Colleges and Departments Books

Teachers are performers, by default. Their choice is not whether to perform, but whether to make a conscious choice to do it effectively. "Unfortunately," the authors write (p. 18), "We who teach in higher education rarely receive formal training in the performance aspects of our teaching." Borrowing techniques and insights from the performing arts, the authors provide a variety of tools for correcting that problem. Their book is aimed at college instructors, but much is also appropriate for middle and high school instruction.

Facilitating discussion, engaging students, and creating a dynamic classroom are some of the key goals which the book covers. I found especially helpful the specific examples given, examples reaching far across the disciplines. The many examples of dynamic teaching in nursing, chemistry, biology, and so on, demonstrate that these techniques can and should be used in the sciences and other fields as well.

Among much else, the authors discuss nonverbal cues, audience awareness techniques, roles the instructor can play, and suggestions for breaking through normal routines. Still, the book as a whole is not as much method as it is theory. For example, I came away with a better understanding of why and when I should consider using role plays than how to actually do it. I would have liked to see some discussion of the actual dynamics, such as Bill Bigelow outlines in the book "Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice."

Along the same lines, the specific examples given are usually summarized in a sentence or two. I wanted more: more details, more discussion of how those examples worked and why. The authors suggest, for instance, using role plays to talk through tough situations like a student dominating discussion (p. 145). But I'd think most instructors wouldn't have the time or the self-confidence to actually carry that out. A short case study taking me through an implementation of that strategy might have changed my mind.

Nonetheless, the book's suggestions are quite helpful (though at times repetitive) and turn the reader's attention to critical aspects of the teaching process most teachers rarely consider. Though it's uneven, I recommend the book to all instructors; you will find something in here which will improve your teaching.

The authors do an excellent job of connecting "performing" to the teaching philosophy of active learning. If you are already sold on active learning, you will find some of their material a bit repetitive. However, the authors' target seems to be people who use a one-way talk or "sage on the stage" style of teaching. For them, this book could be eye-opening, with its call for abandoning the "content provider role" and moving toward more interaction-oriented teaching.

Every chapter contains suggestions for exercises, many requiring physical movement and the cooperation of others. Many chapters also offer checklists for self-assessment, although I question whether untutored instructors will have the self-awareness to make good use of them.

Two things could be improved in the next edition of the book. First, the authors should eliminate the many very positive references & short vignettes concerning their colleagues' teaching. I'm sure most of the people named are exemplary teachers, but the snippets of material are much too short to serve a pedagogical function. Second, for a book by people apparently heavily involved in dramatic arts, there are surprisingly few in-depth lessons on how to take specific learning objectives & apply tips from the stage to achieve them. Many short references are made to popular plays and films, but they don't really add value to the book.

I would certainly recommend that instructors interested in active learning read this book. I'm not sure I would recommend its purchase. I should note, however, that with my purchase I received a bonus: pages 117-148 appeared twice in the book!

I love this book! It is so accurate and fair. Some individuals might be bitter ...because it rightfully ranks the medical school at Queen's University (Canada) well under the University of Manitoba... but you can't argue with the facts. Thank you Dr. Gourman for your unbiased report.

It is impossible for me to view this report as credible and reliable without knowing anything about its methodology. For all we know, these rankings may represent nothing more than the author's personal opinions. Every other ranking publication, no matter what the subject, explains its criteria for selection and ranking. It frightens me that high school students are relying upon this misinformation when applying to colleges.

You've read the critical reviews that dismiss Dr. Gourman's research and publications. But what does the MARKET say about his work. Last published in 1997 for $21.95 and today, eight years later, the LOWEST priced used copy here on Amazon is NINE (9) times that original retail price.

Go figure .... and who do you believe?

As mentioned in the previous review, Jack Gourman (who taught at the University of Michigan at one point) heavily favors large state universities over private insitutions, which leads him into making such howlers as declaring Michigan to be one of the three top undergraduate institutions in the country.

Michigan is a fine institution, but like any state university, its mission is to provide an education to the youth of the home state, which means that it is not going to be able to recruit and accept the best students nationwide.

State institutions also offer courses of study (e.g., Home Economics, Agriculture and the like) essential to the well-being of the home state but generally not among the course offerings of the best private schools. Unlike US News, Gourman is vague about how he weights the various factors he considers, but it appears that he weights these programs on a par with Mathematics and Physics.

Having said all of that, I found his lists useful as a cross-check against other rankings. For instance, Gourman lists the University of Delaware as one of the top 10 institutions in the country in Chemical Engineering. That's obvious once you think about it (Dupont is headquartered in Delaware), but I hadn't thought about it until I read his book.

In the meantime, Jack, if you want to be taken seriously, disclose your methodology.

The Gourman report is a very good source for the evaluation of undergraduate programs across the country. There is an obvious bias of Professor Gourman that forces him to favor large state institutions instead of smaller liberal arts schools. When he ranks the top 100 schools, he gives Harvard and Princeton the number 1 and 2, at number 3 he lists the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. Swarthmore College weighs in at 97. A lot of people would disagree with this ranking, but Gourman makes a point I agree with. Gourman argues that the larger state schools (especially schools that draw from all over the country and not just their home state such as Michigan, Wisconsin, California-Berkeley, and Virginia) are the best schools to receive a degree from. I agree with him because the strength of programs he evauluates are obviously better at the larger schools than such schools as Williams, Swarthmore and Amherst. While you may disagree with his rankings, it is hard to argue with the depth of support and statistics he deals with. It is also impossible to argue with his ranking of the U of M. Go Blue!

I am one of the "fools". Well, that's the only sympathetic group in this novel, and they are marginalized. With personal experience of a college French department where the dominant element would gladly push out that pesky language and literature and style itself The Department of Theory and Discourse, I admit that much of my delight in this satire comes from the in jokes.

However, there is another dimension here that appeals to any reader interested in the task of writing fiction, which L'Heureux (how do you pronounce this happy name in American, anyway?) deconstructs even as he sends up Deconstruction. Who can resist the parallel of Olga, in her role as Author, to Mary Poppins? She alights on the scene, opens her carpetbag of tricks, manipulates her unsuspecting charges and, having changed everything, disappears into the air.

This book is a must read for aspirants to a MFA writing program, or and English PhD, and also to survivors of these programs. Persons in humanities academia will appreciate the name dropping, inside jokes, and mentions of deconstructionism. Other may find them tedious.

The book is a little slow to get started, but does pick up somewhat after that.

The book is seriously marred by 2 chapters "humorously" describing a circumcision. The characters gleefully talk about the "healthfulness and cleanliness" of circumcision... a very dated opinion considering the recent spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a very real risk of infant circumcision. This is not a great subject for humor.

A small request for the author:
1) Next time you write about circumcision, please watch one first. Babies do not "coo happily" an hour or two after having 10,000+ nerve endings and 40% of their penile skin removed.
2) All babies, including fictional ones, deserve the best possible start in life. Among PhD educated stay-at-home moms in the USA (as two moms are in the book) breast feeding rates are well over 90%. The mention of "bottles" in this book significantly detracts form the realism.
3) Real babies, at 3-6 months old, do not sleep most of the time. Visit with a mom of a 3 month old for a few hours, and you will see what life is really like.

Handmaid of Desire is a ridiculous tale of lust, greed, and murder set in the Ivory Towers of Northern California academia. It is light reading, and unwittingly, the author gives support to those who criticize "English" as a useless university major and department. This book seems like it was written for the author and his friends as an inside joke--"Ho ho ho! That jibe at Foucault was hilarious!"

The novel is centered around Professor Olga Kominska, who can read minds and knows the deepest secrets of the English professors with whom she works. She thinks her time as an invited guest professor should be spent helping the other teachers with their personal problems. I honestly can't go on reviewing something that doesn't deserve the time or space. Skip this one at all costs.

After the frist hundred pages, this novel falls into repetition without interesting variations. Longueur succeeds longueur. The characters cease developing and the situations become predictable. Only verbal brilliance could save the book.

A much niftier book about life in poststructural times on a major American unversity campus is Hynes, The Lecturer's tale. Much more interesting style, plot, and characters.

"The Handmade of Desire" by John L'Heureux is not written for the average reader who likes her tales to flow chronologically. One has to have some prior knowledge to follow his 'plot' which seems to be a send-up of deconstructionism.

Olga Kominski, a supposedly brilliant feminist writer joins the faculty of an unnamed university. She is of vague origin, perhaps Eastern European given her Polish last name. Her origin would not be an issue but for her proclivity to speak with multiple accents.

Olga has been hired as a member of the English faculty, and she is working on a book in her spare time. A professor of English writing a book is not unusual, but what is unusual is that as Olga writes, the characters in L'Heureux's book act in accordance with the characters in Olga's text. Is Olga merely recording the events she witnesses in the lives around her? Is she manipulating people so that they behave in ways she desires? Or, is she writing a script and through mysterious powers gaining the willing participation of the characters?

One experiences a sensation akin to that felt when viewing the famous Escher print where the hand is drawing the hand is drawing the hand. Surely, the author is spoofing the reader.

Most of the characters in Olga's book and L'Heureux's book are faculty peers or their spouses. All have secrets. All have problems. Unfortunately, the characters in both books are one-dimensional caricatures. I found it difficult to care about them. Unlike the characters in Jane Smiley's "Moo" some of whom still live in my mind, L'Heureux's characters are totally forgetable. The possible exception is Daryl the taxicab driver who seems to be "real."

As I sit in Strozier Library, in the center of the Florida State University campus, I can tell you that FSU was established in 1857.

I will try and keep this review dealing with the big picture, not getting bogged down in whether there are any insignificant errors in the 768 page volume or not (there are), but rather focus on its utility to a potential graduate student. While it is true, as one reviewer points out, that most of this information is available by phoning the schools in question, that seems to be missing the point: in this one book all the information that a prospective student needs to begin their graduate school search is in one place. That, in a nutshell, is why this is valuable.

The book has profiles on essentially every school in the US with graduate programs, including many I had never even heard of. The profiles explain what programs are available, admittance requirements and procedures, costs, addresses, phone numbers, contact personnel, etc. All the information is extremely well presented and genuinely useful. While I am sure that there are small errors in a book this comprehensive (just like there are errors in any 700-plus page book, be they grammatical or otherwise) this is a great resource for basic research into a school or program. Obviously, when a student has accomplished this first step, they will need to go to individual school websites, talk to schools, and ultimately visit campuses.

For general information on graduate programs in the US, this book is the clear champion compared with the other available options. Any prospective graduate student that isn't 100 percent sure what program they want to enroll in should own this book.

This book gives a bare amount of info most of which could have found out by using the phone. The information given is very vague and the book needs more info to be helpful.

I was browsing at the local bookstore for future graduate schools when I came across this: The book listed University of Florida as established in 1953 and Florida State University as 1857. The dates are reversed. University of Florida was establisehd in 1857. I know this because I graduated from the University of Florida. Overall the book gives a decent overall view of what programs and degrees the grad schools offer. A bit more info on graduate tuition fees for in state and out of state would be helpful.

I'm currently researching graduate programs in archaeology andfound this book to be absolutely no help. It only had six pagesdevoted to graduate programs in archaeology without any descriptions as to the programs offered, backgrouns of the professors or even department heads. I did notice that there was much more detail in the sections relating to other programs, however, for archaeology it was wasted.

There is a pretty comprehensive review of how to get into graduate school. It not only focuses on the testing procedures and grades, but also on other relevant topics such as financing your education and even if graduate school will be right for you. The only lacking aspect was the fact that some of the information on contacting the programs was missing or outdated.

When I began thinking about pursuing an advanced degree in English, I had a lot of trouble finding any information. This book is not the best that will ever be published, but right now it is a pretty good resource in an area where there is almost nothing. Much of the reference materials sold in other books are merely directories of departments and programs - useful if you know what you want to study and where you want to go, but not really valuable if you aren't even sure graduate school is the best option for you. The kind of information that you need to obtain when you are actually applying to schools probably won't come from this book. What this book *does* do is to take a realistic look at what going to graduate school means, whether you should go at all, and if you decide to do so what you will encounter in the process. It is not going to tell you how to get into a graduate program in art history or archaeology, but what it will do is lead you in the right direction to finding the kind of information you need to consider those programs. It is a good GENERAL guide for those of us who weren't born knowing how graduate school works, and contains useful information that can help put you on a path to an advanced degree.

on page 79, (English test) beginning with #22, the answer key is off. It gives the answer to 21 as D. and 22 is also D. How is this possible when the choices for 22 are F,G,H,J?

This is the best book I've ever used to get higher scores on the ACT. It tells exactly what you need to know and study -- and nothing more. I was studying a lot more formula's then I needed to and I didn't realize it untill I got this book. I also wasn't taught a couple of formulas, needed for the math part of the ACT, untill I used this book. I highly suggest this book to anyone who wants to raise their scores.

This was an o.k. book. It didn't help me very much, but it had good tests. They made a lot of mistakes, which could have been avoided. The writers probably didn't put their best into it.

I purchased this book to help me narrow my choices in regards to Graduate Schools for Architecture. As it turns out, less than 10% of the book is devoted to Architecture (the title led me to believe otherwise). Moreover, the information is simply contact information with some demographics, something that can be found for free on the internet. If you know what field you want to enter, find a book with that focus. This book was a big waste of money as one day after it arrived, I'm deciding if I should throw it away or give it to someone else (who will probably find it as useless as I do). For those interested in Architecture, "Guide to Architecture Schools, Seventh Edition" is the way to go. It costs twice as much as this book, but at least it provides useful, in-depth information!

If you are an artist or an architect, or desire to be, this book is indispensable. I am interested in Graduate Architecture programs, and certainly that is covered here, but many other things are covered as well. The book is very well organized and gives information relevant to graduate degrees from all accredited schools in the country in architecture, but also in other design and arts programs such as photography, dance, urban design, industrial design, interior design, medical illustration, etc.

The book itself is in an index format, with all schools in a given area listed alphabetically. For each program they list addresses, and contact information, faculty information and specializations, entrance requirements and accepted percentages, a list of all tuition and fees, financial aid available, and application information. Please note that this book is sometimes hard to get from Amazon. If Amazon is out of the book, or says they can't get it, you can go to www.petersons.com to buy it direct from the publisher. This is an excellent resource, and I highly recommend it.

It's not as thick as I imagined it to be (some Peterson's Guides are really FAT), but it has just the right amount of information in there I need to shop around colleges and degree programs with.

For example, it'll show the "University of Maryland at College Park", contact address of the Dept in question, awards and degrees offered written out and their abbreviations = "Clinical Psychology (Ph.D), Industrial Psychology (MA, MS, Phd.)...".

* Then, The faculty involved = "55 fulltime (16 women), 18 part time (8 women).
* Then the amount of students, in percentile racial categories, how many applicants total and how many accepted.
* Also included are the degree requirements = "For master's Thesis required..."
* Entrance requirements "For master's, GRE General test, Subject test and minimum GPA 3.5, research...."
* Expenses, and by credit hour where applicable.
* Financial Aid..
* Faculty Research...
* and Application contact (names and numbers.)

And this is for each institution. It has REALLY helped me save a bunch of time. The counselour's offices and catalog sorting was driving me crazy! :) The book is also sorted by various types of programs. So let's say you are looking for "Counseling Psychology" which starts on page 199, it would list all the colleges who offer this type of graduate program.

Now granted, there doesn't seem to be any entries for Bachelor's programs, but since most colleges offer a Psy undergraduate program it doesn't need to be included here, which is also something of a relief in the search process. I think it's great, and it is worth the money if you know Psych is your area, but are just having a hard time deciding where to go and why. This book will help you out. Good luck to all of us! ;D

s book thinking it was updated with the most current information on Psychology graduate programs. I was so diaspointed! I own the 2000-2001 book and it has almost the exact information! So if you already have an old copy, don't waste your money. If you don't yet have it get it, but try and get an earlier copy for cheeper, don't worry the info isn't out of date. (As you can see, I was willing to get an updated version, so I do recomend this book to applicants, just not this edition.) Good luck!

It's a list! It's a 658 page list of graduate schools in the United States - nothing more. If that's how you want to spend your money go for it!

The other reviewer is correct, it is a list. But if you're an educator working with college students who are looking for graduate programs, it's an invaluable tool. Even with the benefits of the internet, I find that this book is helpful in locating information quickly. So if you are an individual looking into graduate schools, I would just go to the library and look at their copy. But for educators, it's a good investment for your students.

"Princeton Review The Best 80 Business Schools" provides information needed to make the crucial decision of a school. The book offers insight for a winning application, gives step-by-step advice on writing a good essay, and helps clarify the admission process. It also contains a student ranking survey.

Rankings are based on ironic grounds. For example, ratio of students and faculty and on statistical failure!