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Category Archives: The Experiment
Rethinking Grades and Learning
Is learning fundamentally a flow or a stock? Is learning about improving your skills and knowledge or about being skilled and knowledgeable? I ask these questions because often it appears to me that we’re grading what students know more than … Continue reading
Status Report on the Metas
Last week I reported on the first meta discussion in my intro course this term. Over the weekend I read over their responses and drew some conclusions. First, the majority of students completed the assignment, 70% as compared to 35% … Continue reading
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First Meta Discussion of the Term
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my experimental intro course. I admit I’ve been preoccupied with the first year seminar, but now I have something to talk about in the former. Friday we discussed the first abstract metacognitive … Continue reading
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Where to go from here in the Principles Course
A couple of weeks ago, in the context of my experimental principles course, I wondered if I was enabling students to avoid the metacognitive activities that I believe lead to deep learning. I’ve given this a fair amount of thought … Continue reading
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Are University Teachers Contributing to the Problem?
Ever since reading Rebekah Nathan’s book, I’ve been thinking about Pogo’s famous line: We have met the enemy and he is us! One of Nathan’s observations was that despite little effort students get decent grades, Bs or better. This wasn’t … Continue reading
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On the Importance of the Text – 2
I ran into the same serious problem with the text this semester as last. For the reasons I described in the last post, choosing the right text is critical. What defines right? Well, certainly the text has to do a … Continue reading
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On the Importance of a Text in College Courses
Perhaps I’m a slow learner, but I appear to be back to where I started after having reinvented the wheel. When I first started teaching, I adopted a standard textbook as a matter of course for my introductory course. That … Continue reading
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Analysis of the Meta Activities – 2
Over the last several postings, I have been analyzing my students’ participation in the meta activities I developed for my principles courses last year. The majority of the students did not buy into the meta activities. I find that distressing. … Continue reading
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Analysis of this Semester’s Meta Activities
Here is my analysis of the meta activities for my experimental intro course this semester. You can compare this with last semester’s results. The results remain depressing. Abstract Metas: * Nearly 60% failed to participate (59% submitted 0-1 of 8 … Continue reading
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Update on the Experiment – 1
I haven’t posted much this semester on my pedagogical experiment. There’s a reason for that: I spent a fair amount of time last summer prepping for the Fall course, specifically thinking about how I could radically revise its teaching. Unfortunately, … Continue reading
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