The Classroom Must Change
Despite strong market signals that they will continue to fail financially and/or fall short of achieving their missions, few U.S. universities have tried grading reform as a means of attracting…
Posts tagged with
“engaged learning”
Solving the Grade-Inflation Problem
Educators on the right and left condemn grade inflation in K-12 and universities. Inflated grades mark the transformation of education from actual learning to credentialing. Grade inflation at America’s universities…
Colleges Can’t Curate “Belonging”
A recent survey from the consulting firm EAB has found that university attempts to cultivate student “belonging” are having mixed success. However, most students are still satisfied with their educational…
The College Classroom Can Be a Judgment-Free Zone
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…
Let’s Improve Student Engagement
Undergraduate student engagement is on the decline. That’s according to the publishing and research firm Wiley, which, in February, released a “State of the Student” survey indicating that student engagement…
The Case Against Admissions Selectivity
It’s time to do away with selective college admissions for undergraduate education. Now, let’s get the caveats out of the way. When it comes to specific training that requires particular…
Who’s to Blame When Students Fail a Course?
As long as college students are considered entitled customers, their complaints about their professors will be taken seriously by administrators. That’s because happy students boost college applications, affect the closely-watched…
Failing Introductory Economics
In June 2014, I wrote a piece entitled “Reform Intro Economics” for Inside Higher Ed. There, I argued that then-current introductory economics courses were little changed from those of decades…
A Defense of the “Ungrading” Movement
In his April piece for the Martin Center, Adam Ellwanger critiqued “contract grading” as a symptom of “the war against academic excellence” and the broader societal movement toward “some fetishized…
The Post-Truth Classroom
Veritas. Lux et veritas. Veritas vos liberabit. Truth. Light and truth. Truth will set you free. These are the official mottos for Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins. They reflect a…