Privilege, Pedagogy, Intentionality, Internet
A lively conversation inspired by an energetic but wrongheaded blog post by Claire Potter, the Tenured Radical, at the Chronicle of Higher Education. I've rearranged the timeline a bit to separate out some interwoven conversations, but it's more or less chronological.
- I almost never click on CHE links anymore, but it's been a while since we've had the "how dare you say mean things about students?!?!?!" handwringing discussion, so this was like catnip....
RT @betajames: "Humiliating students in their absence is…a symptom of very intelligent, highly verbal, very resentful group of people" http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2012/12/grading-in-the-age-of-mechanical-reproduction/- Hey, @TenuredRadical called me "highly intelligent"! And said I was a bad person/teacher for being publicly grumpy, but never said why.
- Seriously, 1st half of this slags me practically by name, then veers into unrelated course/assignment design issues chronicle.com/blognetwork/te…
- The first half of Potter's article attacks scholars who complain about student work online, without explaining why it's a bad thing; she just says that she used to do it, saw the error of her ways, and wouldn't dream of doing it anymore. The second half claims that people who whine about grading are "doing it wrong" by assigning essay assignments (she never actually engages the issue of testing; maybe they don't do that sort of grubby thing where she teaches?) that aren't engaging students or inspiring their best work; nothing wrong with engaging and inspiring, per se, but it's a non sequitur, and ends up with banalities and cliches that offer nothing helpful to the discussion.
- Eh, it's been a while since @Chronicle #ConcernTroll'd us pseudonymous instructor-blogger types. But @TenuredRadical used to be one of us.
- @KarlSteel To what? She never says why complaining about/sharing/enjoying the accidental humor of our students' output is bad.
- @KarlSteel Her points about course design are banally correct, but unspecific and unserious, and assume bad faith/incompetence by whiners.
@grumpyhistorian I'm uncomfortable with potential class- or English-language-learner element of mockery. But when they're just being lazy?- @KarlSteel I don't quote non-native speaker errors. Class issue harder to pin down, but failure to read and process info goes beyond class.
- @KarlSteel Tricky aspect to big survey class assignments? Q's that allow weaker students to succeed, stronger students to stretch, shine.
- @grumpyhistorian or even in my 25-student classes at CUNY, where the range of student ability & prep couldn't be wider.
@grumpyhistorian @KarlSteel Exactly. Most of us don't get to choose key aspects of what we teach or to whom.- @KarlSteel Yup. Lots of intro courses, courses that attract non-majors, have same issue. But size matters....
- @KarlSteel @grumpyhistorian late to this party. I think teaching load has a lot to do with it. I do want to read what I assign, but 70x? no.
- @Exhaust_Fumes @grumpyhistorian totally. And pretty sure Tenured Radical teaches at a rather fancier institution than mine
- @KarlSteel @exhaust_fumes @grumpyhistorian not that there weren't good if too general ideas in the piece re: teacher-student collaboration
- @jeffreyjcohen @karlsteel @exhaust_fumes @grumpyhistorian ie students write better when they have some input / investment in assign
- @jeffreyjcohen @karlsteel @exhaust_fumes @grumpyhistorian just not always practical; not every course can work that way
@jeffreyjcohen @karlsteel @exhaust_fumes @grumpyhistorian most of my assignments have high degree of choice, so high rate of investment BUT- @jeffreyjcohen @karlsteel @exhaust_fumes @grumpyhistorian It seems like a stretch to say that such assignments lead 2 papers we want to read
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- Claire PotterFascinating. But why don't you guys have this conversation on the blog? I2012-12-31T03:32:11.811Z
- Claire PotterFascinating. But why don't you guys have this conversation on the blog? I2012-12-31T03:32:11.811Z
