New CTL Workshop: WTF: Way(s) to Fail
Are your students paralyzed by being wrong? Do they not take risks in the classroom for fear of getting a bad grade? The science of learning tells us that we learn best from our mistakes. How can we develop a culture of supportive failure for our students to enhance their learning?
Please join the CTL for a virtual workshop on embracing the pedagogy of failure in your classroom, WTF: Way(s) to Fail. This interactive workshop will be led by Lydia Eckstein, Amelia Finaret and Lisa Whitenack of Allegheny College on Wednesday, March 20 at 4:00 pm (Eastern).
The goal of this workshop is to offer specific strategies for incorporating failure into teaching, course activities and mentoring. In advance of the workshop, please identify a particular course in which you already incorporate elements of a pedagogy of failure or in which you want to try it. At the end of this workshop, you will have actionable strategies to incorporate some of these practices into your specific class.
Here is a brief primer to prepare you for this engaging workshop: WTF: Way(s) To Fail! A Primer (or read the full article: Teaching the Inevitable: Embracing a Pedagogy of Failure).
Sign up here for this online event (a Zoom link will be sent the day before).
Teaching and Learning
Teaching Information Literacy in an Age of Misinformation (Krista Black, Faculty Focus, February 28, 2024): The author discusses broadening her literacy information approach to move beyond skepticism and distrust of sources to critical thinking: how can they verify the credibility of their sources?
Half of First-Year Seminars Focus on Academics, Student Success (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, February 26, 2024): New survey results from the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition find three in four colleges and universities offer a first-year seminar program, and of those, many focus on students’ academic success.
All Things AI
Like a Good Student, AI Is Getting Smarter (Roy Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, February 28, 2024): Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT-4, Gemini Advanced and their competition now have more features than the versions we used just a year ago.
The Program-Level AI Conversations We Should Be Having (Kathleen Landy, Inside Higher Ed, February 28, 2024): Now is the time to move to program-level conversations around curriculum and learning outcomes.
Artificial Intelligence and the Significance Crisis (Leif Weatherby, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, 2024): Only a computationally informed humanities can save us now.
Teaching Tip: Navigating AI in the Classroom (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, February 6, 2024): Generative artificial intelligence tools continue to grow in popularity. Here are four ways faculty members in higher education are teaching about or with AI.
Free Speech and Academic Freedom
This Bill Could Silence Pro-Palestine Student Groups. It’s Not the Only One (Alecia Taylor, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 28, 2024): Republican-backed legislation in Indiana and elsewhere would bar public colleges from supporting terrorism. Free-speech experts say the effects could be broader.
DEI Issues
DEI and the Necessity of Self-Defense (Mathew H. Gendle, Inside Higher Ed, February 29, 2024): For defenders of campus diversity, equity and inclusion programs, now is the time to fight back.
The End of Inclusion? (Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, 2024): Campus leaders struggle to deliver on a core ideal.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear New Case on Race and School Admissions (Adam Liptak, New York Times, February 20, 2024): The decision, along with an order this month declining to block West Point’s admissions program, suggests that most justices are not eager to immediately explore the limits of its ruling from June.
Annals of Surveillance
Facial Recognition Heads to Class. Will Students Benefit? (Susan D’Agostino, Inside Higher Ed, February 27, 2024): Multiple cameras spread throughout the room will take attendance, monitor whether students are paying attention and detect their emotional states, including whether they are bored, distracted or confused.
Indiana Teachers Call Attorney General’s ‘Eyes on Education’ Portal Dangerous (Richard Luscombe, The Guardian, February 15, 2024): Site launched by Republican to report ‘indoctrination’ a nest of outdated and inaccurate information, educators say.
Extra Credit Reading
What Are the Values of a University? (Dan Edelstein, Inside Higher Ed, February 27, 2024): Now, more than ever, we need to affirm what a university stands for.
The Trends Report 2024 (Chronicle of Higher Education): CHE’s annual investigation into the most consequential developments in higher education.
The Future of Testing Is Anything but Standardized (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, February 26, 2024): Colleges are beginning to solidify their post-pandemic testing policies. Conclusions on the best path forward have been disparate and, at times, contradictory.
The Endangered Languages of New York (Alex Carp, New York Times, February 22, 2024): An absolutely unforgettable interactive article on how the world’s most endangered languages still survive in a few New York boroughs.
Webinars
“Building Civil Campus Conversations” (March 5, 2:00 PM ET). Controversial speakers or protest can lead to conflict on campus. A Chronicle of Higher Education webinar discussing ways to de-escalate controversy and promote inclusivity. Register here.
“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.
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)