What is going on in Tennessee? First we learn that they tried to ban mothers and fathers before coming to their senses. Now we learn that their flagship university tried to ban he and she—before it came to its senses. What senses are these, and how is it that Tennessee keeps losing them? This week, […] … learn more→

Imagine the following scenario: You are teaching a course and give a writing assignment. With the deadline fast approaching, one student asks a classmate for a copy of her paper, makes a few revisions, and submits the assignment as his own original work. When you confront the student with evidence of plagiarism, he accepts responsibility […] … learn more→

The futility of higher education is a topic that has received much press attention in the last few years. In 2010, The Economist published a now popular article entitled “The Disposable Academic”. The article described the dissatisfaction and disappointment that many PhD students feel after completing their coveted degree… it painted a picture of brilliant […] … learn more→

Antarctica’s ice sheets could totally collapse if the world’s fossil fuels are burnt off, according to a recent climate change simulation. While we are unlikely to see such a dramatic event any time soon, we are already observing big changes and it’s worth considering what the worst case scenario might look like for the continent’s […] … learn more→

A recent Psychology Today article discusses anti-intellectualism and the dumbing down of America. While certainly it has a few things right, it misses, often by a large margin, how education, both higher and “public” (more accurately, “government”), has played a role in the dumbing down of the population. Let’s hit what passes for highlights of […] … learn more→

Some people talk about academic writing as a skill. A skill is the ability to do something with a high level of expertise. Fair enough – we are all expected to ‘do’ academic writing with high levels of expertise. However, a skill is often associated with technique… But achieving expertise is not simply a matter of technique […] … learn more→

The new academic year is off to a start, and thousands of students have entered college for the first time. I’ve been teaching college students for a long time, but this year, two developments have led me to think hard about my role as a professor: what it is, or rather, what it should be, […] … learn more→

Competency-based education, which focuses on the results of education — what students have learned — rather than the process of education — number of courses taken, credits earned, seat time served — is hot. Google it and you get hundreds of thousands of choices. The federal government is paying for it. Colleges and universities are […] … learn more→

Take the interactive test that researchers used to find the average American only gets a C grade When put to the test, Americans rate a solid if unspectacular C in science, a new study has found. The Pew Research Center found in a basic quiz of a dozen random science questions, Americans got eight correct, […] … learn more→

So I’m looking at a typical institution of higher education, this one passing itself off as an art school, the Academy of Art University (AAU). Alas, higher education has fallen so far that “typical school” means “school focused on drawing in as many students in as possible, sucking them dry of their student loan money, […] … learn more→