Teaching and Learning
In Student-Centered Classrooms, the Instructor Must Come First (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, July 18, 2024): A commentary on a recent piece by Sarah Rose Cavanagh at The Chronicle discussing what she perceives as a backlash against “student-centered teaching.”
Handwritten Versus Types Note-Taking Effects on College Students’ Performance (Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, Learning Scientists, July 18, 2024): A report of the latest meta-analysis on whether it is better for students to type or handwrite class notes.
Modeling Good Reading Habits For Your Students (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 18, 2024): Discusses how one instructor teaches her students to become more active readers and shares advice on building good reading habits with one’s students.
Beyond Dichotomous Thinking: Strategies to Enhance Teaching and Learning (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, July 18, 2024): 47-minute podcase in which Alexis Peirce Caudell suggests how to help students from falling into patterns of dichotomous thinking.
Utilizing Conflict Management Strategies to Navigate Difficult Classroom Discussions (George Ojie-Ahamoijie, Faculty Focus, July 17, 2024): Challenging topics might be unpredictable to discuss in the classroom; however, creating the proper environment for these discussions can be gratifying, create self-awareness, improve thoughts, expand understanding and knowledge, and provide an avenue for collecting information.
Ungrading for Hope (Tony Perman, Inside Higher Ed, July 16, 2024): Author shares four key benefits and how, at best, ungrading helps create a classroom community that can take a semester’s journey in tandem.
How This Professor Made History Class Cool Again (Amelia Benavides-Colón, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 16, 2024): Tore Olsson used a wildly popular video game to get students talking about industrialization, racial integration, and other key themes of late-19th- and early-20th-century America.
All Things AI
The Synthetic Professor (Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, July 18, 2024): We have reached a point in the development of generative AI that synthetic AI professors are poised to enter academe.
Bridging the Campus Divide With ‘Dangerous Ideas’ and AI Debate Moderators (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, July 16, 2024): In this polarized time, one assistant professor is teaching students to argue more constructively about the most contentious topics: abortion, guns, transracial identities, moral obligations to animals—even the existence of God.
Free Speech and Academic Freedom
If We Want Free Speech, We Need to Teach It (Louis E. Newman, Inside Higher Ed, July 18, 2024): Many students lack clarity about free speech principles, according to the author.
UC Regents Ban Views on Israel, Other Political Opinion From University Homepages (Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2024): Under a policy approved today by the 10-campus system’s board, political opinion may still appear on the websites but must be published on pages marked as commentary. A faculty critic called the policy an effort to “gag faculty speech.”
Fallout from Spring Protests
‘Manipulative and Intimidating’: Northwestern U. Police Charge 3 Faculty and Staff Over Pro-Palestinian Protest (Amanda Friedman, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 18, 2024): The charges represent the latest action taken by colleges and law-enforcement officials in response to a wave of on-campus activism, fueling concerns about speech and protest rights.
Future Imperfect
J.D. Vance Is Coming for Higher Ed (Eboo Patel, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 19, 2024): Trump’s pick for VP has academe in his sights.
How a Second Trump Term Could Turn Up the Heat on Higher Ed (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, July 18, 2024): Higher ed wasn’t a top priority for Donald Trump when he first took office. But now that he and the GOP see attacking elite institutions and regulating colleges as winning political issues, a second term is likely to bring more aggressive policies.
J.D. Vance Called Universities ‘The Enemy.’ Now He’s Trump’s VP Pick (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, July 16, 2024): The Yale Law School graduate has used sharp criticism of elite higher ed to help establish his MAGA bona fides and build a national brand.
A Wall Street Law Firm Wants to Define Consequences of Israel Protests (Emily Flitter, New York Times, July 8, 2024): Sullivan & Cromwell is requiring job applicants to explain their participation in protests. Critics see the policy as a way to silence speech about the war.
Extra Credit Reading
Deploying Student Journalists to Help Local ‘News Deserts’ (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, July 15, 2024): The University of Vermont’s Center for Community News supports efforts to re-energize local news coverage in underserved regions in the state and beyond.
Workshops
We normally don’t advertise workshops that charge for attendance, but this seemed a good one to bring to your attention: AAC&U is offering a series of four workshops on Tuesdays from September 3-24 featuring current-to-the-moment information regarding teaching with generative AI and its possibilities for higher education. Among the topics covered: Working with AI for Teaching and Learning; Cheating, Detection, and Policy; Assignments and Writing; and AI to Improve Classes and Courses. More information and to register available here.
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)