"Irritating, arrogant, nuts--and a genius." That's what Charles Laughton said of Paul Baker. He also said, "Paul Baker is one of the most important minds in the world theater today. He seems to have invented new ways of doing things, and I think something big will come out of it." Something big did come out of it. Stage productions such as Othello, Hamlet, and A Cloud of Witnesses brought critics including Henry Hewes of Saturday Review and photographers such as Eliot Eliosofon of Life magazine to Baylor Theater in Waco. Baker's production of Eugene McKinney's A Different Drummer received an invitation from CBS TV's cultural program, Omnibus, to present the play live from their New York studio. Baker's production of As I Lay Dying, Robert Flynn's adaptation of William Faulkner's novel, brought an invitation to present the play at the Theater of Nations in Paris, the first non-Broadway production to compete there, where it won a Special Jury Award. That was Paul Baker the theater director. Equally important was Baker's role as teacher and mentor in the arts. Architect Arthur Rogers stated, "No single person has contributed more to (theater architecture) development than Paul Baker." Baker's architectural visions at Baylor Theater, the Dallas Theater Center, and Trinity University's Ruth Taylor Theater have inspired similar constructions not only in the United States but in places such as Manila and Seoul. Baker's teaching philosophy, based on his famous class "The Integration of Abilities," has been inspirational. In education Baker has been founder, mentor, or director of children's theaters where children are the creators of the drama; of the Booker T. Washington School of the Arts; of the Learning About Learning Foundation, a retail line of interactive kits that included books and toys; and dozens of creative programs for children, parents, and educators. In Paul Baker and the Integration of Abilities, Baker tells how a summer in Paris gave him a new way of looking at theater. Eugene McKinney describes Baker's development of writers, and Glenn Allen Smith demonstrates the use of the elements in creating a play. In other chapters on acting, directing, speech, and design, Baker's ideas gave roots and wings to his students and colleagues. Despite invitations from theaters in other places, including Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, and New Zealand, and offers of positions at other universities, Baker chose to remain in Texas where he was born and where he lives today.

From the bestselling author of What the Best College Teachers Do, the story of a new breed of amazingly innovative courses that inspire students and improve learning Decades of research have produced profound insights into how student learning and motivation can be unleashed—and it’s not through technology or even the best of lectures. In Super Courses, education expert and bestselling author Ken Bain tells the fascinating story of enterprising college, graduate school, and high school teachers who are using evidence-based approaches to spark deeper levels of learning, critical thinking, and creativity—whether teaching online, in class, or in the field. Visiting schools across the United States as well as in China and Singapore, Bain, working with his longtime collaborator, Marsha Marshall Bain, uncovers super courses throughout the humanities and sciences. At the University of Virginia, undergrads contemplate the big questions that drove Tolstoy—by working with juveniles at a maximum-security correctional facility. Harvard physics students learn about the universe not through lectures but from their peers in a class where even reading is a social event. And students at a Dallas high school use dance to develop growth mindsets—and many of them go on to top colleges, including Juilliard. Bain defines these as super courses because they all use powerful researched-based elements to build a “natural critical learning environment” that fosters intrinsic motivation, self-directed learning, and self-reflective reasoning. Complete with sample syllabi, the book shows teachers how they can build their own super courses. The story of a hugely important breakthrough in education, Super Courses reveals how these classes can help students reach their full potential, equip them to lead happy and productive lives, and meet the world’s complex challenges.

What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators. The short answer is—it’s not what teachers do, it’s what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out—but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn. In stories both humorous and touching, Ken Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students’ discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential. What the Best College Teachers Do is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration for first-year teachers and seasoned educators.

The author of the best-selling What the Best College Teachers Do is back with more humane, doable, and inspiring help, this time for students who want to get the most out of college—and every other educational enterprise, too. The first thing they should do? Think beyond the transcript. The creative, successful people profiled in this book—college graduates who went on to change the world we live in—aimed higher than straight A’s. They used their four years to cultivate habits of thought that would enable them to grow and adapt throughout their lives. Combining academic research on learning and motivation with insights drawn from interviews with people who have won Nobel Prizes, Emmys, fame, or the admiration of people in their field, Ken Bain identifies the key attitudes that distinguished the best college students from their peers. These individuals started out with the belief that intelligence and ability are expandable, not fixed. This led them to make connections across disciplines, to develop a “meta-cognitive” understanding of their own ways of thinking, and to find ways to negotiate ill-structured problems rather than simply looking for right answers. Intrinsically motivated by their own sense of purpose, they were not demoralized by failure nor overly impressed with conventional notions of success. These movers and shakers didn’t achieve success by making success their goal. For them, it was a byproduct of following their intellectual curiosity, solving useful problems, and taking risks in order to learn and grow.