Labor Day is our New Year’s Eve. Rather than vowing to lose weight or spend less time on our phones, as college professors we head into the new school year with a different kind of resolution: to inspire and prepare our students to become agents of positive change. The world’s problems certainly didn’t take a […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Want to solve the world’s problems? Try working together across disciplines
Teachers and school leaders: a positive relationship, but one that is weakening
rfp-459 While teachers generally take a good look at the role played by their school leaders, this report also suffers from more marked tensions, as shown by the results of the Militens survey (conducted by CERAPS of the Université de Montréal). Lille and the DEPP, department of statistics of the ministry, with the relay of […] … learn more→
Air quality and brightness: what are the challenges for the class of the future?
In France, it is still quite rare to consider school spaces according to their environmental qualities. This is a critical issue, with potential implications for educational success, such as children’s health. As early as 2005, several European studies presented at the symposium of the Réseau Recherche santé environnement intérieur (RSEIN) converged on the following observation: […] … learn more→
‘Farm-to-school’ movement takes root in Canada
A “farm-to-school” movement is growing fast across Canada. More than 40,000 students were eating local fruits and vegetables at 150 Ontario schools during 2017-18, via the Tasty Ontario Tuesdays program. Led by the southwest branch of the Ontario Student Nutrition Program (OSNP), supported by the Greenbelt Foundation and Foodland Ontario, this program has purchased and delivered over $55,000 of local […] … learn more→
Poo-Bah overrules vote, removes statue of Jefferson’s grandson
We’re trained as a people to respect the sanctity of the vote. If the people vote a certain way, then that’s the way it should go. I can’t quite break that conditioning, as it does strike me as a decent way to make decisions, at least up to a point (hi Bill of Rights!). Trouble […] … learn more→
Why I use knitting to teach math
On a snowy day in January, I asked students to tell me what was the first word that came to mind when thinking about mathematics. The two most quoted words were “calculus” and “equation”. When I asked the same question to a room full of professional mathematicians, none of these two words were spoken; they […] … learn more→
Gender quotas and targets would speed up progress on gender equity in academia
Recently, the University of Adelaide used a special exemption under the Equal Opportunity Act to advertise eight academic positions in the faculty of engineering, computer and mathematical sciences for women only. This raises questions about why a university might take this approach. While Australia has had gender equality legislation for 30 years, there has been very slow progress towards […] … learn more→
How parents could revolutionize education and boost results
Repeated efforts to improve public school education across Canada — curricular enhancements, increased accountability, intensified literacy and numeracy initiatives — are failing to improve student achievement. In the province of Saskatchewan, student achievement results have flatlined and only 43.2 per cent of Indigenous students are graduating on time. Saskatchewan’s results are not atypical. In her analysis of Programme […] … learn more→
Class social sciences or why the word “civilization” is no longer appropriate in foreign studies
Since foreign studies are no longer limited to the study of grammar, translation and literature of the foreign country in question, students enrolled in Licentiate LLCER and LEA also follow courses of “civilization”. LLCER actually wants to say, according to the official nomenclature, Foreign and Regional Letters, Literatures and Civilizations (and LEA, Applied Foreign Languages). […] … learn more→
How to beat the ‘freshman five’ weight gain
There is a widespread belief that a young adult’s college years are accompanied by weight gain — the so called “freshman five.” This is not just an urban myth. Research shows that approximately 85 per cent of overweight adults were not overweight as youth. And, by studying changes in fat mass during the period between 18 […] … learn more→