On Episode 594 of Teaching in Higher Ed, Bonni and Dave Stachowiak reflect on the remarkable life and impact of Ken Bain, celebrated author of What the Best College Teachers Do. This episode honors Ken Bain’s enduring legacy in the scholarship of teaching and learning, sharing personal stories and social media tributes from educators touched by his work. Bonni and Dave recall how Bain’s research helped connect faculty to their values and broadened the conversation on effective pedagogy across generations.

Resources from the episode:

• Post: James Lang Shares About Ken Bain’s Passing
• Obituary of Kenneth R. Bain
• Episode 36: What the Best College Teachers Do with Ken Bain
• Episode 100: The Failure Episode
• Episode 146: James Lang and Ken Bain on Motivation in the Classroom
• Johannes Haushofer CV of Failures
• What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain
• What the Best College Students Do, by Ken Bain
• Honor Ken Bain with an Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
• Honor Ken Bain with an ACLU Foundation of Texas Donation

Episode topics:

• Remembering Ken Bain and His Legacy
• The Art and Science of Effective Teaching
• Personal Connections to “What the Best College Teachers Do”
• The Impact of Ken Bain’s Longitudinal Study
• Core Traits of Highly Effective College Teachers
• Motivating Students Toward Deep, Intrinsic Learning

Discussion questions:

1. How did Ken Bain's book, “What the Best College Teachers Do,” impact your own views or practices as an educator?
2. What themes from Ken Bain’s six core findings about great teachers stand out as most relevant to higher education today? Why?
3. How can we balance celebrating teaching successes with acknowledging our failures, following the lesson of the ‘manure prize’ story shared in the episode?
4. One major point of Bain’s research was the importance of assessing our teaching efforts. What systems or practices do you use to reflect on and improve your teaching?

Related Episodes

Ken Bain was a guest on two Teaching in Higher Ed episodes. On Episode 36, Bonni was able to interview Ken Bain for the first time. Revisit the time autocorrect did her wrong, and how she came to ask him about the “Manure Prize.” On Episode 146, James Lang interviewed his long-time mentor, Ken Bain.

Quotable Words

During the conversation for Episode 146, Ken described how a spark of curiosity, centered on a question, can invite further exploration and extend learning. He shared that:

We are currently interested in certain questions because we were once interested in another question.

Next Week’s Episode

On the upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, we explore Higher Expectations: How to Survive Academia, Make It Better for Others, and Transform the University, by Roberta Hawkins and Leslie Kern.

Support

The money gathered via the TiHE virtual 'tip jar' helps to defray some of the costs of producing the podcast.

Read

My book: The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide, provides approaches to help you turn your intentions into action. I also write an advice column for EdSurge: Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours With Bonni Stachowiak

Listen

Subscribe to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, TuneIn, or Spotify.

Share

Update: If you enjoy reading these weekly updates and would like to share them with a friend, they can sign up on the Teaching in Higher Ed updates subscribe page.

Disclosures

Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org. All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia.”

Notice: Portions of these weekly updates are produced using CastMagic.io, which uses AI to produce a draft of the transcript, identify key quotes, highlight themes, etc.