Category Archives: Uncategorized

Boston University posted the following video interviewing students about how hard it is to get an A.  I love that one of the students is a former student of mine and comments about how you really have to do your … Continue reading →

The Boston Globe had the following article (copied here in part to remove the excess school spirit) written by a former Harvard University President titled “Harvard can provide educational leadership.” TWO GREAT problems currently beset American higher education. First, while … Continue reading →

This morning on WBUR (Boston’s NPR affiliate) ran a segment in the back-to-school theme titled “Think You’re An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely”.  The whole audio piece is worth a read, but here is a clip. Psychologist … Continue reading →

I think we often forget how much influence forgetting has on learning.  Learning isn’t binary between knowing and not knowing.  Learning is part levels of understanding and how well we retain it.  I’m not a neurobiologist, but it seems to … Continue reading →

The video below was shown to me a couple of years ago (or see part 1 and part 2 of a similar video).  I think it was originally made in 2008, so some of the data is already outdated.  I’m … Continue reading →

A recent article in the Boston Globe summarized an interesting project call Khan Academy (also see the Ted Talk about it here). It started off as a uncle helping his nephew out with math homework by making short YouTube videos … Continue reading →

N.Y. Times posted a very interesting article about grade inflation, “A History of College Grade Inflation”. The graph tells the tale fairly well.  A’s are on the rise and C’s are on the decline.  What does “A” mean if 40% … Continue reading →

“Any physics professor who thinks that lecturing to first-year students is the best way to teach them about electromagnetic waves can stop reading this item. For everybody else, however, listen up: A new study shows that students learn much better … Continue reading →

Being a good teacher is something to be proud of and in my experience very difficult.  Figuring out what someone else doesn’t know and finding a way to get that information into their head in a lasting, useful way is … Continue reading →