TL;DR Some have raised the issue of accreditation for faculty teaching in private practice. The solution is deceptively simple. Faculty working in private practice would simply invent a brand new accreditation standard for ourselves. Problem solved. This is not without precedent. Furthermore, there is existing proof that accreditation is a red herring. Home schooling is […]
Read More A New Model for Academic Faculty V: One Problem SolvedTL;DR I conclude that the equity movement is well intentioned but is a waste of time until we reassert classroom autonomy that has literally been taken from us by administrators and outside parties (e.g. the testing industry), and autonomy that we have ceded without resistance. Once again this is mostly a brain dump of thoughts […]
Read More A New Model for Academic Faculty IV: One Can’t Fix What Isn’t Really BrokenTL;DR After attending a recent conference on Grading For Growth hosted by The Grading Conference I have read Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. I am totally on board with this movement, and over the past few years have independently stumbled onto most of the basic findings described in the book. However, I think the […]
Read More A New Model for Academic Faculty III: Grading for EquityTL;DR Building on the previous post, here are some slightly more concrete thoughts on what may be possible in the future. As a self proclaimed community of problem solvers, we have not done a good job at solving major problems in teaching physics, or teaching in general. Too many of us have ceded authority to […]
Read More A New Model for Academic Faculty II: Further ThoughtsTL;DR It is time for academics, particularly those in a community college environment, to define a brand new model for teaching and learning that has the same status as private practice for medicine, law, art, healthcare, consulting, and numerous other occupations. The community college environment has become so disorganized and complicated due to mission creep […]
Read More A New Model for Academic Faculty I: Initial ThoughtsI have submitted the following comments to Physics Today in response to Toni Feder’s article “A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers” published in the April 2019 issue, pp. 22-25. I must add two cautions to Toni Feder’s piece on the benefits of a physics master’s degree. After I completed my MS in […]
Read More A Response to Physics Today’s Article on the Benefits of a Master’s Degree in PhysicsI’m going to present two observers’ accounts of a classroom observation that took place on April 24, 2018 beginning at 9:30 am. The class was an introductory astronomy class with eight students on the roster, five of which stopped attending without withdrawing (faculty are now forbidden “by law” from withdrawing students) and three of which […]
Read More Two Different Obsevers, Same ClassI want to tell a story. It addresses a taboo topic: workplace issues. It is important to make the community aware of these issues, especially for younger teachers going into the two-year college environment, expecially in certain regions. The landscape is changing in some states, and not in good ways. This story could be set anywhere […]
Read More A Sordid Little Story…This week was a very short week consisting of only two days. We met as usual on Monday, but Tuesday was a “flip day” and ran as a Friday. This class doesn’t meet on Fridays so we only had one day this week, and we devoted it to tying up loose ends from chapter 17. […]
Read More Matter & Interactions II, Week 9Warning! Many people will not like this post. It strays from my usual fare so unless you are interested in faculty work environments, please don’t read any further and just move on. I am sure you have heard of diploma mills. Basically, a diploma mill is an entity disguised as an institution of higher learning […]
Read More Are we making teaching mills?