Teaching and Learning
Improving Self-Regulated Learning (Althea Need Kaminske, The Learning Scientists, February 8, 2024): Self-regulated learning describes a cyclical process of forethought, performance, and self-reflection that enables a learner to regulate, and thereby improve, their learning. Students who took a self-regulated learning course significantly improved their overall self-regulated learning.
5 Strategies for Better Supporting Multilingual Learners (Guillermo Lope and Amy Getz, Inside Higher Ed, February 8, 2024): At community colleges and four-year institutions, faculty and staff members should take steps to help English language learners develop a sense of belonging that builds on their strengths to promote success.
Tackling Plagiarism in the Classroom (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 8, 2024): Some examples, including a “three strikes” policy.
Use Improv to Teach Communication Skills (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, February 8, 2024): A faculty member at Paul Smith’s College incorporates improvisation exercises into his business course to teach empathetic listening, collaborative discussion and flexibility.
Improving Student Success in the Classroom (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, February 7, 2024): 18-minute podcast in which Jody Greene, associate campus provost for academic success at the University of California, Santa Cruz, discusses the faculty’s responsibility to engage in success work.
Teaching Evaluations Are Broken. Can They Be Fixed? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2024): Superficial assessments hurt professors and students, but reform is hard.
On AI and ‘Meaningful’ Feedback (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, February 5, 2024): If ChatGPT can do it, and if the purpose is learning, it’s not worth doing.
An Interview with Kareem Farah from the Modern Classrooms Project (Cindy Nebel, The Learning Scientists, February 15, 2024): The Modern Classrooms Project uses research-backed instructional models to respond to students’ needs.
Co-Teaching a Class on Israel and Palestine (Bernard Avishai, The New Yorker, February 2, 2024): A miniature academic peace process suggests how a university might organize for difficult subjects – and what, after all, universities are.
Teach About Climate Change with 30 Graphs from The New York Times (Michael Gonchar, New York Times, January 31, 2024): A new collection to explore our planet’s warming oceans, intensifying storms and rising air temperatures, as well as its greenhouse gas emissions and climate solutions.
Redefining Experiential Learning: How Universities Can Deliver an Integrated Curriculum (Minerva Project Whitepaper): It’s not about changing the location of learning, but rather the cognitive journey that gives meaning to experience. A downloadable whitepaper from the Minerva Project.
Speech Issues on Campus
Six Dangerous Bills That Would Censor Speech on Campuses Across the Country (Samantha LaFrance, PEN America, Feburary 7, 2024): Lawmakers across the country are doubling down on their yearslong campaign to destabilize academia, censor college classrooms, and wear down the safeguards that help protect academic freedom.
When a Threat Becomes an Excuse to Muzzle (Maggie Hicks, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2024): A sweeping punishment, a canceled art show, and the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices. See, as well, The New Campus McCarthyism (Jeffrey C. Isaac, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2024): On a scandalous suspension at Indiana University.
Are We Sliding Toward McCarthyism? (Emily Tamkin, The New Republic, January 29, 2024): In the wake of Hamas’s October 7th attacks, efforts to silence pro-Palestinian speech are ramping up.
Webinars
“The New Landscape in Higher Education”: A Conversation with Dr. Mary Wright and Other Higher Ed Leaders on the Future of Educational Development (March 13, 3:00-4:30 ET). A panel will discuss Wright’s book, Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape in Higher Education. Register here.
North Putnam: A film that encourages students’ engagement with civil, nonpartisan, discourse
North Putnam, a feature-length film directed by Joel Fendelman and produced by DePauw’s Beth Benedix, depicts a year in the life of a rural Indiana school district and the community it serves. A quiet film, North Putnam is meant to create a conversation about public education as a vital component of a thriving democracy, to build bridges across divides, and to provide an extended glimpse into a world and set of concerns that so many share but are often overlooked. The film is a special initiative of The Castle, Benedix’s Putnam County-based nonprofit organization that is dedicated to providing learning experiences for students where they feel seen, heard, valued and empowered, and supporting teachers in their ability to create environments that spill over with joy, creativity, relevance, rigor and authenticity. You can access film resources here.
Extra Credit Reading
What’s Really Behind the View That Higher Ed Isn’t Worth It? (Scot Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2024): Yes, the sector has a lot that it needs to fix. But criticisms that seem to dismiss the value of college altogether often miss key details.
Teaching Ignorance in Florida (Peter Brooks, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2024): What Molière’s The School for Wives can tell us about Florida’s attempt to prohibit politically uncomfortable knowledge.
The Hyperbolic Style in American Academe (Len Gutkin, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 5, 2024): How paranoid accusations of ‘violence’ became all the rage.
State of Texas v. United States: Amicus Brief Supporting DACA Recipients (Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, January 25, 2024): 168 colleges and higher-education organizations have signed an amicus brief in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides legal protections for some young people brought to the United States illegally as children.
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)