What Can I Get Out of This?
Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of California Press
Published:2nd Sep '25
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A Forbes Best Higher Education Book Of 2025
An eloquent and moving story about the value and the pleasures of intellectual exploration—and why it matters beyond the classroom.
At a time when college students and their parents often question the "return on investment" from humanities courses, accomplished feature writer and English professor Carlo Rotella invites us into the minds of a group of skeptical first-year students who are ultimately transformed by a required literature class.
In What Can I Get Out of This? he follows thirty-three students through his class to provide an intimate look at teaching and learning from their perspectives as well as his own. The students' reluctance—"How does this get me a job?"—transforms into insight as they wrestle with challenging books, share ideas, discover how to think critically, and form a community. In all these ways, they learn how to extract meaning from the world around them, an essential life skill. Confronting skeptics of higher education, this compassionate and inspiring book reveals the truth of what students actually experience in college.
“Documents the small victories when one student starts to see value in reading a book he expects to hate, or when another finds the courage to speak up in class. In the process, Rotella tells us how education actually works — it’s a long evolution, not a cinematic moment — and how the in-person classroom is an engine for that process.” * The Chronicle of Higher Education *
"It’s inspiring when good teachers write well about their craft and their students, and Rotella comes through with just that kind of contribution this year."
* Forbes *ISBN: 9780520416567
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm
Weight: 363g
224 pages