Step inside any gym and you’ll likely see a familiar sight: regular gym buffs, for whom the gym is a second home, using the workout machines with ease. You will … Continue reading “The College Classroom Can Be a Judgment-Free Zone”
In an earlier millennium, yours truly undertook graduate studies in history and persisted a couple of years before getting cold feet. Some new PhDs could not find academic positions; some … Continue reading “Are English Departments Really Dying?”
Colleges perform two vital functions: They disseminate to the people (especially their own students) the knowledge and wisdom acquired through time in ways that enhance the common good, and they also … Continue reading “Colleges: Go Back to Basics”
Does the average person have any idea what is now considered “normal” in the field of K-12 education? I already had some misgivings after reading Jay Schalin’s devastating review of … Continue reading “Math Teachers are Taught that Elementary Math Education is a “Struggle for Justice””
Each generation returns the same complaints: college teachers drone, college teachers lack creativity and spark, nay, they often lack even rudimentary pedagogical awareness. And since the ascendance of what William … Continue reading “A Perennial Question: What Makes a Good College Teacher?”
Former Harvard president Derek Bok has long lamented that our institutions of higher education largely underperform in their missions. He has now written another book making that argument. His Higher … Continue reading “Derek Bok’s Higher Expectations – Our Colleges Should Accomplish More”
COVID-19 has revolutionized how we think about online college teaching. Until last spring, two perspectives predominated. One argued that massively enrolled online classes presented by impressive teachers or prestigious universities … Continue reading “How Can Professors Inspire Students to Want to Learn?”
There’s a chasm between the purpose of a liberal arts education and how many colleges and universities actually operate. Throughout academia, excessive value is placed on efficiency, research publications, and … Continue reading “True Learning Starts With Real Mentorship”
Public colleges spend public money, but college officials are reluctant to make information about their budgets easy to understand. That aversion to transparency makes it easier to pass non-instructional expenses … Continue reading “Without Financial Transparency, Colleges Mislabel Research Spending as Instructional”
Professors, particularly at research universities, wear many hats. On the one hand, they are instructors, entrusted to pass on knowledge to their students. On the other hand, they are researchers … Continue reading “The Better Teacher: A Professor or Another Student?”