Student – The Philosophy of Contemporary Song

How I Learned to Love Bad Student Papers

I read once that J.R.R. Tolkien came up with the idea for The Hobbit while grading student exams. Bent over a desk, grinding away scoring exam book after exam book, he finally came across one with a blank page at the back. He was so relieved by that short break from grading that he wrote on theContinue reading “How I Learned to Love Bad Student Papers”

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Charismatic Teacher = High Evals, but not High Learning

Inside Higher Ed. has recently reported that a rather interesting study on student learning conducted by a group of psychologists supports what most of us who have been teaching for any length of time already knew all along: student perception of learning and student learning are two different things: The researchers asked two groups of studentsContinue reading “Charismatic Teacher = High Evals, but not High Learning”

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Are Teachers Entertainers?

I’ve been following a discussion on LinkedIn in which one instructor has taken the position that teachers are entertainers because learning should be fun, and another is taking issue with him — he maybe agrees that learning should be fun, but he’s doubtful that teachers are entertainers. I think it wouldn’t hurt to consider how weContinue reading “Are Teachers Entertainers?”

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On Being a Student (as a Human Being)

The chart below lists educational spending in twelve industrialized countries, comparing each country’s spending to student performance: Via: MAT@USC | Master’s of Arts in Teaching Educational spending for just these twelve countries combined is about $1.8 trillion, representing a massive investment of time, money, and resources to educate our children. And yes, this chart isContinue reading “On Being a Student (as a Human Being)”

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On Being a Student (in an Institution…)

Before I get around to talking about being a student in an institution (I write about being a student outside of an institution later), I would like you to consider three kinds of machines and how they differ: a hammer, a photocopier, and a computer. These three kinds of machines represent three levels of complexity. ThreeContinue reading “On Being a Student (in an Institution…)”