This essay covers student learning, misconceptions, search engines, and AI, but first a story to set the context. Most every academic discipline has an organization dedicated to teaching, and I’m active in mine, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP). STP hosts a Facebook
As a new semester dawns, professors often grapple with a crucial question: How should we best use that precious first day of class? The options seem endless, and the pressure is immense. Should we dive straight into the material, set the tone for class etiquette,
AI systems provide a great way to produce study aids for your students. They can generate questions on a topic and even interact with students to tutor them through a topic. But general AI systems like ChatGPT draw from a huge range of information, well
It is a truth universally acknowledged that good professors show up early to talk with students before class. And that even better ones play clips of goat yoga and evoke wonder. But is it time to reconsider these pre-class rituals? Perhaps—for both our students’ sakes
There can be a certain inertia to teaching online, especially asynchronously. You and your students never see each other, don’t feel very connected, and by the middle of the semester may have unintentionally begun a slow slide toward phoning it in.
“Who’s ready to read some poetry?”
My voice echoed off the beige walls, an octave too enthusiastic. None of my students so much as stirred in response: not a blink, not a fidget, not so much as an at-least-she’s-trying smile.
I often think teaching should be an Olympic sport. It takes skill, knowledge of your craft, a lot of practice, dedication, will, and resilience. All these attributes have been on display as the world has watched the games this summer. As a teacher, there are
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there is a scene that is sometimes deleted from productions, and the change in the audience’s behavior according to whether it is there or not can be noteworthy. At the beginning of Act 2, Scene 3, comes what is known as “The
While many academics are still focused on keeping students away from artificial intelligence, others are preparing students to use AI in their current and future work. This means thinking about how IA is and will be used by our students, and crafting assignments that teach
From an early age, I was immersed in the Muslim tradition that taught me to learn from every facet of the natural world—from the majesty of mountains to the quiet diligence of ants. This philosophy is meant to cultivate a sense of humility within us
