Learning

Feedforward?

Failing forward has become a more common term in business settings. It is used to convey a situation where failure is seen as a learning opportunity that helps achieve success. As an educator, I’ve advocated for something similar for a number of years. I believe that failing or falling is part of learning. Unfortunately, at … Continue reading →

Is Taking Notes as a Group Helpful?

Collaborative note taking is an activity where students share the load of creating notes from a class or resource. They work in groups to identify key material, examples, etc and record these in a shared document. I’ve mainly seen this activity in relation to accessibility and inclusion. For some reason, a student may not be … Continue reading →

Playing to Learn

I remember playing a game about animal adaptations and survival rates in a bio lab in my first year of university. I remember the general gist of the game and what we learned from it. It’s the only lab I remember from four years of science courses. This was a form of active learning, but … Continue reading →

Learning is an Active Process; Sitting in Lecture is Not

I distinctly remember sitting in a lecture hall listening to the professor talk. I firmly believed that I was learning. I even got home, and something from that class came up on TV, and I said, “I learned what that is today.” But, when someone asked me to explain it, I couldn’t. This is one … Continue reading →

Exercise and learning

We know that exercise is good for us. It improves our cardiovascular health and strength. It can also help to prevent injuries. But the idea that exercise can improve our brain functions is a newer idea. Research is slowly showing potential links between exercise and cognitive functioning, but of course there are other factors at … Continue reading →

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for student learning

I’m fascinated by the recent explosion in discussion about AI text generation in education. In November 2022, OpenAI launched a tool called ChatGPT. You can enter prompts into the tool and the tech returns a response written in, what is considered by academia, proper English grammar. There are now flurries of debate about banning the … Continue reading →

What does participation look like?

I had one class during my PhD where I remember being graded on participation. I spoke in every class. Jumped through every hoop. Except, I often spoke to disagree (with references to support my position) with the perspective shared by the instructor or the readings they had selected. I missed two classes during the semester, … Continue reading →

Perhaps it’s an equity issue?

What are your beliefs about aptitude? Can someone who isn’t naturally skilled at math learn and improve and reach the same level of expertise or even surpass someone who has a natural aptitude through time and commitment? What about time management, if someone submits an assignment a day late because they had to pick up … Continue reading →

Challenge yourself

Believe it to make it true