What if the most powerful teaching tool wasn’t a new AI technology but humans helping other humans become teachers themselves? After two decades working with neurodiverse students who think differently, are brilliant, and struggle academically, I’ve discovered that the combination of metacognitive problem-solving instruction and
There is an elusive win-win in teaching in which both teachers and students truly enjoy a class together. The teachers find pleasure and satisfaction in educating students, and the students are fully engaged in learning concepts they find interesting and meaningful. Unfortunately, some teachers and
“I spent hours on the Gulliver’s Travels reading—yes, hours—and I still didn’t get through the Lilliput section!” my student, Sarah, bemoaned after class one morning. I asked her to walk me through her approach.
Even if you can’t tell a pigskin from pigs in a blanket, have no idea where the Seahawks or Patriots are from, or couldn’t care less who is playing in one of the most-watched sports events in the world—the Super Bowl—it’s hard to avoid the
I’m a statistical curmudgeon. When I teach statistics, I allow students to use only handheld calculators. I neither teach nor allow statistical software. I’m pretty sure I’m among the last of my kind. For context, I teach statistics to psychology majors as tools for research
In my classes, there is a reaction from my students that I have learned to wait for. It isn’t flashy. No hand shoots into the air. No triumphant “I got it!” echoes across the room. It’s much simpler and nuanced and yet more precise: a
The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) Framework (Winkelmes, 2012, 2016) provides a helpful way to inform and communicate choices about using generative AI tools in higher education. Educators who engage their students in reciprocal, transparent communication about the purposes, processes, and criteria around their
Errors are an inevitable part of learning. But many students perceive mistakes as threats to their self-esteem, associating them with failure rather than growth. By cultivating a constructive error climate, we redefine mistakes as valuable learning tools. This involves shifting the classroom narrative from “don’t
Have you noticed what students do when they’re curious about something? A few years ago, a common response to having a question about a text (or the world, for that matter) was to “ask Google.” Nowadays the common refrain seems to be “ask ChatGPT.” When
Throughout my career, I have been deeply curious about learning: what it means, how it happens, and what facilitates or hinders it. My own trajectory, from philosophy to neuroscience and ultimately education, reflects this continuous exploration. Philosophy provided the tools for asking foundational questions about
