I thought my readers might be interested in a description of a new class I am teaching. I am super excited about it, but it is very new to me, and I can tell there will be challenges ahead. The class is designed for our First Year Experience Courses, at Randolph-Macon which are yearlong, interdisciplinary,…
This is my 100th blog post, and I thought it might be fun to return to a point near the beginning of my time in science writing and communication, the summer after my junior year in high school, when I went to what I now call “nerd camp.” At the end of this camp I…
I promised to update the few of you interested in my experiment in General Psychology last semester. You can have a more thorough description of my logic and motivation here, but the basic themes were this: A point system, with plenty of flexibility of how you fulfilled your points. There were points for in class…
Hi folks, been a while since I blogged at ya. School starts in a few short weeks (on Labor Day for us), so I thought I would briefly fill you in on what I have been up to this summer. I have longer posts for each of these planned, so stay tuned in the next…
Here is my final exam for the class I teach of all seniors in psychology. It is a capstone course, intended to provide a capstone experience for the majors in psychology, a required element for all students at Randolph-Macon. I thought some of my readers might find it interesting, and honestly, I am a little…
I spent the day today in my sons’ elementary school, as part of the Watch DOGS program. Part of me chafes a little bit at the idea that it is a special thing for dads to come visit and volunteer, whereas it is totally expected for moms to be PTA-involved and such. But, it is…
German pastor Martin Niemoller is quoted as saying First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I…
This is a bit of a follow up on my previous post about my experiments with General Psychology, but mostly about my thoughts about student evaluations in higher ed (using this class as an example). With every class, I try to take a breath a little short of halfway through and ask students how the…
As the new semester here has started (we start late because we fit in a semester in January) I have been frantically getting everything settled with my three classes. For one of them, I am trying something new, so I thought I would share it with you and ask for any thoughts or feedback. It…
I squirmed a lot reading Larry Summers’ recent piece in the New York Times on where he thinks and hopes higher education will go in the future. Here’s a point by point analysis: He begins by undermining his own credibility: A paradox of American higher education is this: The expectations of leading universities do much…
