Hi Pallavi,

Well said and I think that it’s really important to bring these issues to light. It is so much more difficult for people of color, especially international students or faculty, to teach and even conduct research in large, predominantly white universities. My father, who came to the United States to get his PhD, was never able to get a professor job because his “English wasn’t good enough.” Obviously, it was good enough for him to pass the TOEFL and get a PhD degree. A common theme in academia is that departments will hire people from diverse backgrounds but they fail to include or promote them. Now I see many international graduate students come to the states and then return home to teach in their countries. I like to think that we are becoming more inclusive in our universities but progress is slow and frustrating. Thank you for sharing your stories. I know we’ve talked about some of these topics before but I think everyone should know.

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Thanks for sharing this story. Sometimes we often forget who’s responsibility it is to do “the human thing” but everyone should take action for something like that instead of waiting for someone else to do something. Setting a good example is definitely positive for your fellow colleagues.

Hi Pallavi,
These are great examples that tie into Freire’s work. Since the Dalit are so deeply ingrained in their beliefs, how did your organization approach their issues and uplift their communities? Since they seem reluctant to change their views, how can you challenge them to think differently? I’m interested in work with community enrichment.

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I remember having qualitative grades when I was in K-2. Teachers usually assessed skills associated with child development, such as the ones that glupton listed. Then after 2nd grade, teachers graded using a quantitative scale. I feel like many higher ed teachers and students would oppose a qualitative scale just because the quantitative scale is and has been the norm for most of modern education. How would a qualitative scale appeal to job recruiters and graduate education admissions?

Thanks for sharing your conversation with your nephew. It really provides a different perspective on the way we are approaching schooling and assessment. I’m happy to hear that he is doing much better now that he’s homeschooled. I’m curious to learn more about the “alternative” schooling system.

I think schools should focus more on developing relationships with people, “real life” skills, and being a better person. I agree that some of the subjects that are taught can be useless to some but they are still important to learn about, in your nephew’s case, science. Perhaps these courses need to be restructured in a way to teach the importance of science to society while also teaching students the necessary people skills and morals.

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I love your title and comic. I often used that comic to sum up most of my undergrad experience. As an awful test taker, I tried to take classes that either had few tests but higher participation and other grades or a lot of tests that were weighed less.

I like your thoughts about assessment methods, especially #4. Most undergrad classes are there to teach you the core basics and “boring” parts of the major. Therefore, most students think that the basics don’t apply to broader concepts.

I agree with Vibhav, a project based assessment might be beneficial in your field. That could be implemented in place of a test.

This reminds me of a conversation that I’ve had with my teacher friends on unschooling. The question that we have is, when is a good time to apply the unschooling or anti-learning technique? Should it be as early as elementary school? But at that age, children need some kind of structured learning so that they can understand the basics of language, math, science, and arts. But if we apply unschooling in high school or college, is it too late? Like you said in your post, there are students who are anti-learners. Obviously, this format would not work for them. I also feel like teachers have to present a mutually respectful environment in which the student feels comfortable asking meaningful and challenging questions. Do you think that having teacher (or facilitator) who is enthusiastic about the course content, could allow students to be more receptive to this style of teaching?

I like this assessment scale. My lowest score was attention regulation so that’s something I’ll have to work on. Something I thought about when I filled out the scale was that I tended to notice negative emotions and feelings way more than I acknowledge my positive emotions. This could be due to the fact that I, and hopefully many others, hate feeling negative emotions and will try to overcome them as soon as I feel them. This assessment could be useful as a teaching tool as well!

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I’d say your situation is similar across all departments. Students are used to learning everything in chunks. I wonder if time constraints play a big part in why professors teach this way. Perhaps there isn’t enough time in a semester to cover all topics holistically.

I’ve noticed that undergrads, and also myself when I was an undergrad, struggled with critical thinking. I think since everything is taught in chunks, one course about x, another course about y, etc., students have a hard time tying together topics from all of the courses they have taken. I TA a senior level nutrition course and the professor incorporates many critical thinking questions where there are no right answers because no one has been able to answer them so far. Students hate those questions because they have to come up with their own answer instead of searching for the right answer. I believe if we incorporate mindful teaching, students could feel more comfortable in these situations.

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I agree that a mixed teaching style, like you mentioned, is a great way to accommodate all students. I am not a fan of the traditional lecture but professors who teach those classes often say “I just have so much material to cover.” What do you think are some ways for instructors to approach this problem and create a more interactive class?