"Teaching Nonmajors (SUNY Press, 2008) focuses on what dedicated teachers want to know—how can I teach better in the classroom? Unlike most books on teaching, this book delivers uncomplicated and immediately useful techniques and strategies for teaching required courses to nonmajors. Providing practical examples and brief anecdotes drawn from a variety of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences, the author describes simple ways to break up lectures, how to stimulate the best discussions, the art of assignments, how to improve student ratings, and successful strategies for engaging nonmajors and for handling problem students. Teaching Nonmajors is written especially for liberal arts college and university professors at all career stages—from adjuncts and new professors, to seasoned professors looking for a fresh approach heading into a new term." (From book cover.)
See Table of Contents

P. Sven Arvidson is Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy, Senior Faculty Fellow in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Seattle University, and is Founding Coordinator of the Consortium of Interdisciplinary Scholars. He has also published The Sphere of Attention: Context and Margin (Springer, 2006) and Intuition: The Inside Story: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge, 1997). [more]

Chapter 1. GIVE BETTER LECTURES presents specific strategies for great lectures and discusses the key aspect of who you are in the classroom that makes lectures great.

Chapter 2. BREAK UP LECTURES gives immediately useful advice for breaking up lectures and maintaining student interest. It includes sections on discussions, props, artworks, and more.

Chapter 3. THE BEST DISCUSSIONS AND STUDENT PRESENTATIONS describes how to use discussions to the best advantage of everyone involved. This chapter straightforwardly distinguishes types of discussion goals and structures, it also gives extended attention to the best use of student presentations (oral reports) in a course.

Chapter 4. THE ART OF ASSIGNMENTS shows how to create wonderful, insightful assignments in any liberal arts discipline, and specifically addresses innovative essay papers and exams, giving examples. This chapter also discusses grading and how to get students to read before class.

Chapter 5. SENSIBLE POLICIES discusses policies for better classroom teaching, including surprising features of a good syllabus, the sense of an attendance policy, and various forms of communication with students. It also includes a special section on how to handle plagiarism cases.

Chapter 6. PROFESSOR AND STUDENT PROBLEMS treats student and professor problems or challenges, including teaching aggressively disinterested students and teaching special needs students.

Chapter 7. UNDERSTAND AND IMPROVE STUDENT RATINGS discusses strategies for improving student ratings, freshly situating this improvement as the responsibility of the professor to the institution since the institution endorses this criterion of good teaching. Regardless of their controversial status, student ratings are widely held as firm evidence of good teaching by most administrators, and so are important in the careers of many professors.

Chapter 8. CONCLUSION provides a brief reflection on better classroom teaching.

(Adapted from the Preface)

Teaching Sociology (The American Sociological Association) "Teaching Nonmajors is concise, organized for ease of use, and makes a smart pocket reference guide. And at less than twenty dollars for the paperback it is a bargain. In short, it is terribly valuable, especially for those who wish to better their craft of being a liberal arts professor." [more]

Teaching History: A Journal of Methods "Teaching Nonmajors...is a versatile tool for professors at a liberal arts college. I would highly recommend this to seasoned professors but especially new professors. Working at a University is challenging with all the demands on a professor professionally, but the added work of engaging nonmajors is a struggle. This text provides solid guidelines to equip a professor for a successful and less stressful academic year." [more]

SPU Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development "Teaching Nonmajors is a short (94 p.) sensible guide written by a philosophy professor from Seattle University. With many concrete examples, Arvidson describes how to break up lectures, how to stimulate discussions, and successful strategies for engaging nonmajor students." Susan VanZanten, Director.

AARP Office of Academic Affairs "How should we be teaching students who don't plan to concentrate in the field of aging? Some tips are available from Sven Arvidson's new book on teaching. Here are some of his suggestions: [more]

The Teaching Professor

Publisher's Website

Chronicle of Higher Education publishes "Students 101," based on Teaching Nonmajors. print version is Volume 55, Issue 6, Page A120. [more]

Chronicle Forum discussion of Teaching Nonmajors. August 3, 2008. [more]

The Proletarian Forum discussion of Teaching Nonmajors. July 29, 2008. [more]

Insidehighered.com interviews Arvidson about Teaching Nonmajors, July 25, 2008. [more]

SUNY Press releases Teaching Nonmajors, July 10, 2008. [more]

Write and send
What strategies work for teaching History, English, Philosophy, Theology, and so on to nonmajors? Share the wealth! I would love to post it here with attribution.

Chris from Seattle. I guess my tip would be to listen to students and incorporate the experience they bring into the classroom. Based on my experiences teaching nonmajors you really have to open yourself up to their expertise. [more]

Ron from Cincinnati. One of the most vexing questions facing all college professors is how to get our students to have their reading done on time to discuss it in class. In philosophy this problem is magnified by [more]

Randy from Chicago. In my Freshman English 1 course, all of my paper assignments are built around “cases” like a lot of other fields (law, business, medicine). For example, [more]

LS from NEVADA I teach required philosophy courses and this involves a lot of Plato dialogues. So for one of the assignments I have ...[more]