Meredith, I found your post interesting. I too read Dr. Henry’s article but I had a different view. The problem is that doctors and engineers are focusing on the trees instead of seeing the whole forest. The “devil is in the details” is a common expression that I hear in the engineering field. I agree that engineers need to focus on the greater good of society as they are looking at the forest but most projects are focusing on putting up that new bridge or how to build that widget. The problem is not the engineer looking at the trees. It is the client who is paying that engineer that needs to understand the forest that he looking at.

I enjoyed the post. I found it interesting how this blog post would change in the next couple of years in the evolution of critical pedagogy I think it would be interesting in comparing your group’s post to what was presented a couple of years ago.

I really like the video. I thought it summed it up very nicely.

Ray, I enjoyed the post and you bring up some great points. I haven’t seen anybody explain how you would do an iterative, feedback-focused assessment when you have a class of 200 students. I would get the feeling that the grader would be in a sea of paperwork.

Aislinn, I enjoyed your post. I think you have to do what is right in terms of grading for the particular class you are teaching. The “one shoe fits all” should not be applied to all classes being taught. I do not know how you don’t test in a math class. Either your know how to do to the problem or you don’t. The more classical “liberal arts” class can have more flexibility.

Aislinn, I agree with about the problems with multi-tasking on two things that requires your attention but I am person that has to have noise in the background while working. After living four years in a dorm and twenty years of working in an office or a farm of cubicles, I have always had noise in the background to block out the rest of the world. I have evolve to have “talk radio” in the background when I am doing math or calculations but I have to have music on while I write. I do not know if it is a left vs right brain but there is no talking when I write. Even right now, there is music playing and I will go back to the beastie boys when I am done.

So, what you are saying is that a rising tide will lift all boats but not all the boats will be risen high enough?

I found a darkness in your blog post. It was not one of doubt but one of a person who is out there in the trenches every day. That is something that I think is missing so far in the class that the education falls on every party involved. In your case, it falls on you, the student, the student’s parents, and the school itself. That is something that I don’t hear Virginia Tech. The university itself taking some responsibility of the education of their students.

Negin, I found your post and the embedded video very interesting. I am a father of a special needs son that has put a lot of things into perspective on teaching and his learning. My wife, his teachers, and myself have ongoing (almost daily) discussions about what is working and what is not. We have to learn how he learns. For him, everything is spatial or visual. He has a visual schedule of his day. There are no oral instructions for tests for him. If you want him to do something, it has to be written down. Eventually, he will learn how to learn that is special for him.

Your blog post almost mirrored my blog post. I am happy to see someone else get the same thing out of the same reading and video posts. I get the feeling that you are in an engineering or science related field where “pay the dues” classes are necessary. I have been thinking alot that the priority of changing engineering educaiton has to start in the 100 and 200 level classes

Susan, I enjoyed your blog. For the last twenty years, I have heard employers looking for students to hire that had a “B” average because they are not a memorizer versus students that had an “A” average. I think the other side of the coin for your blog is how a person works as well.