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What Academics Do: The Big Five
I remember as a student wondering what exactly it is that university faculty do, besides teaching classes. I figured out some of it by direct observation while I was a graduate student; but it is only...
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A 21st century school needs no classrooms
Image from www.vitra.seI just found out about an amazing school that opened last year in Sweden, called Vittra Telefonplan, that has eliminated the classroom. Instead there is a lot of open space and...
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Inconvenient Student Disorder
Mass schooling not only offers many impediments to true learning, it also actively distorts society's view of what is normal child behavior as it seeks ways to control and modify their behavior purely...
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If you can't beat them...
My kids have been playing and talking excitedly to me about Minecraft for several months now. They play it every day, alone and with friends in multiplayer mode. And when they're not playing, they...
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The Importance of Grace in Education
Francis Edward Su, a Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, has made public the text of a stirring talk he recently gave upon accepting (a clearly well-deserved!) teaching award, in which he...
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Multiplying Negatives
I was talking with my elementary-school-aged child this evening about arithmetic."What is 2 x 2?" I asked."4," he replied."What is 2 x -2," I asked."Negative 4," he said, reasoning correctly that it...
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Are Students Smarter Now than Before?
The following chart is from a NYTimes article from last year that a colleague pointed me at. It is based on data from the paper Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks, "The Falling Time of Cost of College:...
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Teach no thing (but rather, how to think about things)
Marion Brady is a history teacher who advocates teaching students not merely facts, or "content", but rather how to think.He writes:Long before corporate America began its assault on public schooling,...
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Three Things Research-oriented Faculty Do
This is based on something I jotted down in a late night email to a former Ph.D. student from USC, who just has landed a faculty position, and will start as an Assistant Professor this fall.The main...
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A Professor as a Student
Rebekah Nathan's "My Freshman Year" should be required reading for all college professors. This is an account of a middle-aged college professor who decided to spend a year at a large public university...
View ArticleTeaching Mathematics as a way of Thinking
I came across today a brilliant blog today about learner-centric mathematics education, called Doing Mathematics. The writer of this blog, Bryan Meyer, is a high school math teacher in San Diego. He...
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Do what you don't have to
This morning, a student came by during office hours and asked if he could discuss a private matter. He told me that he was nearly done with all his courses in engineering school, but, to his...
View ArticleAcademic Contributions
I imagine that nearly all academics ask themselves this question from time to time: "is my work meaningful?"It occurs to me that one derives meaning from, fundamentally, by making a contribution to...
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Give breaks to improve learning
Came across this article titled "What can the American and British education systems learn from classrooms in the developing world?" There are some excellent points here (though perhaps also some...
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The mind is not a bottle
I came across an essay called "De Auditu" ("on listening to lectures"), by Plutarch, the Greek Historian and Essayist, who lived nearly 2000 years ago. It's worth a read, if only to recognize how...
View ArticleOn the Virtue of Putting the Cart before the Horse
You may have seen the above video by "DjSadhu" purporting to show how the motion of the planets would appear if we use a frame of reference with respect to which the sun is moving. If not, I'd...
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Opening the Eye of the Soul
I was talking to someone who noted that though they had done AP calculus in high school, all that math seemed to have been of no use or meaning whatsoever in their life. Indeed, this person noted,...
View ArticleStaking a claim
Came across a quote from René Decartes in an article about his mathematics:"..having determined as I did [in La Géométrie] all that could be achieved in each type of problem and shown the way to do it,...
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Eine Kleine Nacht Integralrechnung (A Little Night Integral Calculus)
I had asked my middle-schooler if he could spare me some time after dinner to talk about some mathematical ideas and he had agreed. So I rushed to put the plates away, and we gathered with papers and a...
View ArticleWhat it means to be truly educated
I came across a delightful quote by Noam Chomsky about what it means to be truly educated that I couldn't agree with more:"... it's not important what we cover in the class, it's important what you...
View ArticleAdding Mathematical Rigor to Systems Research
A bright young man I know, a recent Ph.D. graduate from another university, who works in my research area of wireless networks, contacted me recently sharing with me that he had joined industry but...
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An Indian woman traveled to the US for education, in 1883
I came across the above image today, showing three ladies who came to study Medicine in America. Dr. Anandabai Joshee, among them, was the first Indian woman to have obtained a medical degree abroad....
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Seven Perspectives on K-12 Mathematics Education
It occurred to me recently that there are several perspectives on K-12 mathematics education, that it may be helpful for educators, parents, and students to consider and compare:The Utilitarian View:...
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University, Inc.?
A thought-provoking article in the latest NYTimes Magazine criticizing the increasing corporatization of academia has been making waves: "Why we should fear University, Inc."The author, Frederik...
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The First Law of Motion
My son and I were walking back from the library where he had just spent two straight hours playing his favorite video game (and was consequently in a mellow mood). As we marched on the pavement, we...
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