Here we are again, at the start of another school year. This seems like a more appropriate time for students to make resolutions than at the beginning of the calendar year, and it is especially important to form good study habits at the beginning of a new program. So, just for the record, here are mine:
- More reading! — This has two parts. First, I resolve never to attend a class meeting this semester without having read the assigned material in its entirety. We’ve all failed to do so before, for whatever reason — we’re too busy, it’s too many pages or too boring, or whatever. But now I’m in a program that I am totally interested in, and without teaching responsibilities on top of my coursework. As such, there is really no excuse for not doing the assigned reading. Which brings us to the second part of the reading resolution: I should also have plenty of time to read at least two books per month (either fiction or nonfiction) in addition to the assigned reading for courses. I’d really like to increase that to one extra book per week, but I guess I’ll work up to it. Will be tracking this with Goodreads.
- More writing! — I’ve heard it time and time again: to become a good writer, you must write regularly and copiously, even if noncommittally. I believe that this is good advice, and yet I have never taken it… until this semester. From now on, I’m going to write blog posts of ideas as I have them, instead of stashing them away in Evernote, never to see the light of day. Or, if I have a term paper idea, I plan to test it out with a few pages instead of with a few sentences. It’s not as if I’m going to run out of ink or something.
- Less internet! — I’m mildly concerned with the possibility that the internet is decreasing our attention spans, and so on. More importantly, though, it sucks up too much of my time and, although I learn some stuff from surfing around and reading blogs, it never gives me a sense of accomplishment. So Google Reader needs to shift from being my main source of reading to a minor one. And I will use it at night, instead of in the morning when catching up on the blogs can easily derail my plans for the entire day.
- More socializing! — I am kind of a loner, especially academically. I basically avoid engaging with my colleagues outside of class, hate sharing papers in progress, and have begun even to avoid discussing academic stuff on social sites. But to be an academic loner is bad for you - it deprives you of exposure to new ideas, practice in critiquing and being critiqued, and networking opportunities. So, I plan to stop being so academically antisocial.
Best wishes for a successful school year to all my fellow students. Or, enjoy not being in school, as the case may be :-)
Plagiarism by college students has gotten some attention in the New York Times lately, and it occurs to me that I have dropped the ball on a series of posts about plagiarism that I started earlier this summer. Although I had planned to write other stuff next, I’m instead going to allow myself to be …
Read More →
August 10, 2010 – 1:06 pm
|
By pamela
|
Posted in applied ethics, education, ethics, philosophy of education, replies
|
Tagged cheating, ethics, etiquette, morality, NYT, Opinionator, plagiarism, Stanley Fish
|
Recently, Adam Kissel of FIRE (who I recently started following on Twitter) asked me: “What do you think about Teachers College’s idea that one isn’t qualified to be a teacher without believing in social justice?” I had previously seen FIRE’s roundup on free speech issues with TC, I think before I had even accepted my …
Read More →
The other day, I started Education and the State by E.G. West. It is sometimes argued that state funded, state regulated, and state provided education is justified by the necessity of protecting children from ignorance. So, West begins with two chapters exploring this argument philosophically and assessing how well this “protection” works in practice. These chapters …
Read More →
I recently finished Diane Ravitch’s book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education.” This book has been getting quite a bit of attention even outside of educational circles so I figured I should read it. Ravitch is an historian of education and, viewed as a history, …
Read More →
June 9, 2010 – 4:48 pm
|
By pamela
|
Posted in book reviews, education, education policy, school choice
|
Tagged charter schools, diane ravitch, education, education policy, public schools, school choice, school reform, standardized testing
|
Recently, I came across this video: “Learning Styles Don’t Exist,” by psychologist Daniel T. Willingham of the University of Virginia. Willingham argues that learning style theories fail to predict the differences in learning that we would expect to see if they were correct (you should go watch, he explains it better than I could). Learning …
Read More →
Well, it took me most of the weekend, but I finally have TFIR satisfactorily re-setup using WordPress.org, Laughing Squid hosting, and Soma Design’s lovely theme, The Erudite. Please do let me know if you find something that doesn’t work. Blogging will recommence shortly! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Like on Facebook Buzz share via Reddit Share …
Read More →
Hi friends. This weekend, I’ll be attempting a move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. I may be getting way in over my head, but what’s a summer without some challenging, up-all-night, independent learning opportunities? Presumably, the move will involve some site downtime, and P approaches 1.0 that I will break stuff. I also have no idea …
Read More →
Yesterday, I discussed the issue of whether work-related language is appropriate for describing learning. Here’s another language in education controversy that has made it into the news lately: ‘At hope’ kids better than ‘at risk’?: Washington state lawmaker wants to banish negative labels The bill is motivated by the good-hearted desire for disadvantaged children to …
Read More →
May 28, 2010 – 8:10 am
|
By pamela
|
Posted in education, education policy, philosophy of education, psychology, teaching
|
Tagged at hope, at risk, education, education policy, philosophy of education, streaming, tracking, unintended consequences, urban education
|
Recently, Alfie Kohn tweeted an older article of his, “Students Don’t ‘Work’ — They Learn.” Sounded interesting, so I went and read it. Kohn’s main point is that work-related language encourages thinking about education in ways that are detrimental to student learning. This work-related language pervades education discourse — “homework,” “seat work,” “get to work,” “classroom …
Read More →