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Contact:
Anne Frechette
973.655.4333
frechettea@mail.montclair.edu

Montclair, NJ--Montclair State University has appointed Dr. Ken Bain, an internationally prominent educator, author, and historian, to the newly established post of Vice Provost for Instruction and Director of the University’s new Teaching and Learning Resource Center.  He also has been appointed as a professor of history.

"In Ken Bain we have found the leader we were seeking for this important new post," said University Provost Dr. Richard Lynde.  "We look forward to his involvement in helping faculty develop innovative teaching strategies responsive to a diverse range of student learning styles and needs, and to develop effective uses of technology as well as interdisciplinary and creative approaches to teaching and learning."

As Vice Provost for Instruction, Bain will provide University-wide leadership in advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning, help develop a faculty community around teaching and learning, and play a leading role in the University’s efforts to become one of the preeminent teaching and learning universities in the country.

Bain has authored numerous publications on U.S. history and the award-winning book, What the Best College Teachers Do.  The book won the 2004 Virginia and Warren Stone Prize awarded by the Harvard University Press for an Outstanding Book on Education and Society.  In the last two years, it has been widely adopted by universities and colleges around the world for their faculty development programs, and has been one of the top selling books on college education.  It has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Catalan.

In the last 20 years, Bain has been one of the leading proponents of the scholarship of teaching and learning, an international movement that seeks to use cutting-edge research into how humans learn and best teaching practices to improve higher education instruction.  He has been the founding director of three major teaching centers:  The Center for Teaching Excellence at New York University; the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University and the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University.  All three centers have become widely emulated and respected models for the advancement of university teaching and learning.

"I am excited about the wonderful opportunities at Montclair State," said Bain.  "I’m pleased that I will be working with colleagues at Montclair who care deeply about the quality of both undergraduate and graduate student learning and how best to promote it."  

He said his office will coordinate faculty seminars and workshops based on best practices in teaching and learning, tapping the insights and practices of Montclair’s and the world’s best educators.  It will advance the scholarship of teaching and learning by cultivating an environment in which faculty view student learning as a subject of inquiry and investigation.

"We want Montclair State to become the university of choice for students because of the excellent teaching they will encounter," Lynde added.  "We have a long tradition of teaching excellence at Montclair State and we want to build on that tradition.  With Ken’s leadership on teaching and learning issues and our superb faculty we will do just that."

In the 1970s and early 80s Bain was professor of history at the University of Texas--Pan American, where he also served as director of that school's University Honors College and as founding director of the History Teaching Center, a pioneering program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities to promote greater collaboration between history teachers on the secondary level and university and college research historians.  From 1984 to 1986, he served as director of the National History Teaching Center, which had a similar mission on the national level.

Internationally recognized for his insights into teaching and learning and for the 15-year study that produced the book on best teachers, he has been invited to present workshops and lectures at more than 200 universities and events in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.  He also has consulted with nearly 100 colleges and universities on programs to support and encourage the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Bain has received numerous grants and awards including those from the Mellon Foundation, the International Studies Association, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Harry S. Truman Library, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.  While at Northwestern University, he was one of the chief architects and principal investigators for a ground-breaking multi-million dollar program funded by the Mellon Foundation to create equal educational opportunities in the sciences.

His learning research has concentrated on a wide range of issues, including deep and sustained learning and the creation of natural critical learning environments. His historical scholarship has focused on the development of U. S. foreign policy on the Middle East.  He is finishing his third book on the subject, The Last Journey Home: Franklin Roosevelt and the Middle East. 

Bain, who grew up in Springfield, MO., earned a B.A. in history and philosophy from Baylor University, an M.A.in history from the University of North Texas, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin.

He has more than 30 years of college teaching experience, and has won four major teaching awards.  He will assume his positions at Montclair State in May.

Montclair State is New Jersey’s second largest and fastest growing university. It offers the advantages of a large university--a comprehensive undergraduate curriculum with a global focus, a broad variety of superior graduate programs through the doctoral level, and a diverse faculty and student body--combined with a small college’s attention to students.  More information on the University is available on its website: www.montclair.edu.

April 12, 2006