Chronicle Vitae: Are you assigning too much reading? Or just too much boring reading? This piece argues we should assign students readings that are fun and easily accessible. A short piece in journals like Smithsonian Magazine are more effective and engaging than a long, jargon-filled academic article, so students are more likely to actually complete the readings.
Aeon: Schools love the idea of the growth mindset but does it help students learn? This thoughtful piece examines research on the effects of trying to use the growth mindset in schools. It argues that, in practice, the growth mindset is often misapplied, misunderstood, or over emphasized at the expensive of recognizing other factors like innate intelligences, learning differences, socio-economic status, and students’ actual work. Rather than convincing students that their brains are elastic and hoping for the best, the article argues for purposeful practice and praising the success after hard work (that will then convince students to have a growth mindset).
Chronicle Vitae: What is ‘indoctrination’ and how do we avoid it? This piece responds to the idea that universities indoctrinate their students. It argues that, in order to prevent close-minded, intellectually servile students (i.e. indoctrinated students), we should model open-mindedness, acknowledge our own mistakes, and encourage students to follow arguments most in line with the evidence.
Chronicle Vitae: Yes, we should teach character This piece says that an emphasis on grit as character development is too simplistic and can fall into old classist or racist stereotypes. Instead, we should focus on teaching students intellectual virtues: curiosity, intellectual humility, intellectual autonomy, attentiveness, intellectual carefulness, intellectual thoroughness, open-mindedness, intellectual courage, and intellectual tenacity. It also provides links to Jason Baehr’s articles and publications with suggestions about how to so.
EdSurge: What is missing in edtech? Character education This post discusses how character education is different from learning a topic, like the history of Rome; and it advertises a podcast about how we can teach things like honesty, motivation, forgiveness.
Chronotope: ‘Four Quarters Marking:’ A Workload Solution This article suggests that most of the feedback teachers give is unsuccessful at helping students improve. Much of it says what’s wrong and not enough about how to improve. The article suggests only grading part of the students’ work, having students grade their own and their peers’ work, and sharing good examples of essays or similar tasks with students so they have models to emulate. (cf. SE2R Narrative feedback method)
Emily Style, “Curriculum as Windows and Mirrors” A nice piece on how students should have windows into the experiences of other peoples, and their own life experiences should be mirrored into the curriculum. This should create empathy, acceptance, and a sense of affirmation.
