Teaching and Learning
Advice for a New Instructor (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 5, 2024): McMurtrie shares advice for setting high expectations while offering students support.
The Pillars of Higher Education Work: Relationships and Structures (Tony’s Teaching Tips/Patreon, December 4, 2024): Every school and university is a little different, but what is clear to the author is that there are two key factors in navigating our work in higher education: relationships and structures.
Using the Power of E-Portfolios to Enhance Student Engagement (Sudipta Biswas, Faculty Focus, December 4, 2024): An e-portfolio is a dynamic, multimedia platform where students can compile and reflect on their work.
‘I Can Tell You Don’t Agree with Me’: Colleges Teach Kids How to Hear Differing Opinions (Javeria Salman, Hechinger Report, December 3, 2024): The work of a Kentucky program to bridge political, racial and religious divides feels both more urgen, and under threat, after a divisive presidential election.
Cheaters Usually Do Win in the Classroom (Arik Levinson, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 2, 2024): A professor offers two proposals to reduce widespread academic misconduct by college students.
Students Think Faculty Should Be Mentors. What Does That Look Like? (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, December 2, 2024): Over half of students believe their professors are at least somewhat responsible for being a mentor to them. Faculty weigh in on the feasibility of this effort.
Understanding First-Year Students (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, November 27, 2024): The Class of 2028 is the first college cohort to have the entirety of their high school experience disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the areas of health and wellness and campus culture, what’s different about these learners compared to their peers?
The Appreciative Close: A Strategy for Creating a Classroom Community (Shawn Vecellio, Faculty Focus, November 27, 2024): One of the practices the author has employed is “the appreciative close,” a pause at the end of whole class discussions, providing an opportunity for students to acknowledge each other’s contributions in terms of how those supported classmates’ learning.
How Much Do Students Have to Study to Learn a Concept? (Stephen L. Chew, The Teaching Professor, November 18, 2024): Discusses Graham Nuthall’s “rule of three,” that for long-term learning, “a student needed to encounter, on at least three different occasions, the complete set of information she or he needed to understand a concept. If the information was incomplete, or not experienced on three different occasions, the student did not learn the concept.”
All Things AI
The AI We Deserve (Evgeny Morozov, with responses by Brian Eno and others, Boston Review, December 4, 2024): Critiques of artificial intelligence abound. Where’s the utopian vision for what it could be?
Is Generative AI a General Purpose Pedagogical Innovation? (Michael S. Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, November 25, 2024): The author considers generative AI’s potential as a pedagogical innovation.
How Are College Students Using AI Tools Like ChatGPT? (California Student Journalism Corps, November 25, 2024): Some view AI as a revolutionary tool that can enhance learning and working, while others see it as a threat to creative fields that encourages and enables bad academic habits.
Transforming History Education into a More Immersive, Interactive Process of Inquiry and Discovery (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, November 25, 2024): Using AI to make history teaching and learning more impactful.
After the Election: Consequences for Higher Ed
Supporting Noncitizen Students in Higher Ed (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, December 6, 2024): President-elect Donald Trump has threatened mass deportations. The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration offers five suggestions to support students who may be immigrants or undocumented.
House Republicans Aim to Pass Higher Ed Overhaul (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, December 6, 2024): The wide-ranging legislation likely won’t move forward in the Senate but serves as a marker for Republicans’ higher ed priorities in the next Congress.
Academics Are Not to Blame for Trump’s Election (Joseph Feldblum and Sammy Feldblum, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 4, 2024): Worrying about “wokeness” is nothing more than navel-gazing. There’s more important work to do.
Majority of College Students Believe Their Vote Didn’t Matter in the Election (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, December 4, 2024): A mid-November Student Voice survey found over half of college students felt their vote didn’t make much of a difference in the 2024 general election.
Why Did More College-Educated Young Men Vote for Trump This Year? (Amanda Friedman, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 26, 2024): In 2020, 62 percent of them voted for President Biden. In 2024, 52 percent supported Trump — a swing of 19 percentage points.
Linda McMahon Nominated for Secretary of Education
Where Does Linda McMahon, Trump’s Education Secretary Nominee, Stand on Key Issues? (Zachary Schermele, USA Today, December 2, 2024): McMahon, who has limited practical experience in education apart from serving on state and university boards, is a strong supporter of college alternatives and expanding school choice.
Who Is Linda McMahon? From ECU Grad to Nominee for Ed Secretary, a Look Beyond the Headlines (Mebane Rash, EdNC, December 2, 2024): Trump sees her as a “fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights” who will “fight tirelessly” to expand school choice.
How the WWE Shaped Linda McMahon (Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, November 27, 2024): Linda McMahon, nominated to lead the Education Department, helped turn WWE from a regional business into a multi-billion dollar global enterprise.
Affirmative Action and DEI
Trump Promises a Crackdown on Diversity initiatives. Fearful Institutions Are Dialing Them Back Already (Alice Speri, Guardian, December 5, 2024): As the president-elect and his allies plan a multi-pronged attack on DEI policies, companies and campuses are complying with threats even though they don’t have to.
Univ. of Michigan Regents Ban Use of Diversity Statements, Recommit to Broader DEI Goals (Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 5, 2024): A vice president warned at the tense meeting that the incoming Congress will “use whatever tools they have” to eliminate identity-conscious diversity initiatives: “We may have to trim sails.”
Are Elite Colleges Circumventing the Supreme Court? (Peter Arcidiacono and Tyler Ransom, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 3, 2024): In the era of race-neutral admissions, data from entering classes don’t add up.
Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces the Hostile Attribution Bias (Ankita Jagdeep, et al, Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University Social Perception Lab, n.d.): A report with research going back to 2004 suggests that, at least some of the time, diversity programing paradoxically promotes the very forms of prejudice it is meant to mitigate.
Academic Freedom and Speech on Campus
A Punishing Year (Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 4, 2024): The campus officials who enforce conduct codes are navigating a deluge of demands from students, institutional leaders, advocacy groups, and politicians — including President-elect Trump.
How Universities Are Trying to Stop Another Year of Anti-War Activism (Annie Ham, Sydney Sasser, The Intercept, December 2, 2024): Big public universities, historically at the forefront of catalyzing activist movements, are now using legal action, disciplinary efforts, and rule changes to chill speech and dissent.
When Aspiring Authoritarians Seize Faculty Power (Adam Briggle, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 25, 2024): Bureaucrats are over-complying with state DEI laws. Faculty must fight back.
The Race to Pacify Protesters (Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 25, 2024): Is a new team of campus administrators protecting free speech or undermining it?
Post-Election Analysis: Whither Academic Freedom Now? (Len Gutkin, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 25, 2024): The next four years will see intensified government scrutiny of higher education. What will that mean for academic freedom? That depends on what you consider academic freedom to comprise.
Fifty Years of Campus Expression: Revisiting the Role of University Leaders (Peter Salovey, Elsevier, November 18, 2024): Amid calls for “institutional neutrality,” will remaining silent truly restore the public’s trust in higher education or contribute to positive perceptions of our relevancy?
Extra Credit Reading
Students Who Voted for Trump More Likely to Get News from Podcasts (Susan H. Greenberg, Inside Higher Ed, December 6, 2024): Among those who voted for Trump, 34 percent—including 39 percent of white men—said they got their news from podcasts, compared to 17 percent of Harris voters.
The Colleges that Shape Congress (Declan Bradley, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 5, 2024): The CHE analyzed the educational backgrounds of every current and incoming member of Congress.
Trump’s Vision for College Accreditation Could Shake Up the Sector (Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 26, 2024): The president-elect and his allies have floated a sweeping vision for upending the way colleges are accredited. But firing the accreditors is easier said than done.
Future Imperfect
Texas Orders Restrictions on Colleges’ Ties to China and Other ‘Adversarial’ Countries (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 4, 2024): Texas is the latest state to impose new restrictions and security requirements on colleges’ international work, including potentially barring travel to China for faculty research and student recruitment.
Ban on Public Universities from Asking About Preferred Pronouns on Applications Proposed (Jo Ingles, The Statehouse News Bureau, November 29, 2024): Under the proposed legislation, public colleges in the state could no longer ask students or potential employees for their preferred pronouns. Individual faculty members would still be allowed to ask students for that information.
On the Bookshelf
Scott McLemee (Inside Higher Ed, December 6,2024) surveys forthcoming titles from university presses.
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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)