The Great (Campus) Divorce
Over the past year, a number of common tactics have emerged from the opposition to what is widely referred to as the Trump administration’s “defunding” of education. One of these…
Posts tagged with
“teaching quality”
American Higher Education Restoration Act
Rather than emphasize excellence in teaching, America’s public universities now produce a glut of academic “research” that almost no one reads and which does not meaningfully advance human knowledge. Unfortunately,…
Should University “Books” Be Judged By Athletics “Covers”?
College administrators and athletic departments, along with the media and much of the broader public, proclaim that college athletics are the “front porch” of the university. If athletics are a…
Try Humble, Positive Modeling, Not Neutrality
The kerfuffle over the relative merit of forcing “viewpoint neutrality” in history classrooms puzzles me. No wonder: Although an historian by Ph.D., I have taught mostly economics for almost three…
How Higher Education is Going to Change
Predictions that American higher education is on the verge of great change have been heard for quite a few years, but so far the system doesn’t look much different than…
Could College Exit Exams Restore Confidence in Higher Ed?
Although there is no shortage of college graduates, a degree alone, unfortunately, does not guarantee students learned anything of substance while in college. The grade point averages listed at the…
A Perennial Question: What Makes a Good College Teacher?
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…
How Can Professors Inspire Students to Want to Learn?
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…
The Better Teacher: A Professor or Another Student?
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…
Teacher Training and the Construction of Illiteracy
No cliché is more ubiquitous at teacher protests than signs that read, “if you can read this sign, thank a teacher.” That is, unless you disregard variations on the theme…