Review: Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers

Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers by Jessamyn Neuhaus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Neuhaus's collection of thoughtful and insightful tips for instructors is a wide-range how-to and why-to that instructors of every kind will find useful with practical tips, research-related groundings, and places to find more knowledge on the subject of effective teaching. As a person who is clearly passionate about their field, Nauhaus knows that passion is useful and important but not enough to effectively teach because many instructors make a variety of mistakes when they step into the class. These include forgetting what it's like to be a non-expert in the field, determining that everyone must have the same passion for the subject as they do, and rethinking how one was taught with how one should teach. Neuhaus structures the book in a way that helps readers through the process of teaching. Initially, she explores what it means to teach and then into preparing for teaching be it an entire course or an individual class session. Next, she covers the reflective process and how that is one of the most essential ways to improve either over the duration of a course or a classroom session. She also substantively addresses the importance of support and the need for a team and colleagueship to improve one's teaching practice and finally explores what it means to move forward with all of this in mind. All of that is great, but there's definitely one aspect that can rub readers. She developed an acronym (GIN) that she uses to refer to her dominant audience throughout, which stands for Geeks, Introverts, and Nerds. She does describe these individually but then seems to lump them together as a singular profile, which can clash with readers. Many geeks and nerds are not introverts, which is fine but the way in which she continually invokes GINs, readers would believe that the only way to be a geek or nerd is to be an introvert. Thus, for some readers, they go along reading and agreeing with many things but then are distracted by Neahaus calling them an introvert (or saying that this is really meant for introverts). It just feels a big haphazardly done in the end. Regardless of that small piece, the book is a really great resource and read for anyone that is looking to become a more effective and engaged educator.

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