I agree completely. While I don’t think memorization can or should be the only method of instruction or education, it can definitely be an important one. There is a long tradition of memorization as an intellectual accomplishment and to wholesale throw it out seems very odd.

I’m also quite skeptical in general about taking educational/teaching/learning advice from someone who has no background in education and who puts them self forward as “an entrepreneur and blogger who thinks about the marketing of ideas in the digital age.”

Nicole, I agree completely with what I think are your two main points. Graduate students are not somehow “lesser” or not engaged in “real” work. The often assumed distinction between the academy and the “real world” is a fiction we should be conscious about. We’re already working, as you say, as early career professionals and our work can and does have effects on those around us. And to your second point, making sure to link explicitly ethics and emotions in both our personal and professional lives seems so important. There is such a strong pressure to try and keep emotions out of our work but that seems like a detrimental approach.

Nicole, I agree completely with what I think are your two main points. Graduate students are not somehow “lesser” or not engaged in “real” work. The often assumed distinction between the academy and the “real world” is a fiction we should be conscious about. We’re already working, as you say, as early career professionals and our work can and does have effects on those around us. And to your second point, making sure to link explicitly ethics and emotions in both our personal and professional lives seems so important. There is such a strong pressure to try and keep emotions out of our work but that seems like a detrimental approach.

I agree Haoran (and by extension Khaled). I like your summary of important concepts/approaches that came up in the course and the idea of the “flipped classroom” seems central. I’ve always heard that you learn most when you teach and I try to keep that in mind as I teach and try to engage my students in learning.

Having students present to me and their classmates seems like a great way to both check their knowledge and have them reinforce it for themselves.

I appreciate your emphasis on creativity and I share this orientation. I think you are right that students will not remember every detail that you teach them but, if you maintain this emphasis, they can come away from the course having exercised and developed new ways of thinking and approaching problems.