“Professor Andrew Skull of Princeton has said attributing depression to low serotonin is ‘deeply misleading and unscientific.’”

February 8, 2018

Every once in a while, a book touches a nerve. This one certainly did when a British newspaper published excerpts from Lost Connections in an article titled “Is everything you think you know about depression wrong?” A neuroscientist – who hadn’t read the book – wrote a … Read More

“Social psychologists have found that we are overconfident, sometimes to the point of delusion, about our ability to infer what other people think . . .”

February 1, 2018

It’s easy to recognize “bad” writing, but hard to identify the cause of bad writing. Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker argues that the problem starts when writers make incorrect assumptions about their readers’ knowledge and vocabulary. Writers who are experts, for example, can be so familiar with … Read More

“This is the most thrilling time in the history of genealogy. Which may sound a little like we’re in the sexiest era of professional bowling.”

January 25, 2018

Have you considered taking a DNA test to find out where your family is from? I sure have. I suspect that soon I’ll be among the millions of people who have done so.  I’m glad I read It’s All Relative by A.J. Jacobs first though because it … Read More

“The enthusiasm of the educators statistically predicted their students’ ratings of enjoyment and perceived value in the subject matter.”

January 18, 2018

This is the first week in the spring semester at my college, and it’s a critical time for setting the tone and energy level in our classes.  That’s why I’m turning again to James Lang’s excellent book Small Teaching, which focuses on simple ways to apply current … Read More

“The deepest vocational question is not ‘What ought I to do with my life?’”

January 11, 2018

Rather, Parker Palmer writes, the more important questions are: “What am I? What is my nature?” These questions are more important because they require more self-knowledge. This knowledge must include, Palmer writes, acknowledgement of our limits and our potentials.  Of course, it’s much more difficult to develop … Read More

“Michael reciting the Declaration of Independence was an echo of something that existed elsewhere.”

January 4, 2018

In The Underground Railroad, Michael is a slave in Georgia in the 1850s who was taught to recite, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” This is one of many powerful scenes in this novel that show how the ideal of … Read More

Four Favorite Books from 2017

December 28, 2017

I’ve already written about the best books of 2017 for teachers, and so today I will focus on the other books that I’ve read this year. My “favorite” books are the ones that I am most likely to read again. Here they are:

1. Elizabeth Strout: … Read More

“We now know that this picture of a static, unchanging brain is wrong.”

December 21, 2017

Richard Davidson, my favorite scientist, continues: “Instead, the brain has a property called neuroplasticity, the ability to change its structure and function in significant ways.” This has important implications for teachers like me who want to understand how people learn.  It turns out that every time … Read More

“In her research, Fassinger (1997) found that the variable that best explained student participation was a student trait – confidence.”

December 14, 2017

Thirty years of research on classroom discussion has generated many theories on why some students participate in discussion and others do not. I’ve come to believe that while a combination of factors come into play, Fassinger’s findings are probably key. If you put her research side-by-side with … Read More

“Our views about insomnia are continuing to evolve.”

December 7, 2017

For many years, insomnia was considered to be primarily a symptom of another illness, writes Wallace Mendelson in The Science of Sleep. During his 40-plus years as a sleep researcher, Mendelson has seen many views evolve, and this is one of them. In addition to being the … Read More

“I have no idea what I’m doing! I’m going to fail!”

November 30, 2017

Angela Duckworth had a rough start with her first class in neurobiology – she failed the first two exams. She was advised to drop the course.  But she refused to quit.  Instead she believed that she could figure it out if she worked harder and got more … Read More

“Is the soul solid, like iron?”

November 24, 2017

The poet Mary Oliver continues: “Or, is it tender and breakable, like the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?” With these questions, Oliver opens the poem “Some Questions You Might Ask,” which has inspired artists, videographers, and hundreds of bloggers. During … Read More

Best Books for College Teachers in 2017

November 16, 2017

Of the books published in 2017, here is my list of the five that have added the most to my understanding of our students, our challenges as instructors, and our need to reform our educational system.

iGen by Jean Twenge: More than any other book that I’ve … Read More

“Sadly, the reality is that more and more students entering the educational pipeline have had curdled childhoods.”

November 9, 2017

It is not poverty per se that distinguishes these students, Karen Gross writes, but it’s a childhood burdened by “hunger, exposure to or experience with drugs, alcohol, abandonment, frequent moves, abuse, self-harm or harm of others.” Do we know which of our students have had these experiences? … Read More

“My students call this a ‘quarter-life crisis.’”

November 2, 2017

Cathy Davidson, author of The New Education, describes the twenty-fifth birthday parties that many of her college students throw “to commemorate their collective indecision and existential sense of uselessness.”  They have degrees, credentials, and honors, but few job prospects. Davidson argues that these students have been … Read More