Hi, Emily, thanks for sharing your idea. I have similar concern about interaction with students like you before. But as the reading in recent weeks evolves, I am more open to this idea. This common ground help students to relax and remove the barriers between teacher and students. I once had one of such teacher in my own class. She mentioned that she lives in Blacksburg, so come and say hi if you see me shopping in Kroger. I immediately find this lady adorable and is willing to pay more attention in her class.

Hi, Sihui. Thanks for always being a reminder of our precious culture. I agree with you. The learning experience in China and U.S. are quite different. But the things I found in common is that students are always inspired by teachers who care about learning, who are not afraid to show students their true personality. I found such teacher in high school, college, and also here in U.S.

I think you blog brought the issue about the purpose of education. Right now there is a trend to view education as consumption. It is a server to enjoy. I recently read a paper about education, which says “party college” and ” sport college” receive more applications, ceteris paribus. This remind me of the case of VT. We are building more parking lots, offering more convenient parking for visitors during game days. Also as Aeron mentioned, the huge athletics facilities fee. I am wondering, are catering to this trend as well?

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I think you blog brought the issue about the purpose of education. Right now there is a trend to view education as consumption. It is a server to enjoy. I recently read a paper about education, which says “party college” and ” sport college” receive more applications, ceteris paribus. This remind me of the case of VT. We are building more parking lots, offering more convenient parking for visitors during game days. Also as Aeron mentioned, the huge athletics facilities fee. I am wondering, are catering to this trend as well?

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Thanks for sharing this Strengthsquest resources. I kind of seeing Ashish’s point, that is, being conservative/critical with those reports. But still, such report is a good start point. We can share this report to our families, friends, mentors, and coauthors to see how they feel about it (as was recommended in the video of Strengthsquest page). By that, we can have more comprehensive understanding about our strengths and weaknesses.

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Thanks for sharing this Strengthsquest resources. I kind of seeing Ashish’s point, that is, being conservative/critical with those reports. But still, such report is a good start point. We can share this report to our families, friends, mentors, and coauthors to see how they feel about it (as was recommended in the video of Strengthsquest page). By that, we can have more comprehensive understanding about our strengths and weaknesses.

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You are right that professors shouldn’t just teach content that can be easily find in the internet or textbook. What professors really need to teach, as mentioned in the “Four things lecture is good for”, is the cognitive structure, the logic of reasoning. That’s what will benefit us in the rest of our life, I think, that’s the true purpose of college education about.

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You are right that professors shouldn’t just teach content that can be easily find in the internet or textbook. What professors really need to teach, as mentioned in the “Four things lecture is good for”, is the cognitive structure, the logic of reasoning. That’s what will benefit us in the rest of our life, I think, that’s the true purpose of college education about.

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I felt the same way about note taking. Some professors, in order to keep students focusing on class, refuse to share notes before class, some even after class. I understand that some students may not paying close attention in listening when they have lecture note on hand, but on the other hand, taking note is distracting for some other students. Also, for most of the note I took, I just throw them away by the end of the semester. Because what's useful is the knowledge I learnt in my mind, not in the note.

Hi, KT, thanks for bringing up this no grade issue. I enjoyed reading your experience in Summer Camp, which makes me really excited because it reminds me of similar experience as well. I also intended to write something about grade initially, but after some reflection, I figured maybe we still need the grading system. Here is my reasoning, feel free to comment if you have any idea.

It all depends on the role universities play in the society. Michael Spence, the 2001 Nobel winner in Economics, has a famous signal theory on education. It says the purpose of education is to find a good job. But employers lack the adequate knowledge about the candidates’ ability, therefore education credential or grade serves as a signal to employers about the candidates’ ability. If that’s the case, then I think grades still have its reason to exist.

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