In a new fortnightly series, researcher Glen Wright attempts to prove academia is not entirely full of stuffiness by sharing some amusing oddities. Though we academics are often maligned for our perceived stuffiness, academia is in fact teeming with humour, wit, and general oddness. This blog, which I have every intention of publishing every two weeks (lest it perish), is my attempt to collate some of this oddity for your Friday procrastination and amusement. More...
By David Kent. Our summer posts had a theme it seems – something we didn’t plan, but which has resulted in a small series of posts on misplaced priorities in academic research. From my post on academic bullying to Jonathan’s on the difficulties resulting from indirect costs levied by universities to our guest blogger Damien on hiring strategies in laboratories. The comments were plentiful and gave us a good indication that these problems (and proposed solutions) need to feature more frequently on the blog. More...
By Jennifer Polk - From PhD to Life. Earlier this month I completed the coaching supervision course. It started in the spring, and consisted of biweekly 90-minute classes and six 1-on-1 sessions with the supervising coach. The individual sessions involved listening to one of my own coaching calls, followed by me receiving feedback on my coaching, with an eye toward passing the Professional Certified Coach exam and receiving this credential from the International Coach Federation. More...
By Dan Berrett, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Student course evaluations are often misused statistically and shed little light on the quality of teaching, two scholars at the University of California at Berkeley argue in the draft of a new paper. "We’re confusing consumer satisfaction with product value," Philip B Stark, a professor of statistics at Berkeley, said in an interview. Read more...
When John Riggle arrived at a critical juncture in his education career and decided that a master’s degree would prove invaluable, he couldn’t find the programme he needed in his home country of the Virgin Islands. Mr Riggle, who had lived and worked in the country as a high school English and film teacher for 20 years, found himself with a dilemma many professionals face: he didn’t want to leave his job to pursue an advanced degree.
After investigating several online programmes, he settled on West Texas A&M’s long-distance degree programme in Instructional Design and Technology for education. This innovative programme allows him to keep his job, while also pursuing a degree in his spare time. More...
By Inge Ignatia de Waard. A friend of mine told me about his gaming project a couple of weeks ago. He was all excited, and almost could not wait for his game to be full proof in order to shout it out from the rooftops: Whistly Bird!!!! So I told him, just give me a hands-up when you finish testing it, and I will gladly try it out.Von . Zu alt! Das hört Björn Gallinge immer wieder. Beim Bafög- und beim Arbeitsamt oder im Studentenwohnheim. Deutschland ist auf Studenten wie ihn nicht eingestellt. Mehr...
By Fabio Rojas. Recently, Steven Pinker wrote a response to William Deresiewicz’ recent article and book, which claims that the Ivy League is a horrible soulless place. Overall, I concur with Pinker’s retort. Deresiewicz doesn’t offer evidence to show that careerism has gotGaucheten any worse, he makes a broad over generalization about non-elite college students, and he overstates the cases that non-elite colleges are under appreciated refuges of learning (although a few are). More...
By Rebecca L. Sherrick. Most Americans believe that the major problem with K-12 education today is a lack of quality standards. Schools aren't able to effectively impose higher standards, students aren't expected to meet higher standards, and the process of implementing standardized initiatives like Common Core seems more daunting every day. More...
By Adam Andrzejewski. Salary spending is up 2.5 times with additional billions of dollars spent on a building binge, but IL student enrollment is flat since 2000. Is this a higher educational system or a jobs farm and patronage pool?
Here is what’s wrong with higher ed. More...
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