What the Best Student Do by Ken Bain - Book Report/Review Example

English What the Best Do Ken Bain’s What the Best College Do is written from an educator’s perspective. The main theme is goals that energize and stimulate student’s creative and critical thinking skills. It is vital to note that the book is not a guide to enhancing GPA. However, this might happen in case readers do not heed to his words. The book is a guide that helps students to foster innate interdisciplinary learning and intellectual curiosity. It also contributes to conversations about the integration of learning and teaching.

The book provides educators and students ways to embrace and imagine learning as an affair of personal choice. Students choose to learn to benefit the entire society (Bain 24). Bain depends on anecdotes that are based on real world experiences of people who may not be stereotypically successful students. A successful student should be willing to make calculated risks, in addition to being inquisitive through discovery. This theme is applicable to my learning experience because it outlines interdisciplinary educational practices.

I have realized that educational approaches are shared throughout the classroom. Students are encouraged to learn and improve their performances in order to benefit the society. Once students enter learning institutions, they go through the processes of orientation-setting and integrated study skill focuses. Through these processes, students require the assistance of teachers who identify their potentials. In school, there are five types of students. There are students who get desirable grades, but they are not as productive as the C and D grade students.

There are students who get good grades, but become adaptive experts and deep learners. The third type gets mediocre grades, but with success. The fourth type is students who get bad grades and then resign from education. The lives of these students depend on others. The fifth type of students gets bad grades, but they motivate themselves to succeed (Bain 39). There are different types of motivators in school. Students can be extrinsically or intrinsically motivated. The author notes “such a power and here is the catch, can wither and die if you let extrinsic motivators, grades, rewards and prizes, overwhelm you and make you feel manipulated” (Bain 51).

It is essential for teachers to identify applicable and effective motivational approaches because students respond differently to different motivators. In my educational environment, some students will be motivated by their innate need to succeed. They will work hard to achieve educational success with an aim for their future. All the same, other students will be motivated by gifts, positions, and money. These students wait until their parents, friends, or teachers attach an external factor to work hard.

In the present world, students are pressured to “rush through school to get degrees and get a job. Yet schools do not bear all the responsibility. They are set in a larger society that constantly pushes students towards the superficial and encourages students to value honors and recognition over deep understanding” (Bain 42). Deep learning is more important than strategic or superficial learning. The best student seeks more from the college courses than memorizing facts. They also do not look for ways to obtain better grades.

I recognize that deep learning extends beyond the minimally expected performances. This means that students have a genuine curiosity for topics and they try to establish the relation between the topics and life. The main theme in the book is goals that energize student’s creative and critical thinking skills. The book is not just a guide that will help students to improve their GPA and academic performances. It also aims to help students to foster innate interdisciplinary learning and intellectual curiosity.

The book is applicable to my learning experience because it seeks to develop intensive learning rather than strategic learning. Work Cited Bain, Ken. What The Best College Students Do. Cambridge, MA and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012.