The state of education - Paying attention - Engagement as Entertainment

Jeff Selingo, writing in today's Chronicle of Higher Ed, makes a nice, concise point about the entertainment factor that's crept into our conversation.  We in higher ed are not quite sure if we mean engagement or entertainment, or both.  Or, according to some, neither!  Very good read to take the pulse of ongoing debates.  Here's a snippet:

Pay Attention in Class - Next - The Chronicle of Higher Education

In the business world, the mantra is “the customer is always right.” Such a refrain, of course, doesn’t quite work in higher ed, where the premise of the enterprise is that students are paying to be elevated out of their ignorance, and once enrolled they can’t very easily take their business elsewhere. Moreover, it’s essential that authority in the classroom be maintained.

But all of those excuses don’t relieve professors of the responsibility of figuring out better ways of teaching and satisfying the reason they are supposedly there to begin with: the students in front of them.

Ongoing feedback from "customers"...wait this education!

The idea of ongoing feedback is relatively non-controversial, but hard to implement in courses.  Unless, of course one wishes to seek feedback.  Many ways to do it if one is determined.  Glad to see it reported and trending.

As Emphasis on Student Evaluations Grows, Professors Increasingly Seek Midcourse Feedback - Teaching - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Like a growing number of academics, Mr. O'Connell asks students to evaluate his teaching midcourse rather than waiting for feedback at the end of the term. That means he can make adjustments, which can bolster student learning and also satisfaction.

More and more professors are using midterm student evaluations, experts
say, and more and more colleges are strongly urging their faculty to
collect student feedback midway through their courses. Stony Brook this
year put in place a universitywide online system for collecting
midcourse feedback. Professors and students are not required to use it,
but university officials are hoping that both groups will see its
benefits and use it to improve classrooms.

Math redesign - interesting comments from NCAT

Interesting report from Carol Twigg at NCAT.  Summary here, but the whole thing is worth a read.

NCAT: Learning MarketSpace, October 2011

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PILOT IMPLEMENTATIONS OF CHANGING THE EQUATION

Changing the Equation is a major program to engage the nation’s community colleges in a successful redesign of their remedial/developmental math sequences. Institutions participating in the program will improve student learning outcomes while reducing costs for both students and institutions using NCAT's proven redesign methodology. Each participating institution has redesigned its entire developmental math sequence--all sections of all developmental courses offered--using NCAT's Emporium Model and commercially available instructional software. Each redesign has also modularized the curriculum, allowing students to progress through the developmental course sequence at a faster pace if possible or at a slower pace if necessary, spending the amount of time needed to master the course content.