by Danielle Kotrla, Philosophy I was recently grading a stack of papers from an introduction to cognitive science course where students were tasked with explaining one of the arguments from the readings we’d done in the course. This is a relatively straightforward assignment: tell me a claim that is being made, what support the author…
Communicating with Students about Conducting an Analysis and Setting Them Up for Success by Emily Tingle, Sociology In too many undergraduate classes, instructors of record ask their students to conduct an “analysis” in short and long assignments, assuming our students know exactly what we mean, and how we expect them to do that, and communicate…
by Elyse Elyaman, History This semester, I had the privilege of working as a Writing-Intensive Teaching Assistant for a professor who designed their course to follow a model that prioritized students’ agency and growth in writing. We did this primarily through a revise and resubmit approach to writing assignments. For all major pieces of writing…
by Stephen Hu, mathematics I was talking with an undergraduate friend earlier who was majoring in art, commiserating about how people react to our majors. Generally people react somewhat negatively when I say I do math, saying “How is this useful?” However, my friend said, “At least people have some idea that math is useful.”…