-order thinking skills, course-related attitudes and values, and students' reactions to the course.

Cooperative Learning in Higher Education: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy.  Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing (2010)

 Millis, Barbara J.

This book provides the necessary theory, as well as a wide range of concrete examples, of cooperative learning.   Experienced users of cooperative learning demonstrate how the use it in varied settings and disciplines.  The chapters showcase cooperative learning in action, at the same time introducing the reader to major principles such as individual accountability, positive interdependence, heterogeneous teams, group processing, and social or leadership skills.

Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses.   San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (2003)

Fink, L. Dee

Fink provides several conceptual and procedural tools that will be invaluable for all teachers when designing instruction. He takes important existing ideas in the literature on college teaching (active learning, educative assessment), adds some new ideas (a taxonomy of significant learning, the concept of a teaching strategy), and shows how to systematically combine these in a way that results in powerful learning experiences for students. Acquiring a deeper understanding of the design process will empower teachers to creatively design courses for significant learning in a variety of situations.

Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms (2nd Ed).  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (2005)

Brookfield, Stephen D. & Preskill, Stephen

Thoroughly revised and updated, the second edition of the landmark book Discussion as a Way of Teaching shows how to plan, conduct, and assess classroom discussions. The authors suggest exercises for starting discussions, strategies for maintaining their momentum, and ways to elicit diverse views and voices. The book also includes new exercises and material on the intersections between discussion and the encouragement of democracy in the classroom. Throughout the book, Brookfield and Preskill clearly show how discussion can enliven classrooms, and they outline practical methods for ensuring that students will come to class prepared to discuss a topic.  They also explain how to balance the voices of students and teachers, while still preserving the moral, political, and pedagogic integrity of discussion.

Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (1998)/John Wiley & Sons (2010)

Walvoord, Barabara E., Anderson, Virginia Johnson

This book has become a classic in the field - providing a proven hands-on guide for evaluating student work and offering an in-depth examination of the link between teaching and grading.  The second edition has been thoroughly updated and revised with the latest research.  The authors show how to integrate the grading process with course objectives and offer a wealth of information about student learning.  The book also includes information on integration of technology and online teaching, and is filled with more illustrative examples, including a sample syllabus.

Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (2001)

Bean, John C.

A practical nuts-and-bolts guide for teachers from any discipline who want to learn to design interest-provoking writing and critical thinking activities and incorporate them into your courses in a way that encourages inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate. Integrating critical thinking with writing-across-the-curriculum approaches, the book shows how teachers from any discipline can incorporate these activities into their courses. This edition features new material dealing with genre and discourse community theory, quantitative/scientific literacy, blended and online learning, and other current issues.

Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind.  Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing (2009)

Gurung, Regan A.R., Chick, Nancy L., and Haynie, Aeron

This book critically explores how to best foster student learning within and across the disciplines.  It represents a major advance in the Scholarhip of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) by moving beyond individual case studies, best practices, and the work of individual sholars, to focus on the unique content and characteristic pedagogies of major disciplines.   Each chapter explores what the pedagogical literature of the discipline suggests are the optimal ways to teach material in that field, and to verify the resulting learning.  Readers will not only benefit from the chapters most relevant to their disciplines, but will be able to appreciate the cross-disciplinary understandings this book affords.

First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate Student's Guide to Teaching (2nd Ed). MI: University of Michigan Press (2006)

Curzan, Anne & Damour, Lisa

This book is designed to help new graduate student teaching assistants navigate the challenges of teaching undergraduates. Both a quick reference tool and a fluid read, the book focuses on the “how tos,” such as setting up a lesson plan, running a discussion, and grading, as well as issues specific to the teaching assistant’s unique role as both student and teacher.
The new edition incorporates newer teaching and learning pedagogy.  In addition, the book has been updated to reflect the role of technology both inside and outside the classroom.

How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (2010)

Ambrose, Susan A., Bridges, Michael W., DiPietro, Michele, Lovett, Marsha C., Norman, Marie K.

Distilling the research literature and translating the scientific approach into language relevant to a college or university teacher, this book introduces seven general principles of how students learn.  The authors have drawn on research from a breadth of perspectives (cognitive, developmental, and social psychology; educational research; anthropology; demographics; organizational behavior) to identify a set of key principles underlying learning, from how effective organization enhances retrieval and use of information to what impacts motivation.  Integrating theory with real-classroom examples in practice, this book helps faculty to apply cognitive science advances to improve their own teaching.

Introduction to Rubrics: An Assessment Tool to Save Grading Time, Convey Effective Feedback and Promote Student Learning.  Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing (2005)

Stevens, Dannelle D. and Levi, Antonia J.

This book defines what rubrics are, and how to construct and use them. It provides a complete introduction for anyone starting out to integrate rubrics in their teaching. The authors go on to describe a variety of processes to construct rubrics, including some which involve student participation.They demonstrate how interactive rubrics--a process involving assessors and the assessed in defining the criteria for an assignment or objective--can be effective, not only in involving students more actively in their learning, but in establishing consistent standards of assessment at the program, department and campus level.

Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses: Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning.  Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon (2000)

Huba, Mary E. & Freed, Jann E.

This book integrates current thinking and research regarding the learning of undergraduate students with principles of best practice in assessment and teaching. The book will help readers see the connection among three powerful trends in higher education today: the focus on learning and learners, the emphasis on the assessment of learning, and the need to continually improve what those in higher education do.  Grounded in principles of constructivist learning theory and continuous improvement, the book provides opportunities for readers to make connections with what they already know about assessment, integrate new information with their current knowledge, and try new approaches to enhance the learning of their students.

Teaching Diversity: Challenges and Complexities, Identities and Integrity. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing (2003)

Timpson, William M., Canetto, Silvia Sara, Borrayo, Evelinn, Yang, Raymond

A collection of nineteen essays by an ad-hoc committee of faculty at Colorado State University-Fort Collins, Teaching Diversity surveys a host of attitudes towards, and responses to, diversity's meanings and implications for the modern college classroom.
The authors approach the topic from a wide variety of fields of study and perspectives, underscoring their mutually held belief that a careful consideration of diversity issues is relevant even when it is not the primary discipline under study.
 Well-rounded and inclusive, Teaching Diversity is an invaluable aid to teachers and learners looking to broaden their outlook on this increasingly important subject.

Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (12th Ed).  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning (2006)

McKeachie, Wilbert J. and Svinicki, Marilla

This best selling handbook is an invaluable tool for instructors.  It is designed to provide helpful strategies for dealing  with both the everyday problems of teaching at the university level, and those that pop up in trying to maximize learning for every student. The suggested strategies are supported by research and are grounded in enough theory to enable teachers to adapt them to their own situations. The author does not suggest a "set of recipes" to be followed mechanically, but gives teachers the tools they need to deal with the ever changing dynamics of teaching and learning.

The Art & Craft of College Teaching: A Guide for New Professors and Graduate Students (2nd Ed).  Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press (2010)

Rotenberg, Robert

The second edition of Rotenberg's popular guide to college teaching includes additional material on teaching in a digital environment, universal design, and teaching diverse students. As in the first edition, the book provides a hands-on, quick-start guide to the complexities of the college classroom for instructors in their first five years of teaching independently. The chapters survey the existing literature on how to effectively teach young adults, offering specific solutions to the most commonly faced classroom dilemmas. The author, a former department chair and award-winning instructor, encourages the new teacher to support their students as individual learners who are engaged in a program of study beyond their individual class.

The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (1998)

Palmer, Parker J.

This guide will help teachers, individually and in groups, reflect on their teaching and renew their sense of vocation by exploring the inner landscape of their lives along Palmer's three dimensions--intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. The guide will raise questions, examine ideas and images, and suggest practices that emerge from the many insights in The Courage to Teach.

Understanding by Design (Expanded 2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education (2006)

Wiggins, Grant & McTighe, Jay

Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction.  With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks.

What the Best College Teachers Do.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (2004)

Bain, Ken

What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book offers valuable answers for all educators.  The short answer is--it's not what teachers do, it's what they understand.  The best teachers know their subjects inside and out--but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn.  In stories both humorous and touching, Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students' discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential. What the Best College Teachers Do is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration for first-year teachers and seasoned educators.