Teaching and Learning
Making Higher Education What It Ought to Be (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, October 13, 2023: How teaching can make higher ed not just a credential, but an opportunity for exploration, experimentation, growth and discovery.
How Do Students Want Instructors to Relate to Them? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 12, 2023: Mutual respect is a key aspect; students want to feel comfortable asking questions or revealing their ignorance.
When Students Don’t Read, Get Underneath the Surface (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, October 11, 2023): The issue is not just getting students to read in general, but getting them to read in the ways that make the reading and lecture pair in productive ways. This is a more challenging problem that requires investigation.
A Call for Cognitive Kindness (Karen Yu, Inside Higher Ed, October 10, 2023): Drawing lessons from cognitive psychology, the author argues that we must transform our courses and university structures to be more kind to students’ minds.
Exam Blueprints: A Student-centric Approach to Assessment (Pradeep Malreddy, Faculty Focus, October 9, 2023): Discusses the advantages and concerns about using exam blueprints, structured outlines for exams, ensuring that students are assessed based on the same criteria.
A.I. in the Classroom
Where Does the Thinking Happen? (Johann Neem, Inside Higher Ed, October 11, 2023): Why academe needs discipline-specific responses to ChatGPT.
Speech Issues on Campus
Showcasing Solutions for Better Campus Discourse (Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, October 10, 2023): At a gathering focused on pluralism, academics, nonprofit leaders and college administrators assess the state of campus discourse and spotlight steps to improve it.
Webinars
Meaningful Classroom Engagement (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 19, 2023 at 2:00 PM ET): A discussion on how instructors and leaders can foster engagement in the classroom. Register here.
Extra Credit Reading
Dismantling Iowa (Marilynne Robinson, The New York Review of Books, November 2, 2023): American higher education is premised on liberal ideals, intended to make young people independent thinkers and capable citizens. What’s happening in Iowa undermines that legacy.
What Do Plato, Darwin and Introductory Spanish Have in Common? (Roger H. Martin, Inside Higher Ed, October 13, 2023): The author describes how he discovered firsthand the lifelong value of the liberal arts when he retired almost five decades after studying them.
Born Poor, Stay Poor (Molly McGhee, The Guardian, October 8, 2023): McGhee was the first in her family to go to college and she teaches at Columbia, yet she’s still broke: What McGhee’s $120,000 student debt says about class in the US.
Promoting Academic Freedom, from UChicago to…Hamline? (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, October 9, 2023): Free expression debates continue at universities. And when traditional institutions don’t back speech, others, such as Heterodox Academy and Jordan Peterson’s new venture, step in.
Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us. Also, please email Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org) if you have colleagues who would like to receive this weekly report.
Steven Volk (steven.volk@oberlin.edu), Editor
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Lew Ludwig (ludwigl@denison.edu)
Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org)