Reflections from a Berkeley professor, 50 years after another round of tumultuous college graduations
students
UC Student Regent: Why I say ‘no’ to the tuition plan
My mentors always advised me that I should pursue whatever issues kept me up at night. The night before the UC Regents’ recent vote on a proposed tuition increase, I thought long and hard about what I would say at the Regents’ meeting. Here is my statement concerning the tuition hikes: During my sophomore year … Continue reading »
Vocabulary retrogression
As is now well-known, scores on “intelligence” tests rose strongly over the last few generations, world-wide – this is the “Flynn Effect.” One striking anomaly, however, appears in American data: slumping students’ scores on academic achievement tests like the SAT. Notes of the decline starting in the 1960s sparked a lot of concern and hand-wringing. … Continue reading »
How social-emotional learning transforms classrooms
Research clearly demonstrates that integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into the classroom is good for both students and the adults who work with them. But there’s a story that the research hasn’t captured — the one of powerful transformation that can result from the practice of SEL. I recently spoke to a number of educators about … Continue reading »
What’s wrong with grit?
Grit is all over the news these days — the “latest fad in schools, ” according to author Alfie Kohn. With research suggesting that grit is linked to academic success, many policy makers, school leaders, and educators are crossing their fingers that this might be the silver bullet needed to give a boost to struggling students. … Continue reading »
What exactly do student evaluations measure?
“If you can’t prove what you want to prove, demonstrate something else and pretend that they are the same thing. In the daze that follows the collision of statistics with the human mind, hardly anybody will notice the difference.” -D. Huff (1954) To a great extent, this is what the academy does with student evaluations … Continue reading »
New here?
Don’t fail to explore buildings that may seem all wrong for you. “I am not an engineer . . .” There are great places to hang out and displays about what your classmates are up to from one end of the campus to the other. The East Asian Library has inspiring spaces that you don’t … Continue reading »