next »

[totoro]

Former graduate advisor used to assign his books almost every year. He used to publish superficial travel guide sized books as his ingenuity went away with age. He recycled some old stuff and blended it with his student's dissertation research. I didn't know that some of the stuff we were assigned to read were stolen materials until he took ours and published in another small idiotic book. Now I see the practice of assigning one's own book (unless it's high quality) a rather inappropriate form of forced sales. I remember (with disgust) the advisor going around the class making sure everyone bought one of that crappy book of his and offering to sign his autograph on them.

You seem to have had a lot of bad luck with advisors and department chairs stealing work.

[southerntransplant]

In undergrad a prof in my STEM field sold his books to us for a class we were taking from him. It was published by McGraw Hill, but he had a stash of them in his garage. I thought it was pretty weaselly until a few years later, when (upon searching) I found that his text was the only such text for many years, and that he sold them to us at a massive discount relative to what we would have paid at the bookstore (this was pre-web).

[koda_kube]

"Some of the professors research was included in lectures and reading assignments which gave the course a real world perspective"

student evalutation of a course where I include all cutting-edge research including my own. 

The other readings all seemed fake?

I AM in Texas.............

[southerntransplant]

"Some of the professors research was included in lectures and reading assignments which gave the course a real world perspective"

student evalutation of a course where I include all cutting-edge research including my own. 

The other readings all seemed fake?

I AM in Texas.............

Meaning what?

[oldfullprof]

"Hook 'em!"

[ronin]

I had a similar discussion with some of my colleagues a few years ago when I proposed a course based on one edited book of which I am the sole editor. I was very surprised that some of my colleagues found this arrogant. As a student I always preferred the lecturers talking about their own publication because they usually offered interesting insights and were more open in sharing personal experiences.
As a teacher in a research university I do not see why I should not share with my students the outcomes of my research. I also try to involve them in the process of research and writing that leads to publication. And many students find this very interesting!
However since I was quite surprised that teaching one own book might be considered as arrogant I also consulted with a colleague at the institute of teaching and learning. He offered two very good reasons why this is actually good:
First, one's research is something one is enthusiastic about and there are very few substitutes for enthusiasm in defining good teaching. Second, if your work has been peer reviewed it is as good in basic quality as any source and if it is relevant to the topic being taught it is totally appropriate for it to be used.