The news out of Harvard is that they are setting up a task force to study ways to improve teaching. And, surprise, it is possible that the timing of the announcement has something to do with the fact that Derek Bok is back as president. As reported in the Boston Globe, “The task force's chairwoman, Theda Skocpol, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said she was inspired to propose the idea by the book that Bok published just months before taking over after Lawrence H. Summers's resignation. The book is called Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should be Learning More.”
I have mentioned Derek Bok’s excellent new book in previous posts (e.g. How are we doing teaching cognitive skills?, July 4, 2006). It describes a lot of very humbling data on the effectiveness of teaching in colleges and universities of all sizes and shapes around the country. It also points out that research has shown us ways to make student learning much more effective, but that that research is quite generally ignored by faculty in their teaching. Would he have written this provocative book had he known he was to resume the presidency of Harvard? Who knows - but at least it is leading to some introspection at one of our great institutions.
One of the members of this Harvard faculty task force is a fellow physicist, Eric Mazur, who knows the learning research well and has been a visible and powerful proponent of bringing the results of that research into the classroom. He will undoubtedly provide a strong and articulate voice for change on the task force.
Now if we could just stop focusing on teaching, and change the focus to learning - the change in perspective might make a world of difference!
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