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Advice for New Faculty Members By Robert Boice ( Allyn & Bacon )
Release Date: 2000-01-31
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List Price: $43.99
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Product Description
Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus is a unique and essential guide to the start of a successful academic career. As its title suggests (nothing in excess), it advocates moderation in ways of working, based on the single-most reliable difference between new faculty who thrive and those who struggle. By following its practical, easy-to-use rules, novice faculty can learn to teach with the highest levels of student approval, involvement, and comprehension, with only modest preparation times and a greater reliance on spontaneity and student participation. Similarly, new faculty can use its rule-based practices to write with ease, increasing productivity, creativity, and publishability through brief, daily sessions of focused and relaxed work. And they can socialize more successfully by learning about often-misunderstood aspects of academic culture, including mentoring. Each rule in Advice for New Faculty Members has been tested on hundreds of new faculty and proven effective over the long run -- even in attaining permanent appointment. It is the first guidebook to move beyond anecdotes and surmises for its directives, based on the author's extensive experience and solid research in the areas of staff and faculty development. For new teachers.
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 too much ( marie617 )
This book makes fairly simple information far more complex than it needs to be. The writing is much too wordy and repetitive. I think there are kernals of wisdom in the writing, but they are too difficult to glean. There are many books with the same material that are much easier to read. If you simply want advice, this is not the book to buy. If you want details about the author's research mixed with a great deal of psycho babble (e.g. he advises not procrastinating and starting early, but for some reason calls it "actively waiting") buy this book.
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 Excellent advice! ( rpinnow@uga.edu )
Robert Boice's Advice for New Faculty Members is one of the best books on the market for those emerging from graduate school and seeking tenure in the academy. I would also strongly recommend this book to those still in graduate school, and anyone preparing to enter graduate school, as it gives excellent and timely advice on learning to work effectively while maintaining social and personal habits for a balanced and satisfying life. One of the most difficult aspects of the shift from graduate student to professor is the realization that we are not taught effective work habits in graduate school. Graduate school teaches students to write to artificial deadlines rather than publication deadlines, procrastination followed by writing binges, solo work efforts, and a lack of balance that is reflected in relational difficulties on many levels. (Not to mention health difficulties such as depression, high blood pressure, weight issues, etc.) Boice gives excellent advice by giving numerous examples of prolific and successful writers and teachers who do not adopt hasty and ineffective habits leading to a chaotic and stressful career and life, but rather use a steady yet practical approach that results in excellent production on every front. Boice's examples and explanations of how to incorporate effective and efficient practices and work habits in your life is well worth he cost of this book!
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Fire the proofreaders?
Although I have not yet read the text, the egregious misspelling of the Latin title, which evidently escaped both the author and everyone who proofread the text prior to publication, is not a good advertisement--at least not for anyone who knows even elementary Latin. The correct spelling of the title should be "Nihil NimIs". If I do in fact decide to read the book (I am hardly a "new" faculty member), perhaps I'll be inclined to write a more favorable review of its contents. Meanwhile, let's hope that a new printing will correct the spelling error.
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Essential ( lahela )
I credit this book for allowing me to get anything besides teaching done my first year on the job. I often tell people that it is the most boring book I have ever read, but also the most useful.
As mentioned in earlier reviews, "start before you're ready" and "stop before you're ready" help get rid of the psychological blocks in starting new tasks. Like others, I had also thought it was best to do work in large chunks of time, but after a year of the Boice method, I am a believer in brief daily sessions.
Other priceless pieces of advice are to do research (or whatever is most daunting) first thing in the morning, to focus on organization and big picture ideas rather than flooding with details, and to let others do the work for you. This last, especially, has helped my teaching-- giving the students autonomy decreases my workload and increases their interest and depth of understanding.
This book makes great bathroom reading. I suspect that it is boring and repetitive on purpose-- Boice is forcing us to read the book in moderation, just as he recommends we do our work.
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Best guide for new faculty ( beaslera )
As a first year Assistant Professor, I felt simultaneous joy and dread about my new job. Incredible freedom, a significant amount of pressure, and uncertainty about the best day-by-day approach for acquiring tenure all combined to leave me feeling like a person running through an unfamiliar burning museum in the middle of the night. Boice's book provided the structure for my precious hours at a time when the sheer number of possibilities was overwhelming. In fact, the goal of the book is to provide methods for getting more done on a regular basis.
Before reading Boice's book, a normal day would see me working 6-10 hours on a single task such as class preparation, research, or writing. By the end of the day I may have made progress, but not as much progress as one would expect, and I would often end the day feeling that I was slipping behind in my schedule for all of my other tasks. Having read the book, I now structure my day with several Brief Regular Sessions, making short progress in many if not all of my projects each day. All of my projects stay fresh in my mind and I find that my subconscious often provides insights between sessions. I find that now I make faster, higher quality progress and have a bright outlook on all of my projects...and thus on my potential for tenure.
Boice also stresses starting projects before one feels ready, then stopping before one feels finished, both techniques that I find make new projects easy to start and then continue. Preparing a new class seemed daunting, but doing just 5-15 minutes of preparation is easy and that time added up until I was no longer daunted.
The book is structured into teaching, research, and service, but all three of the sections use similar techniques for similar benefit. I found the research section the most engaging and useful and wish it had been the first section, though I do plan on re-reading the book as time permits. Unfortunately, the book can be a difficult read; it repeats concepts, moves slowly, and can be dry at times. As such it is perfect for occasional reading and I have had great success at reading one page per day (note the brief regular sessions).
I vigorously recommend this book for any new professor or graduate student planning to get a tenure track job. In addition, Boice provides 10 pages of references to back up his research and claims in the book if further reading is desired.
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Addiction
