Teaching and Learning
Annotating the Syllabus (Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed, May 5, 2023): A painless and useful form of outcomes assessment.
This Simple 30-Minute Belonging Exercise Could Boost Student Retention (Adrienne Lu, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 4, 2023): Allowing students to reflect on their social and academic anxieties helps them put things in perspective and persist through college, a groundbreaking study says.
Ungrading: A collection of articles from Zeal: A Journal for the Liberal Arts (April 17, 2023).
Our Grading System Gets an F (David Eubanks, Inside Higher Ed, May 1, 2023): What if the F doesn’t mean what we think it means?
D’s, F’s and W’s (Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed, May 3, 2023): There must be a better way: A continuation of the discussion begun by David Eubanks (see above).
If I Missed You, Please Leave a Note in the Chat (Jeffrey M. Kenton, Faculty Focus, May 1, 2023): Stay connected to each other because it’s more important than you think.
AI, Tech, and Higher Ed
Getting a Grip on ChatGPT (Barbara Fister and Alison J. Head, Inside Higher Ed, May 4, 2023): Considering what academia got wrong about Wikipedia helps to crystallize the questions we should be asking about ChatGPT and our knowledge environments.
Level Up Higher Education Assessments with ChatGPT (Shellon Samuels-While, Faculty Focus, May 3, 2023): ChatGPT can providing an opportunity for stakeholders in higher education to reflect on how learning competencies are assessed at the tertiary level.
DEI Issues
Liberal Arts Colleges to Keep Prioritizing Diversity (Inside Higher Ed, May 1, 2023): A letter by 28 Liberal Arts College Presidents argue the value of working to maintain a diverse student body.
Every State Trying to Ban Racial Equity Efforts in Colleges and Universities (Rayna Reid Rayford, Essence, May 4, 2023): A state-by-state chart of efforts to ban DEI initiatives.
Debate of the Day
Pair up “A Paper That Says Science Should Be Impartial Was Rejected by Major Journals. You Can’t Make This Up” (Pamela Paul, New York Times, May 4, 2023) with “Academia: Sleight-of-Hand” (Timothy Burke, Eight by Seven, May 4, 2023).
Liberal Arts Education
Making a College Education More Purposeful (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Education, May 3, 2023): Can commuter schools, research universities and underresourced campuses provide the kind of developmental and transformational education we used to associate with small liberal arts colleges?
Academic Freedom and Speech Issues
These Professors Are Asking Students to Consider Divisive Issues – And Learn (Susan Svrluga, Washington Post, May 4, 2023): There is a growing effort at colleges to counter polarization and encourage civil discourse.
More Students Endorse an Expansive Definition of ‘Harm.’ Colleges Aren’t So Sure (Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 3, 2023): Recent campus controversies, many involving anti-transgender activists, have sparked debate over how speech can be harmful.
Trump Vows to Go After ‘Radical Left’ Colleges, Echoing DeSantis Approach (Michael Stratford, Politico, May 2, 2023): Former President Donald Trump is calling for a drastic expansion of the federal government’s oversight of colleges and universities, vowing to “reclaim” campuses that he asserts are “dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.”
On the Bookshelf
Reparative Universities: Why Diversity Alone Won’t Solve Racism in Higher Ed by Ariana González Stokas (Johns Hopkins). You can find an article (Higher Ed’s DEI Lip Service) based on the book at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery (Liveright/Norton) by Adam Gopnik, reviewed by Joshua Kim (Inside Higher Ed, May 1, 2023): Gopnik’s book is about how learning is translated into effective and meaningful practice.
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 Charla White (white@glca.org) if you have colleagues who would like to receive this weekly report.
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Steven Volk (steven.Volk@oberlin.edu)
Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org)
Charla White (white@glca.org)