BY AARON BARLOW The traditional classroom is an admittedly questionable structure. It limits learning by confining bodies of knowledge within four walls, scuffed floor and ceiling generally too low. It also keeps things out, particularly a world that should have an impact on every type of learning. It reinforces hierarchy: no matter that teachers try…
BY JOHN SCHLUETER As I was writing my recent article for Academe, “In Search of What We Do,” my college was in the throes of reaccreditation, and faculty were tasked with standardizing their assessments of student work based on outcomes revised with the help of Bloom’s Taxonomy. However, for me—and I would venture to guess…
BY MARTIN KICH This resolution was passed unanimously by the chapter leaders and members attending this year’s annual meeting in the Columbus suburb of Westerville. Whereas the primary mission of Ohio’s colleges and universities is to educate students, a mission carried out by professors, Whereas more than 90 percent of Ohio AAUP members belong to…
BY AARON BARLOW Maybe it was just too perfect a topic for my classes today. Certainly, though, I couldn’t resist. It had everything. It had: Topicality that would keep students interested; Relationship to our university system (City University of New York); Room for discussion of student value, something particularly important for first-year college students; Relevance,…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The title of this post is the title of an op-ed written by Adam Grant and published in the New York Times. Grant is identified as an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandburg,…
POSTED BY THE AAUP Today the AAUP issued, jointly with Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the following statement on the liberal arts disciplines. Beneath the statement there is an online form that allows you to sign on to show your support. In recent years, the disciplines of the liberal arts, once universally regarded as central to…
BY MISSY WATSON I’m a teacher and user of standardized English who strives to deconstruct and contest standardized English. My classes regularly feature essays, textbooks, and research studies that reveal the oppressive and discriminatory results of assuming, consciously or not, that standardized English is superior to all other language varieties. Last year, I happened to…
BY JOHN W. LAWRENCE In an article published in the May/June 2018 issue of Academe entitled Student Evaluations of Teaching Are Not Valid, I briefly reviewed the literature on whether student evaluations of teaching (SET) are good measures of teaching effectiveness. They are not. First, SET scores reflect race, gender, age and other biases of…
BY AARON BARLOW Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, writes, “Our efforts to improve schools have worked well where people have led with courage. To say otherwise is wrong.” As one who has spent 25 of the last 40 years in the classroom, as a secondary-school teacher, an adjunct college instructor and as a full-time…