Some very interesting news from the trenches about robot graders, which notes the ‘strong case against using robo-graders for assigning grades and test scores’ and then goes on to note: But there’s another use for robo-graders — a role for them to play in which…they may not only be as good as humans, but better.Continue reading “On The Possible Advantages Of Robot Graders”
Tag Archives: pedagogy
Andrew Hacker on the Supposed Superfluousness of Algebra
An Op-Ed titled ‘Is Algebra necessary’ is bound to provoke reaction. So, here I am, reacting to Andrew Hacker’s anti-algebra screed (New York Times, July 29th, 2012). It is a strange argument, one unsure of what it is attacking–mandatory math education, elementary algebra, higher algebra?–and one founded on an extremely dubious premise: that the wayContinue reading “Andrew Hacker on the Supposed Superfluousness of Algebra”
Final Exams, Testing Regimes, Contd.
Daniel Kaufman left a very interesting comment in response to my post on final exams; it captures a great deal of what is wrong with testing regimes in general. I’d like to offer some brief responses to it. First, testing regimes lay excessive emphasis on memorization and rote recall, which has a questionable connection with what mightContinue reading “Final Exams, Testing Regimes, Contd.”
Final Exams: Who Needs ‘Em?
A good friend once described studying for the bar exam as ‘a Bataan Death March of the mind.’ That description both trivializes the horrors of the Death March and gestures toward what seems to me, from the outside, to be the mind-numbing, anxiety-inducing tedium of bar-exam preparation. Interminably long video lectures, flash cards, memorization ofContinue reading “Final Exams: Who Needs ‘Em?”
Online vs. In-Classroom Education, Contd.
My response yesterday to Mark Edmundson’s ‘online education is not real education’ New York Times Op-Ed sparked a set of interesting comments in response. I’d like to briefly take those on today as I think they help round out the discussion quite nicely. (Please read the comments in full at the original post.) My Brooklyn CollegeContinue reading “Online vs. In-Classroom Education, Contd.”
Online v. In-Classroom Education: Not Quite a No-Contest
“AH, you’re a professor. You must learn so much from your students.” This line, which I’ve heard in various forms, always makes me cringe. Do people think that lawyers learn a lot about the law from their clients? That patients teach doctors much of what they know about medicine? This is an exceedingly strange wayContinue reading “Online v. In-Classroom Education: Not Quite a No-Contest”
Samir Chopra 