We reasoned that the best colleges and universities hire extremely able fac-
ulties and that to be the best of the best was a suitable criterion to be used in
the selection process. Of the approximately one hundred institutions contacted,
we received replies and lists from all but three.

From these lists we selected most of the essayists for Part Three of the Hand-
book. Others from the listing appeared to fit logically into sections that focused
on methods, psychological foundations, and so on, and we invited them to write
for us as well.

A second method used in the selection process involved contact with college
teaching and learning centers. We consulted with private Ivy League colleges
as well as with large public and private institutions. The editors much appre-
ciated this generously given assistance and advice as well as the thorough pro-
fessionalism of these institutions.

A third method used by the editors in the selection process involved con-
tacting the members of the Professional and Organizational Development Net-
work in Higher Education, an association concerned with the improvement of
college teaching.

We invited faculty members to join us in the writing project. We had few
rejections. The best teaching faculty members, recognized theoreticians, and
educational specialists with national reputations can and do produce. Perhaps
that is how they achieved those reputations in the first place!

In assembling the Handbook, we felt it would be impossible to cover all
aspects of classroom teaching; therefore it became essential to prioritize the
concepts and sequence them as appropriately as possible for the reader's benefit
and ease in locating desired information. It appeared to us that a series of chap-
ters that dealt with the learning processes and psychological makeup of the
students was of the highest priority and that first things come first. A basic
understanding of learning and thought processes as they relate to the under-
graduate student appeared to be meaningful as a prelude to all other factors
involved in teaching.

The next component, after the psychology of learning, is methods of teaching
or application of various theories of learning to instructional settings at the
undergraduate level. Various types of teaching methodologies are discerned, and
essayists who were educational specialists in curriculum and instruction were
asked to discuss these methods both with respect to the basic theories that sup-
port them and the most successful ways of implementing and applying them in
the classroom. Chapters on the types of methods are contained in Part Two.

In Part Three the authors, most of whom are considered to be among the
nation's finest classroom teachers, were asked to discuss in some detail their
teaching-learning theories and teaching methodologies as they apply to specific
subject areas in the curriculum. These faculty members are considered to be
"masters of the craft" by their institutions.

In Part Four the editors were concerned with very specific but not uncommon
or infrequent problems and situations that occur for the undergraduate instructor.

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