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The Two-Body Problem: Dual-Career-Couple Hiring Practices in Higher Education (review)

rightfully give pause to those who advocate expanding the casual use of social science methods in evaluating teaching practices. The editors suggest that these chapters will convince readers that researchers who engage in up-to-date inquiry would better enhance the learning of undergraduates than their colleagues in non-research-intensive institutions; but as already mentioned, only two of the 11 chapters provided any direct evidence of student learning. One analyzed graduate students’ practicum performances, and the other evaluated a program that failed to enhance learning in first-year students. Only three chapters reported student perceptions about a course, but the rest gave no evidence that undergraduate learning was generally enhanced. There was, however, plenty of evidence that extraordinarily creative faculty members have done interesting things in the practice of their teaching and in reflecting on their teaching. There is some irony in the fact that despite many references to a focus on learning rather than teaching, the overwhelming body of this work is still about what the teacher does. This remains a very good book for the teaching center where I work. It contains many remarkable individual chapters that I want my faculty colleagues to read and to think about. The volume shows very clearly that research faculty bring terrific intellectual skill to various forms of inquiry. Kuh’s educational research is sound, Pescosolido and colleagues did a fine evaluation study, Becker knows research design inside and out, McCabe and Powell present fascinating narratives on grading, and there are others as well. It is an excellent resource for ideas about how to teach differently and creatively. As a whole, however, the book is not a compelling argument for its initial claim. The NSSE data in George Kuh’s excellent chapter show consistently less engagement by students in research universities than by students in liberal arts colleges. If the fundamental premise of this volume were true, one would see a difference in the opposite direction. Moreover, there just is not a compelling body of evidence in these chapters to support the idea that undergraduate students in these universities are experiencing enhanced learning as a result of sharing an institution with these faculty members. SoTL should be about student learning, and this volume leaves the question still unanswered whether the faculty at research universities are better than their colleagues at this important task. Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Susan B. Twombly, and Suzanne Rice. The Two-Body Problem: Dual-Career-Couple Hiring Practices in Higher Education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. 196 pp. Cloth: $42. ISBN 0-80187451-3.