Tag Archives: teaching
Four thoughts about Student Evaluations (occasioned by sexism in RateMyProfessor.com)
This post is occasioned by Ben Schmidt’s wonderful tool for exploring gender differences on words used in student evaluations on RateMyProfessor. 1. RateMyProfessor is a huge, but awful data set. Why awful? First, I’d bet that well under 1% of … Continue reading
On Treating the Unprepared as if they were Unmotivated and Unworthy
An academic job market story yesterday reminded me of the perils of interpreting lack of preparation with lack of worth. A philosophy candidate for a job at Nazareth College in Rochester was offered the job, made some fairly common requests, … Continue reading
How much does it matter how students feel?
As I prepare my tenure portfolio, I am catching up on entering in my student evaluation data and comments into my big spreadsheet. While I don’t think student evaluations should serve as the only data by which to judge teachers, … Continue reading
Posted in education, higherEd, psychology
Tagged learning styles, psychology, student evaluations, teaching
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Teaching and learning, labor and fairness
It seems a requirement that any conversation about higher education in America must begin and end with costs and economic outcomes. Along the way, our economic analysts nod to the power of knowledge (economic research shows it improves career prospects!), … Continue reading
Posted in education, higherEd, politics, teaching
Tagged econometrics, highered, labor, learning, teaching
4 Comments
My Teaching Philosophy (part 327b)
I’m putting some finishing touches on my syllabi here the night before classes start, and I thought I would share with my blog readers a one-page statement of my teaching philosophy that I put on each of my syllabi. Anyone … Continue reading
Posted in education, higherEd, psychology, teaching
Tagged highered, psychology, syllabus, teaching
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Teacher’s Mind, Beginners Mind
Welcome new readers! One of the themes of this blog is how I apply my perspective as a college professor or a cognitive psychologist to a variety of different circumstances, like kindergarten, or feminism, or googling, or school reform. This … Continue reading
What is a Syllabus?
At the beginning of every college class, I hand out a syllabus. What is the purpose of this document? What is in it? How do I plan it? How do I design it? I thought it might be useful or … Continue reading
Don’t Just Click There, DO Something
There is a predictable uproar about the latest installment, in Forbes this time, of our national conversation entitled: Golly Aren’t Academics Living Lazy Leisurely Lives (GAALLLL, for short). I don’t have much to say but I want to remind people … Continue reading
Sandy Hook and Useless Common Sense on Guns
As a parent and a human being, I am horrified and terrified by the events of last week in Newtown, Connecticut. I have hugged my kids, I have sat and cried upon reading notes sent by six year old best … Continue reading
Posted in news, politics, psychology, science
Tagged availability heuristic, guns, psychology, SandyHook, teaching
17 Comments
Myths Come From Values, Not From Ignorance
Like many interested in how we apply basic cognitive science to education, I was interested in the recent finding that many teachers still endorse many myths and misconceptions about neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Here is the original paper, and an … Continue reading
Posted in education, psychology, science
Tagged education, learning styles, neuromyths, neuroscience, psychology, teaching
26 Comments
