Category: Education Article

Without utilizing a technique like Action Research, you may not be certain about a solution’s effectiveness and might not be maximizing your student’s potential. Action Research is a process for teachers to reflect and evaluate their teaching practices, identify best practices in current research, and work to improve instructional and student performance in a data-focused way. How often have you seen a new strategy or idea and thought, “Yes! That would be a great way to help my students,” and then sought to try it out? Or, has your district or school ever identified some areas for improvement in the student population and recommended a specific instructional method or strategy to help solve those problems? Every teacher experiences these scenarios, but the only way for a teacher to know whether or not an approach in the classroom is valid and works is to deeply reflect on and evaluate his or

If you have taught before, then you are familiar with the grumpy time of the semester. This is when the semester starts to feel long. It is usually about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the semester when we (and our students) start to feel a little grumpier. We believe there is value in acknowledging this eventuality, naming it, and then proactively and intentionally devising plans for what to do when we get into the grumpy time of the semester. Generally speaking, we advocate for the infusion of empathy (one’s ability to take on the cognitive and emotional perspective of others; e.g., Elliot et al., 2011) into all parts of our courses (see Saucier et al., 2022 for a discussion of the empathetic course design perspective). This ranges from our syllabi to our course structures and policies, to our assignments and assessments. We work hard to proactively and intentionally

Students’ experiences in higher education goes far beyond the curriculum in their programs. Beyond the classroom walls there are extra-curricular and social activities and numerous other opportunities to gain unique skills and experiences. One such opportunity is for students to become involved in research. This could be in the form of a paid research assistantship (RA), volunteering in a research lab, or by completing an independent project (out of general interest or as a thesis requirement). An additional opportunity to involve students in research could be by embedding it directly into the curriculum via course-based research. The types of research-related opportunities available to students will differ based on the type of institution (interested readers may refer to our previous article, “Writing Your First Grant,” (Cappon & Kennette, 2022) for tips to secure some funding). There may be more opportunities at a research-focused university than a community college or a school

The November newsfeed heralded the arrival of AI essay writing. AI (or Artificial Intelligence) essay writing recruits online software that sifts through information and generates a thoughtful written analysis.  Enter a prompt, and AI can turn out a reasonable essay on everything from utilitarianism to the Krebs cycle…for free.

In truth, AI authorship hardly qualifies as “news.” There is nothing new about it: AI has been generating blog content for online businesses for some time and is largely responsible for the current glut of meaningless search engine results. Enter a query about stain removal, and the top matches feature links to vacuous 1,500-word essays filled with advertisements and zero practical information. That’s AI.

That said, given the right prompts, AI software can truly deliver some lovely, thoughtful college-level writing.  Of course, such a claim should require evidence, so we submitted increasingly specific prompts to a free online AI writer and