Friday Fragments, October 9th

Student engagement & some musing on our intellectual lives...

What I’m watching/reading…

The New Rules of Engagement discusses the challenges instructors face with getting students to be active participants - whether “live” or synchronous. James Lang, interviewed for the article, has two suggestions:

Keep changing things up.

Break a class up into segments: short lecture, group work, worksheets, then a whole-class discussion. The online equivalent could be a combination of breakout rooms and shared Google docs.

Call on students.

Bring up something they wrote on a discussion board or in an essay, and ask others to respond. Be clear about why you think engagement is important, and reward students for participating in activities in which they’re interacting with others.

Watch Your Words by Angela Duckworth reflects on how people assume that what you don’t talk about, you don’t think about. She thoughtfully addresses where grit and perseverance, which I have written about before, aren’t enough, or aren’t the complete picture, for happiness.

Philosophers have long debated what it means to live a good life. More recently, scientists have come to the consensus that thriving is multi-dimensional. When it comes to overall life satisfaction, achievement is less important than relationships—having friends you love and who love you back—and day-to-day feelings of hope, gratitude, and moments of joy.

In Reclaiming Intellectual Community, Adam J. Davis urges faculty to consider ways to develop community with each other, noting that these shared conversations with people outside of our specific disciplinary field or teaching context can enrich our intellectual lives.

Technology had the effect of social distancing on college and university campuses long before the current public health crisis.

I see his argument; I also remember long lunches in the faculty lounge at the schools where I taught in France - perhaps it’s partly a cultural thing - and how many small connections turned into deeper relationships because of that time we gave each other. But I also see how technology creates space for these relationships to develop, particularly for people who might have been left out in the traditional “faculty lounge” experience.

For my part, I hope very much that these newsletters contribute in some small way to our teaching community - and my sincere gratitude to everyone who has reached out with a comment or request.

Finally, this beautiful documentary: My Octopus Teacher. I watched it this week with my children, and was deeply moved by the story of a diver and the octopus he encounters. I can’t recommend it highly enough.