When I was in college, I studied cognitive science. Then, I went on to graduate school and studied cognitive psychology. My postdoctoral research fellowship focused on cognitive modeling, so naturally when I became Assistant Professor of Psychology, I affiliated with the cognitive group (now called “cog/cogneuro” to include cognitive neuroscience as well). In case you’re… Continue reading In Praise of Social Psychology
“When it comes to teaching, expertise is a double-edged sword.” I could be quoted as making that statement dozens of times over the course of my career in faculty professional development. Why? Because one of the biggest challenges we face as teachers is the expert’s blind spot. Put simply, the expert’s blind spot is the… Continue reading The double-edged sword of expertise
A couple years ago, I had the privilege of working with a team of math and science colleagues working to revise their undergraduate curriculum (affectionately known as “Core Ed” to reflect the new core education that they were creating for their math and science majors). To be specific, these were colleagues from math, biology, chemistry,… Continue reading From forward thinking to backward design
It’s graduation season, and this year I’ve had the opportunity to attend a few ceremonies. Whether or not you’ve been to one lately, I’m sure you are familiar with the genre of the commencement speech. The format often goes like this: Congratulate the graduates. (Be sure to include some kind of verbal “high five” and… Continue reading Congratulations, Class of 2016: Go do what we (hope we) taught you to do!
Deliberate Instruction 