Teaching and Learning
Getting Feedback from Students on the Syllabus (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 8, 2023): More faculty comment on having had their students review the syllabi they prepare.
The Long View on Transformative College Experiences: Key Podcast (Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, June 8, 2023): A new coalition aims to embed into curricula experiences that develop student agency and purpose and improve their well-being decades later.
Write Your Own Syllabus (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, June 7, 2023): The core purpose of a syllabus is not to have something to present to students on the first day, or to satisfy a bureaucratic requirement, but to work through the potential and possibilities of the course. This requires a process of thinking, not an outsourcing to a tool that cannot think.
AI and Higher Ed
How AI Tools Both Help and Hinder Equity (Susan D’Agostino, Inside Higher Ed, June 5, 2023): The technology promises to assist students with disadvantages in developing skills needed for success. But AI also threatens to widen the education gap like no tech before it. Lew Ludwig, the CTL’s co-director, is one of the faculty members interviewed for this article.
The Liberal Arts
Defining Liberal Education – and How to Advertise It (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, June 7, 2023): Faculty members and other supporters of the liberal arts gathered at Ursinus College last week to debate what liberal education is and how best to attract students to it.
Higher Ed – History
What the Faculty Needs to Know About the History of American Higher Education (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2023): Those who lack historical or comparative perspective about U.S. higher education can’t effectively defend its defining features or debate which characteristics might be jettisoned, modified, reformed or improved.
Affirmative Action
Waiting and Planning for a Supreme Court Defeat (Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, June 5, 2023)P: Some colleges are quietly talking about how they will respond if the justices, as expected, reject affirmative action – especially if the ruling applies beyond admissions.
On the Bookshelf
Readers of the Chronicle of Higher Education have been recommending some summer reading (old favorites).
Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (recommended by Dave Heitman, an assistant professor of leadership and director of graduate studies at Jessup University): “Wonderful first read on the topic of teaching as a first-year assistant professor,” he wrote. “Invaluable content and perspective that I find myself revisiting periodically to ensure I’m still orientated properly as an educator.”
Francis Su, Mathematics for Human Flourishing (recommended by Courtney Gibbons, an associate professor of mathematics at Hamilton College): “This book is a beautiful reminder that the study of mathematics is a liberal art,” Gibbons wrote. “In each chapter, Dr. Su links mathematics to a virtue (like “play,” and “beauty,” and “justice”) and illustrates how much more there is to the discipline beyond utility. In an age of data and AI, this book rehumanizes mathematics — and it helped me remember why *I* fell in love with math as a student.”
Rebecca Pope-Ruark Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal (recommended by Jeanne S. Anderson, an adjunct faculty-development coordinator at Waubonsee Community College): “Burnout resilience is essential in today’s higher-education culture. You can love the institution, but it will never love you back. This book offers a practical framework to protect yourself from burnout.”
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)