Teaching and Learning
Student-Led Teaching Doesn’t Help Underprepared Students (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, July 11, 2025): Peer support can increase students’ engagement in a course, but one study found that peer instruction didn’t result in better grades or content knowledge for learners.
Assignments that Mitigate AI Abuse (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 10, 2025): Reports on the approaches taken by a number of faculty in this regard.
5 Steps to Update Assignments to Foster Critical Thinking and Authentic Learning in an AI Age (Flower Darby, Faculty Focus, July 9, 2025): One promising solution to the triple challenge of fostering critical thinking, meaningful learning, and academic integrity is to double down on transparency. We can provide the guidance students want, embed analysis and evaluation into our assignments to get at that all-important critical thinking, and nudge students toward integrity. How? By embracing transparency.
Colleges Use Podcasts to Reach Students (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2025): As podcasts have grown in popularity among young people, higher education professionals are getting behind the mike to provide advice and support to current and potential students.
The Crumbling Boundary Between High School and College (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2025): How pushing students to and through higher ed has altered their learning.
Universities in the Crosshairs
An Inside Job? (Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 10, 2025): The White House says it’s investigating antisemitism. Faculty at George Mason U. suspect a coordinated ouster attempt.
Trump Administration Pulls Lever to Threaten Harvard’s Accreditation (The Hill, July 9, 2025): The Education Department and Department of Health and Human Services told Harvard University’s accreditor Wednesday there is “strong evidence to suggest the school may no longer meet” accreditation standards.
Trump Targets Harvard’s Accreditation, Will Subpoena International Student Records (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, July 9, 2025): Federal agencies are increasing pressure on the university, which still hasn’t acceded to the government’s sweeping demands. The institution says it’s facing retaliation.
International Students and Scholars
U.S. Government Data on International Enrollments Were Off – by 200,000 Students (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 8, 2025): The U.S. government underreported the number of international students on American campuses last year by more than 200,000 — an error that made it appear that overseas enrollments were falling when in fact there was steady growth.
Noncitizen Professors Testify About Chilling Effect of Others’ Detentions (Nell Gluckman, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 7, 2025): In a free-speech trial on Monday, two faculty members described self-censorship and behavior changes after arrests of scholars who had expressed pro-Palestinian views.
Extra Credit Reading
The Changing Demographics of Admitted Students (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Education, July 11, 2025): Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, the share of college applicants who are Black or Hispanic has risen, while the percentage admitted has declined.
Why Hiring Professors with Conservative Views Could Backfire on Conservatives (Jennifer M. Morton, New York Times, July 10, 2025): A policy of hiring professors and admitting students because they have conservative views would actually endanger the open-minded intellectual environment that proponents of viewpoint diversity say they want.
100 Yeats Ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial Discovered Academic Freedom (John K. Wilson, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 10, 2025): But today, the right to teach the truth remains under threat.
AI, Irreality and the Liberal Educational Project (Jacob Riyeff, Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2025): How can higher education achieve its aim of scrutinizing reality when students don’t even seem to recognize the irreality of AI outputs.
How Trump Uses the DOJ as Tool of ‘Fear-Mongering’ (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, July 7, 2025): The Department of Justice has traditionally focused on regulatory compliance in academe, but now it’s weaponizing civil rights law to force ideological alignment, experts say.
Future Imperfect
This Out-of-State University Is Advertising to Ohio Since the Passage of SB1 (Laura Hancock, cleveland.com, July 10, 2025): Eastern Michigan University has launched an ad campaign to lure Ohio students with messages that promise “all are welcome” and will be given “freedom to grow” at a school that “honors all voices.”
Trump May Weaponize Student Loans Against Public Servants (Chas Danner, New York Magazine, July 9, 2025): The Department of Education is considering a plan to cancel student-loan forgiveness for otherwise eligible public servants who happen to work for organizations Trump wants to tear down.
Dozens of Republican Lawmakers Call on Maine Community College System to Fire Professor (WMTW, July 8, 2025): Professor had written on the student’s paper on the Second Amendment that “You clearly do not care about people as much as you care about guns.”
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)