What the best college teachers do.
For one of the graduate psychology courses I am taking this semester I am reading the book “What the best college teachers do” by Ken Bain. I would recommend it to any teacher, college or otherwise. The materials in it scale to all teachers, although the research its based on is from college professors.
I am about 1/2 way through the book and plan to do a summary when I am done, but one paragraph just made me want to write some separate information down.
The paragraph talks about research done by Claude Steele in regards to how different ethnic groups react differently to the learning opportunities presented to them, and how perceptions and stereotypes can lead to them starting courses not on a level playing field. Dont get me wrong, they are equally as qualified as proven by admissions standards and standardized test scores, but these students have more difficulty in courses with more academic rigor than their white counterparts. Even minority students who have equitable socioeconomic status still do poorer as a group in courses with rigor than their white counterparts.
Claude talks about how each individual in this circumstance will react differently to the intervention measures we put into place in order to foster better learning or more support. For me this echoes the problems we are having with girls in CS. It seems that we are trying to find a magic wand - something that if we ALL do it then it will help eliminate the disparity in our discipline. How can we create a system where disenfranchised learners get the motivation and assistance that they need without being turned off by what they dont?
Anyway - I suggest you add the book to your queue of “to read”.
Welcome back.
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007