Question for all tenure-track or tenured #Academics of any field:
Do you have to teach (at least some) in your current position?
Would you prefer not to do any teaching?
Twice in the last month, someone has lamented near me that they have a bunch of learned-through-experience knowledge in their head, and they don't know how to draw it out into lessons to #teach their colleagues.
This is called "tacit knowledge". And fortunately, we actually know some ways to elicit it from experts & use it to train new learners!
I've appreciated Cedric Chin's blog series on this:
Material for how to study for STEM/biology university courses?
I'm looking for any and all references and tips on this topic.
I teach Intro to Neuroscience; typically to freshman/sophomores. Their experience in this class can be important for their next steps. But some students show up better prepared than others and we want to find better ways to rectify that. It's a really hard problem.
As an experiment this year, we are tacking on an optional weekly "bonus session" for any students who feel they could benefit from a bit more instruction/practice wrapping their head around what we are expecting of them (and how to achieve it). Things like: we don't just want students to memorize facts but also generalize knowledge and solve problems - but what does that look like and how do you prepare for it? I'm looking for material to develop that type of 'how to study' curriculum, including material that targets a diversity of learning styles and approaches.
I wan to make a request to #Science#Teachers: When you design labs please design some (most) without step-by-step instructions. The chances of your students needing pipette skills in 10 years is remote. What will serve most student better will be the ability to identify a problem, design and experiment that might explain that problem, setup and run that experiment, then interpret the results. Perhaps followed up by design a second experiment if the first didn't help.
Save the "follow the recipe" skills for home ec. The most important thing you can teach your student at any level is experimental design.
This line in Barbara Baig's writing book triggered a memory: "most adults are very self-conscious about learning anything new."
Years ago I took an ink painting class at my local arts center. A middle-aged woman cried because she wasn't immediately good at it. To me this is a convincing case for #ungrading.
Last Thursday, I gave my first not-small course midterm exam in a long time. It resulted in not the worst-looking exam histogram I've ever created, but pretty far from a happy one. Ugh. #teaching#calculus
I understand #teaching unions were told there would be no offer at all if it wasn't recommended to members;
However, it now looks possible that #Teachers have seen though the under-funded promises & the thinness of the promises for future (staged) rises;
But, if rumours are right, teachers may vote to reject the offer, leaving the teaching unions in the same place as the #Nurses unions, with a rejected offer but little appetite for further #strikes;
In 10 minutes I learned more about tensor products than I did in grad school. In particular, I see more of the connection between the way math uses tensor products and how physicist types think of them, as higher-dimensional matrices.
This kind of thing really riles me up. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to go back to teaching, because it hits the exact personality/psychological trait that makes me like teaching: I learn about some cool math thing and I want to charge into a classroom and say "GUYS! I just figured this out! It's so cool and interesting! OMG tensor products are the best, let me show you why!"
It bothers me that I was taught about tensor products in such a bad way. I want students to get something better than I did.
(OTOH, maybe I'm just not very smart, or was a bad student. That's a real possibility. But how great would it be for even dim bulbs and lazy students to get something out of learning about a topic?)
When college administrator Lance Eaton created a working spreadsheet about the generative AI policies adopted by universities last spring, it was mostly filled with entries about how to ban tools like ChatGPT.
This is becoming more and more of a pet peeve for me. A lot of the #music#teaching industry makes simple things appear to be utter complicated magic full of "secrets". Especially in the #guitar and #bass world this has become quite a trend on Youtube. Am I overreacting? 🤔 #bassguitar
We are finally dropping an episode about the thing no one wants to talk about - boundaries in teaching! Boundaries are confusing personally, let alone professionally, & there is almost ZERO info on setting boundaries as a teacher!
We don't have a magical solution, but we're offering starting points, give us a listen.
I just moved to a new instance, so here's a new #introduction
I'm the host of the Grammar Girl #podcast. You may have hit my website searching for something like "semicolons." I love #writing books, #teaching online courses, and I founded the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
I wanted to add a simple statement about ChatGPT to my syllabi for this semester. This is a first draft. Welcome constructive feedback, but please respect my overall approach which does not include an outright ban. That's fine if you want to ban it, and I understand why, but I'm trying something different here.
"faculty teaching introductory college algebra rarely addressed students’ misconceptions, made references to their students’ prior knowledge, or employed metacognitive teaching strategies. Moreover, while being observed, faculty never applied a mathematical concept to real life. Moreover, mathematics instructors rarely praised their students" https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87567555.2023.2221017 #ClosedAccess#EdDev#MathEd#Teaching
Bio was too big, and I didn't yet make an #Introduction:
Hi, I'm Leonard/Janis (like Cohen/Joplin respectively), I use they/them pronouns, he/him (Leo) and she/her (Janis).
I'm a #genderqueer#hacker from #Berlin. I'm a professional procrastinator, don't expect me to stick to one project :'-)
Outside of computing I love #running, #handball and #rollerblades, adore cats, have a passion for #teaching and spend too much time following politics. I listen to #Blues but my musical taste has since widened to also embrace R'n'B, Rock, Funk, and a lot of modern stuff. I read classic #fiction and my favorite authors are Terry #Pratchett, Douglas Adams, J.R.R. #Tolkien, Robert Harris, and Sjöwall & Wahlöö (rather male dominated, send recommendations!).
I'm politically left #AssignedCatAtBirth but not settled on the specific question of government.
I'm a #privacy and #security fetishist (these aren't the same, sometimes even oblique). Some see a gray space here, I consider the right to data self-determination a fundamental right. Also, free #housing, #publicTransport and a livable environment are fundamental. #Learning and #teaching are crucial for individuals and society. Tech won't solve our core problems, merely highlight them and perhaps provide tools for change we can use.
What are the arguments for and against making one's lecture materials (hand outs, presentations) publicly available on one's website?
I've never met Jeff Speaks, but his philosophy of language and mind handouts posted online have helped me so many times with trying to understand something. Now that I have tenure I kind of want to pay it forward.
But this isn't done very often, so I worry there are downsides I am not taking into account. Thoughts?
Red flag: In the US, "#teachers are dead last among all occupational groups and professions in feeling their opinions count at work, that their supervisor creates an open and trusting environment and that they are treated with respect each day. Teachers are also the highest of all professions in experiencing burn-out and stress. And it’s no wonder why half of all teachers are currently looking for a new job." https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/2024/02/23/to-fix-us-education-free-our-teachers/
Schools are teaching ChatGPT, so students aren't left behind | CNN Business (www.cnn.com)
When college administrator Lance Eaton created a working spreadsheet about the generative AI policies adopted by universities last spring, it was mostly filled with entries about how to ban tools like ChatGPT.