Bloom's Sixth

Two vastly different views of assessment whipsawed many of us over the past few days. The first, a positive and hopeful view, pulsed through a half-day of sessions at KU’s annual Student Learning Symposium on Friday. The message there was that assessment provides an opportunity to understand student learning. Through curiosity and discovery, it yields valuable information and helps improve classes and curricula. The second view came in the form of what a colleague accurately described as a “screed” in The New York Times. It argued that assessment turns hapless faculty members into tools of…

Student motivation is one of the most vexing challenges that instructors face. Students can’t learn if they aren’t engaged, and serious classroom material often fails to pique the interest of a generation that has grown up with the constant stimulation of smartphones, social media and video on demand. Some instructors argue that motivation should be up to students, who are paying to come to college, after all. Most certainly, instructors can’t make students learn. Students have to cultivate that desire on their own. Instructors can take many steps to stoke that desire to learn,…

By Doug Ward The University of Kansas has made many gains in its recruitment of minority students, who now make up 20.6 percent of the student body. By at least one measure, though, the university still has considerable work to do. According to an analysis by The Hechinger Report, there is a substantial disparity in the number of Latino students who enroll at…

The criticism of liberal education often carries a vicious sting. For instance, listen to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor: “Universities ought to have skin in the game. When a student shows up, they ought to say, ‘Hey, that psych major deal, that philosophy major thing, that’s great. It’s important to have liberal arts … but realize, you’…

American higher education has taken a beating over the last 40-plus years. Many of those blows came from the outside. Many others were self-inflicted. I won’t rehash those here, other than to say that higher education has done a poor job of fighting back. Much of the time, it has seen itself as above the fray. Its arrogance not only blinded it to its own shortcomings but let critics paint an unflattering portrait that has lingered in the minds of millions of Americans. A board at the AAC&U meeting asked participants to share their thoughts about higher education. The theme of the…

Students try to assemble a Lego creation after instructions were relayed from another room. By Doug Ward Here’s some sage advice to start the semester: Don’t be a jerk. That comes from a student who will be an undergraduate teaching assistant for the first time this spring. Actually, he used a much more colorful term than “jerk,” but you get the idea. He was responding to a question from Ward Lyles, an assistant professor of urban planning, about things that undergrad TAs could do to set the tone in classes they worked in. More about that shortly. Lyles’s workshop on fostering an…

If I were to design the perfect learning experience, it would have all the components that Chad Kraus included in a studio architecture class he taught this fall. Chad Kraus with a prototype of the Haitian center his students designed. Start with a problem that has no single or simple solution. Study the problem, the context and the people involved. Learn the skills that will help solve the problem. Practice the skills with teammates. Get feedback from instructors and peers. Apply the skills in an authentic assignment. Teach others the skills you have learned. Reflect on the work…

The new Earth, Energy and Environment Center is still a work in progress. Workers in hardhats still move through mostly empty hallways and rooms. Cardboard boxes are strewn about as tables, chairs, computer monitors and other equipment is unpacked, assembled and put into place. The sound of a hammer or drill echoes occasionally. The smell of new carpet, upholstery, paint or wood greets you around every corner. Even amid the clutter and clamor, though, this new complex attached to Lindley Hall looks like the future. Paleocon, an annual event for students in Geology 121: DNA to…

By Doug Ward Authentic assignments can be messy. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, the messiness helps students deepen their critical thinking, improve their decision-making, learn about themselves, and even take more control over their learning. That messiness can be challenging for both students and faculty members, though. For students accustomed to a lecture-and-test format, it means grappling with ambiguity and working through failures. For instructors, it means ceding considerable control to students and devoting time to individual and group problem-solving. My approach to…

By Doug Ward One poster offers to explain the chemistry of the world’s most popular drug. Another teases about the fatty acids that make T-shirts feel soft. Still another promises secrets about the oils used in making the perfect chicken nugget. None of them offers its secrets outright, though. And that’s just how Drew Vartia, a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the chemistry department, wants it. A poster in Malott Hall refers people to information about the chemistry of soap. The posters were created by the 60 students in Honors Chemistry I, which Vartia worked on with Professor…