Category Archives: Learning & Teaching

Thoughts about the processes of learning and teaching, and about how to do either well.

things I want in a course design

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Ian

Just thinking out loud here… I want a course design that communicates very clearly to students, in every aspect of its framing and detail, that learning is something they must willfully pursue, not something that just “happens” if they’re obedient … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, Pedagogy, problem/project-based learning, standards-based grading | 11 Comments

SBG is gonna kill me…

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Ian

… because I keep promising students that they’ll have a chance to reassess — somehow, sometime — without any real idea of how that’s going to happen. The hole gets deeper and deeper! Maybe I need to just stop introducing … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, standards-based grading | 15 Comments

more thoughts on SBG and grading exams

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Ian

Yes, I should definitely use fewer, larger-grained standards. No question about it. I have to break my habit of putting sneaky bits into exam questions (which I do out of an urge to “stretch” even the best students to their … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, Pedagogy, standards-based grading | 3 Comments

the SBG exam-grading experience

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Ian

Just a quick update on my SBG experiment: I’m partway through grading the first midterm exam (of four or five) — a two-hour evening affair — and I must say that I’m somewhat enjoying the experience, at least compared to … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, Pedagogy, standards-based grading | 11 Comments

SBG update: learning as I go

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Ian

Tonight I get some serious information about how well this experiment in teaching a 60-student calc-based intro physics course with SBG is going. Tonight… is the first midterm exam. One thing I’ve realized while developing assessments for this first “unit” … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, Pedagogy, standards-based grading | 8 Comments