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Monthly Archives: November 2017
“I have no idea what I’m doing! I’m going to fail!”
Angela Duckworth had a rough start with her first class in neurobiology – she failed the first two exams. She was advised to drop the course. But she refused to quit. Instead she believed that she could figure it out … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged Angela Duckworth, effort and perseverance, Grit, students love this book
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“Is the soul solid, like iron?”
The poet Mary Oliver continues: “Or, is it tender and breakable, like the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?” With these questions, Oliver opens the poem “Some Questions You Might Ask,” which has inspired artists, videographers, … Continue reading
Best Books for College Teachers in 2017
Of the books published in 2017, here is my list of the five that have added the most to my understanding of our students, our challenges as instructors, and our need to reform our educational system. iGen by Jean Twenge: … Continue reading
Posted in Pedagogy
Tagged Andrea Petersen, Breakaway Learners, Cathy Davidson, iGen, Jean Twenge, Karen Gross, Norman Eng, On Edge, Teaching College, The New Education
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“Sadly, the reality is that more and more students entering the educational pipeline have had curdled childhoods.”
It is not poverty per se that distinguishes these students, Karen Gross writes, but it’s a childhood burdened by “hunger, exposure to or experience with drugs, alcohol, abandonment, frequent moves, abuse, self-harm or harm of others.” Do we know which … Continue reading
“My students call this a ‘quarter-life crisis.’”
Cathy Davidson, author of The New Education, describes the twenty-fifth birthday parties that many of her college students throw “to commemorate their collective indecision and existential sense of uselessness.” They have degrees, credentials, and honors, but few job prospects. Davidson … Continue reading