Learning From Sommeliers

Learning on one’s own is tough. The pandemic is an outstanding reminder that we need guidance, practice, encouragement and criticism to make real gains when we want to learn and grow. Most go only so far when working solo, especially when siloed on a screen. For the academically inclined, it’s further validation of Vygotsky’s zones…

Discomfort and Academic Success

Talking with college students about their academic work is a fascinating leap into the familiar and the unknown. “What is your favorite class and why?” opens up discussions about preference, engagement, challenge, and the strengths and weaknesses of faculty. It reveals a forest of shifting variables. As educators, administrators, and advisors, we recognize the format…

Measure What You Value and Value What You Measure

Few works on higher education have generated as much press and interest as Richard Arum and Josipa Roska’s Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago, 2011). Reviews, attacks, accolades and discussion have accompanied its publication and we are now seeing the ultimate measure of interest in higher education: the conference. Within months…

The Burr That Keeps On Giving

The neuroscientists are hard at work. Their discoveries, hypotheses and suppositions are gaining traction, within and outside of the quad. Science is helping us gain better and deeper understanding of how humans learn. This is no slow process, either. The pace is rapid and shows no sign of abating for decades. Imagine what we will…

A Thorough Look Under the Learning Hood

Many of us have read more than our fair share of books about teaching, and I would wager that the general themes are familiar. We have first person accounts, which often fall into one of two categories: the successful exhorting or the pedagogically challenged who, through some journey and development, have become successful exhorting. There…