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When Grading Is “Pointless”: A Case for Comments-Only Feedback

As educators who focus on facilitating meaningful learning and genuine reflection, we are painfully familiar with the questions students often ask that demonstrate anything but:

  • “How many points is this assignment worth?”
  • “Do you offer any extra credit?”
  • “Can you round up my grade?”
  • “What do I need
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    A Better Method of Study Help

    Over the past few years, academia has focused more and more on helping students develop study skills to help them succeed. One limitation of these efforts is that they tend to take the form of workshops or resources that provide general study skill information.

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    Give Your Students Tools for Effective Learning

    First days of class are really fun. Or at least they can be. There is the energy of starting a new year and seeing a whole new cohort of students. There is the chance to unleash a new and improved pedagogy that reflects all the

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    The Mother Is in the Classroom: Transference in Teaching

    Google “calling the teacher ‘mom,’” and you will find a deluge of pained or embarrassed faces across various memes. This shared humor is a prime example of transference. Transference is a fundamental principle of psychotherapy, which occurs when a person unconsciously projects attitudes and

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    Gustave Dore engraving of the Fifth Circle of Hell (the Stygian Lake full of irate sinners) in Dante's inferno

    The Seven Deadly Sins of Teaching

    I like to read vintage books on college teaching, ones written before the current profusion of pedagogical research that has occurred since 2000. The classic work (at least for me) is McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, first published in 1953 and now in its 14th edition (McKeachie

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    Capitalizing on Motivation during the Semester

    A recent TED conversation (2023) with motivation researcher Ayelet Fischbach on overcoming procrastination got me thinking about the ebbs and flows of each semester and taking advantage of the key moments during the term to help with student success. This came to life for

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    Meet Janus, the Roman God of Efficient Teaching

    It took all the willpower I could muster to leave my cozy dorm room and make the snow-crunching slog across campus for my 8:00 a.m. Latin seminar. Minnesota winters are no joke. To entice us into attempting the trek, my professor began each class

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