Bloom's Sixth

By Doug Ward A young woman with a flower headdress caught my attention as I walked through Budig Hall earlier this week. I stopped and asked her what the occasion was. “It’s Hat Day in Accounting 200,” she said. I wanted to know more, and Paul Mason, who teaches the 8 a.m. section of the class, and Rachel Green, who teaches the 9:30 section, graciously invited me in. Hat Day, they said, is a tradition that goes back 20 years. It takes place one day toward the beginning of each semester and works like this: Students get a bonus point if they wear a hat to class. Teaching assistants…

The annual conference of the Association of American Colleges and Universities(link does not exist) offered many thought-provoking sessions, teaching tips and discussions about the future of higher education. I wrote earlier about some of the themes. Here’s a sampling of some of the other ideas that stood out. The importance of engaged learning A session on engaged learning offered some of the most insightful observations of the conference. Engaged learning…

SAN FRANCISCO – A sense of urgency pervades this year’s meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities(link expired). The tenets of a broad, liberal education have been under assault at the state and national level, many Americans have grown skeptical of the cost – and debt – that college brings, and the terms “evidence” and “value” seem mandatory in any conversation about higher education. The sessions at the AAC&U’s annual meeting this week have been filled with discussions about telling the story of liberal education, effecting change across departments and…

Consider a few of the changes roiling public higher education. Technology has created new ways for students to learn and to earn credentials but has also eliminated the need for a physical presence in many courses. …

A colleague pulled me aside this week and said she wanted my thoughts about something. She seemed apologetic. She is relatively new to college teaching, having made the switch to academia after a distinguished professional career. Students rave about her. She pushes them to think creatively and to stretch their abilities through hands-on projects. She holds students to high standards, but she is also accessible and serves as a strong mentor. When we talk, I always leave feeling energized and hopeful. This week, though, she seemed uncharacteristically down, and she wanted my advice. “How do…

By Doug Ward When it comes to seeing the truth, the facts sometimes get in the way. Audrey Watters makes that argument in an intriguing blog post on the results of the presidential election. During the election, she said, a focus on facts (in the form of data) caused many people to overlook many voters’ willingness to shrug off Donald Trump’s inflammatory statements, conspiracy theories and falsehoods and put him in the White…

For many students and educators, this year’s election felt personal. Women were ridiculed for their physical appearance. Mexican immigrants were called drug traffickers and rapists. …

“What just happened?” Carl Luchies asked his graduate teaching assistant.  They stood at the front of a lecture hall in early 2013, watching as 120 normally subdued engineering undergraduates burst into spontaneous conversation. Luchies, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, had just given the students a problem to work on and told them it was a collaborative quiz due at the end of class. Students could work with anyone in the room, he said. “Anyone?” they asked. Carl Luchies works with a student in a graduate-level biomechanics class Anyone, he said. They could move…

It’s no secret that we are big fans of active learning at the Center for Teaching Excellence. So when the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a call to action for active learning and declared today Active Learning Day, we had to join the festivities…

My mom managed a college bookstore for many years. That was in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, when the bookstore was the only place to buy books. Students could sometimes snag a used book from a friend, but for the most part, they bought their books from the college store. That doesn’t mean students were happy about the arrangement. My mom never got used to the disparaging remarks that students would mutter when they bought their books or tried to sell them back. Stocksnap, Gaelle Marcel “What a ripoff!” they would say. Some even called the bookstore “Max’s Ripoff Shop.” She calmly explained…