Higher Education Expert Touts the Value of 'Big Questions'

A nationally known educator and author of two best-selling books on teaching and learning encouraged nearly 300 Kean University faculty recently to ask big questions that spark deep learning.

Ken Bain, Ph.D., the founding director of teaching and learning centers at several universities, including New York University, Northwestern and Montclair State, was a featured speaker during Professional Development Days. His books, What the Best College Students Do and What the Best College Teachers Do, provide practical advice on bringing out the best in students.

“Ask big questions, that’s the key; big questions that your students are interested in. Then engage students in projects,” said Bain. “As they engage in them, they’ll learn.”

To demonstrate the type of question that brings about learning, Bain cited the example of a criminal justice professor who began the semester asking students, “Why did the number of people incarcerated in the United States increase from 100,000 in 1980 to 3 million in 2019?”

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jeffrey H. Toney, Ph.D., invited Bain to conduct workshops at Kean. He met Bain in 2006 while serving as a teacher mentor through the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

“Our faculty learned about practices common among the very best faculty, whose courses are so popular, students will wait years to get into their classes,” Toney said. “They learned how to reinforce deep learning that can have a lifetime impact on students.”

Toney also said Bain’s presentation gives distinction to Kean, noting that the award-winning higher educator is presenting the same workshops at Harvard University. The event at Kean was made possible by the Howard Skarbnick Endowment for Teaching and Instruction, and the Kean University Foundation.

Bain conducted two workshops with the audience of professors, lecturers and others.

“It was fascinating,” said Bok Jeong, Ph.D., an assistant professor in public administration. “He’s a great facilitator of ideas. He made me think. I have a question I can ask my students about global issues and citizenship.”

English department lecturer Gabriel Ertsgaard, D.Litt., said he had read one of Bain’s books and enjoyed the workshop. “I found it a good opportunity to think again about teaching approaches and how they can apply to different types of classes,” he said.

Bain, who also invited Kean faculty to be part of a global research project involving many universities, said he was impressed by the University and its dedication to impacting student learning.

He said his approach has made a difference at other universities where he presented. As for what he called the most important takeaway — “There’s a lot to learn about learning,” he said.