A Note from the Editor
This will be my final NOTW. It’s been my honor and – as cliched as it sounds – pleasure to prepare the weekly newsletter for many years. I will miss combing through the higher ed news each morning in search of articles rich with pedagogical insights, as well as news reports that might help you prepare for the increasingly difficult environment in which we find ourselves. Speaking only for myself, I have never experienced a time in which honest and inclusive teaching, in both K-12 and higher ed, has been as threatened as it currently is. I have never felt before now that the challenges we face are truly existential. But my years of working with the GLCA, along with more than four decades in the academy, have also made me aware of how many of you are working your hearts out every day to guarantee that higher ed continues to serve our students with honesty, integrity, and courage. I wish you all the best.
Teaching and Learning
How Do You Like Them Apples? On the Importance of Teaching in the Time of AI (Althea Need Kaminske, Learning Scientists, October 30, 2025): If you think AI can, in any meaningful way, replace communities of learning, then you fundamentally misunderstand what learning and teaching are.
Are Tech-Heavy Classes Stressing Students Out? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 30, 2025): What if technology is adding to students’ stress? That’s the argument at the heart of Pamela Scully’s recent essay, “The Case for ‘Slow Teaching.’” Scully describes an approach she takes with her teaching that involves as little technology as possible, with emphasis on immersive reading and longer-term planning. This approach, she writes, helps students to develop a sense of agency and reduces their anxiety.
Listen: Putting AI Tools in the Classroom (Inside Higher Ed, October 29, 2025): Inside Higher Ed’s Voices of Student Success discusses the role of faculty in embracing and teaching alongside AI tools for career development.
Teach Writing, Not Document Production (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, October 29, 2025): If we want students to learn to write, AI tools shouldn’t have much of a role. If we don’t think students need to learn to write anymore, I’m not sure what we’re doing here.
The Case Against AI Disclosure Statements (Julie McCown, Inside Higher Ed, October 28, 2025): There’s a reason students don’t want to admit their use of AI, even in classes where it’s permitted.
The Great Campus Charade (Jeonghyun Kim and Cory Koedel, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 28, 2025): Students are learning less, studying less, and skipping class more — yet their grades go up and up.
My Students Use AI. So What? (John McWhorter, Atlantic, October 23, 2025): Young people are reading less and relying on bots, but there are other ways to teach people how to think.
What Do You Think of the Trump Compact’s Take on Grades? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2025): Supiano shares highlights from her recent story about why grading is included in the Trump compact.
Analog inspiration: Human Centered AI in the Classroom with Carter Moulton (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, October 23, 2025): 36-minute podcast in which Carter Moulton shares his Analog Inspiration (AI) card deck and human centered AI in the classroom.
The Trump Administration’s and Higher Education
More College Leaders Speak Out Against Compact but Don’t Reject It (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, October 30, 2025): Experts say the mixed messaging reflects confusion over the Trump administration’s muddled rollout of the agreement and a desire to keep all options open.
What Does Trump Want from UCLA? The Proposed Settlement Was Just Made Public (Gavin Escott, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 27, 2025): UCLA would pay $1.2 billion, eliminate diversity practices in scholarships and hiring, and adopt the Trump administration’s limited definition of gender.
Americans Think Trump Is Overreaching on Higher Ed (Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 24, 2025): 57 percent don’t want the federal government setting colleges’ policies, a new Quinnipiac poll reveals.
Why the Compact Failed (Suzanne Nossel, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 22, 2025): Colleges led the way in bucking Trump’s authoritarian incursions.
What Does UVa Have to Change Under Its Deal with Trump? Here’s What We Know (Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2025): Details are scant on how the U. of Virginia can satisfy concerns about its DEI commitments — a contrast with previous agreements between the Trump administration and colleges.
Extra Credit Reading
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Threatens Student Success (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, October 30, 2025): At a webinar Tuesday, experts shared projections about how the budget bill could impact college students and their financial stability.
Remembering Ken Bain (Bonnie Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, October 20, 2025): Dave and Bonnie Stachowiak join in remembering Ken Bain in this 17-minute podcast.
Black Student Enrollment Shrinks at Selective Institutions (Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed, October 27, 2025): This fall, some colleges reported shrinking Black populations, which in some cases now comprise less than 2 percent of the student body, the Associated Press reported.
As SB-1 Impacts Ripple Across Ohio College Campuses, Students, Faculty Say ‘the Chill Is Real’ (Sheridan Hendriz, Columbus Dispatch, October 26, 2025): Students see its impact as “like a quiet roar.”
America Is Slipping in Higher Education. The Slide Starts Long Before College (Courtney Brown, Lumina Foundation, October 23, 2025): Once a global leader in higher education, the country now finds itself spending more than nearly any of its peer nations while delivering outcomes that fall increasingly short.
‘Who Needs College Anymore?’ (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2025): A debate on how college is and isn’t changing – and who it’s for.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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Teaching and Learning
Ask Your Students Why They Use AI (Ernesto Reyes, Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2025): The answer may surprise you.
How Will ED’s Latest Layoffs Affect Students with Disabilities? (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2025): Inside Higher Ed spoke with a leading advocate for students with learning disabilities to hear what the consequences will be across colleges and universities.
Making Gen-Ed Relevant (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 17, 2025): For one science professor, it’s about connecting to what motivates students.
10 Ways AI Is Ruining Your Students’ Writing (Wendy Laura Belcher, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2025): And how to help them see that AI cannot craft good essays.
The Trump Administration’s Compact for Higher Education
Higher Education’s Compact with America: Shared Principles for the Common Good (American Association of Colleges & Universities and the Phi Beta Kappa Society, October 17, 2025): A statement of principles issued jointly by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. It was developed in collaboration with college and university presidents and other educational leaders across the country. In addition, Three dozen higher-ed associations signed a statement opposing the White House’s offer. “It would impose unprecedented litmus tests on colleges and universities as a condition for receiving ill-defined ‘federal benefits’ related to funding and grants,” they wrote.
Our Politics Differ, But We Agree: Trump’s ‘Compact’ Violates Academic Freedom (Robert P. George et al, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Using federal funds to dictate who colleges admit and what faculty can say crosses a dangerous line.
Wash U Will Not Endorse Compact (Chronicle Staff, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 22, 2025): Of the nine, only the University of Texas at Austin hasn’t commented publicly on its response to the document.
Arizona Rejects Compact, Others Leave Options Open (Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, October 20, 2025): Monday’s deadline to provide feedback on the Trump administration’s proposed deal passed with no signatories and silence from some university leaders invited to join.
Vanderbilt Didn’t Accept or Reject the Compact (Francie Diep, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 20, 2025): The Chancellor plans to provide feedback instead.
U. of Virginia and Dartmouth Reject Compact as Trump Invites Some Colleges to Meet (Claire Murphy and Francie Diep, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 17, 2025): The White House invited representatives from the four remaining compact recipients that had not yet responded, in addition to Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Kansas, and Arizona State University, to discuss the proposal.
University of Virginia Declines Trump Deal for Priority Federal Funding (Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Washington Post, October 17, 2025): The fifth of nine universities to decline the offer, stating that “A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital…research and further erode confidence in American higher education.”
Penn’s President Declines Trump’s Compact Offer, Joining Brown and MIT (Claire Murphy, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): J. Larry Jameson said he provided “focused feedback” to the Department of Education that highlighted “areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns” the university continues to have.
USC Rejects Trump Proposal for Funding in Exchange for Policy Changes (Julia Barajas, LAist, October 16, 2025): The University of Southern California becomes the fourth of nine universities to reject the administration’s “Compact.”
Extra Credit Reading
Trump’s Unprecedented Actions Deepen Asymmetric Divides (Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institution, PRRI Survey, October 22, 2025): Some 70 percent(and 58% of Republicans) don’t think the feds should have the authority to dictate admissions, faculty hiring, and curricula.
College Has a Positive RPI for Most, but Outcomes Vary Widely (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, October 17, 2025): 70 percent of the country’s college graduates see their investment pay off within 10 years, but that outcome correlates strongly to the state where a student obtains their degree, according to the Strada Foundation’s latest State Opportunity Index.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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Teaching and Learning
More Ideas for Creating Dynamic Classrooms (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Two different strategies: one which focuses on reading strategies that encourage students to shape class discussions; the other leans into active learning that doesn’t require advanced preparation.
Stop Assigning Traditional Essays (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Matthew Brophy lays out some of the new techniques while also asking higher-education leadership to support instructors, who are often navigating this new, uncertain territory on their own.
Why Does the Trump Compact Talk about Grading? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): The desire for objective grades connects to broader ideas about merit.
4 Ways to Better Grade Team Projects (Lauren Vicker and Tim Franz, Inside Higher Ed, October 14, 2025): Simply grading the final group output is insufficient. Here are better ideas.
Ungrading and Assessing the Unassessable (Keegan Lannon, Inside Higher Ed, October 10, 2025): On wrestling with alternative grading.
Motivation Effects and Efficiency of Retrieval Practice over Lecture (Cindy Nebel, Learning Scientists, October 10, 2025): Retrieval practice is one of the most robust strategies that we have for durable learning. The author reviews a study that pushed retrieval practice to its limits and asks if we are wasting time with lectures; should we just jump straight to the practice?
Getting Students Off Screens and into the Conversation (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 9, 2025): Some suggestions for keeping students engaged and prepared from a faculty member at the University of Texas, Arlington.
Extra Credit Reading
Americans Faith in Higher Education Has Declined Even Further (Emma Pettit, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): According to a new survey from Pew, seven in ten Americans say that higher education in the US is generally heading in the wrong direction. At the same time, polling from the American Higher Education Barometer suggests that Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Trump’s Higher Ed Cuts and strongly trust universities to do what’s right. You choose!
Brown University Rejects Trump Proposal to Overhaul Policies for Preferential Funding (Marina Dunbar, Guardian, October 15, 2025): University joins MIT in refusing invitation, saying that compact would ‘restrict academic freedom’.
The Logical End Point of Trump’s Higher-Education Agenda (Kevin Carey, The Atlantic, October 15, 2025): A ‘compact’ offered by the administration could devastate racial diversity at elite universities.
Colleges Are Told Their Programs Don’t “Advance American Interests” (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): The U.S. Department of Education has eliminated funding for critical and less commonly taught languages, area studies, and global-business education, telling colleges that “their awards aren’t in the interest of the federal government” and “don’t advance American interests or values.”
Dartmouth’s President Balks at Trump Compact, Sources Say, as Feds expand Offer to ‘Any Institution’ (Francie Diep and Megan Zahneis, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 14, 2025): The president of Dartmouth College, an initial recipient of the Trump administration’s much-debated “compact” for higher education, has told faculty members that she will not endorse the current version of the agreement, two sources told The Chronicle.
Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT (Liam Knox, Bloomberg, October 13, 2025): Preferential federal funding would be tied to accepting specific policy changes like DEI bans.
The Healthy Minds Study (The Healthy Minds Network, October 2025): A detailed picture of mental health and related issues in college student populations finds that 18 percent of college students experienced “severe depression” in 2025.
Why Colleges Must Not Ban Speakers (John K. Wilson, Inside Higher Ed, October 13, 2025): We cannot censor our way out of a crisis of repression.
In Emergency Meeting, Vanderbilt Faculty Senate Votes to Condemn Trump Administration ‘Compact’ (Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout, October 11, 2025): Calls on Chancellor and Board of Trustees to reject the Compact as “compromising the mission, values, and independence” of Vanderbilt.
MIT President Says ‘We Cannot Support’ Trump’s Compact (Claire Murphy, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10, 2025): The premise of the compact is “inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth wrote.
Future Education Expectations of High School Students Decline to the Lowest Leve in 20 Years for Both First-Generation and Continuing Generation Students (Pell Institute, September 2025): Just under 44 percent expected to earn a bachelor’s degree or more in 2022 — down from nearly 72 percent two decades prior.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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GLCA/GLAA Event
How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning with Todd Zakrajsek
College can be both exciting and overwhelming, especially for neurodiverse students balancing studying, organization, and campus life. We hope you will join us for this webinar, How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning, with Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, Tuesday October 14 at Noon EDT. We will look at how AI can step in as a supportive partner and help neurodiverse learners with study routines, organization, and even social connections. Together we’ll explore practical strategies for using AI to reduce barriers, build confidence, and create more opportunities for success in college.
Anticipated learner outcomes:
- Describe at least 3 aspects of college that are particularly challenging for neurodiverse students.
- Create or implement at least one specific strategy pertaining to how AI might be used to help neurodiverse students be more successful in college.
- Explain at least one area in which neurodiverse students may have an advantage over other students with respect to college life and learning new content or skills.
Todd D. Zakrajsek PhD, is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at UNC at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the SOM he was a tenured associate professor of psychology and built faculty development efforts at three universities. Todd has authored/coauthored 6 books in the past 5 years and has given keynote addresses, campus workshops, and conference presentations in all 50 states, 12 countries, and 4 continents. Follow and connect with Todd on Twitter (@toddzakrajsek), Instagram, and LinkedIn. Read more about his work at https://www.toddzakrajsek.com/
A link will be sent the day before the event and the session will be recorded. REGISTER HERE.
Teaching and Learning
Team Teaching Benefits Faculty and Students (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, October 9, 2025): Most first-year courses at Harvey Mudd College are team-taught, exposing students to a variety of disciplines, teaching styles and resources on campus.
Rethinking Student Attendance Policies for Deeper Engagement and Learning (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, October 9, 2025): A 47-minute podcast with Simon Cullen and Danny Oppenheimer on the importance of student autonomy in higher ed.
Making Progress on Teaching in a World with AI (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, October 3, 2025): Some common traits at institutions successfully meeting the challenge of teaching in today’s world.
Why One Professor Fosters Friendships in Her Courses (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 3, 2025): When students feel connected to one another, they’re more likely to come to class, do the work, and even take risks.
Why Students Shouldn’t Think of Their Majors as an Identity (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 2, 2025): Colleges need to help students do the leg work to figure out who they really are.
What Research Says about how AI Use Affects Learning (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 2, 2025): We don’t know the longer-term effects (yet) of AI use.Generative AI hasn’t been around long enough for researchers to do longitudinal studies on how it is shaping us. Extensive AI use is even more recent. Plus, is it possible to isolate the effects of AI on our thinking when it is all around us? That’s a question weighing on teaching experts and researchers.
Engaging Students with “No”-oriented Questions that Can Lead to More Honest Conversations (Terry Favero, University of Portland): “No”-oriented questions paradoxically create psychological safety and often lead to better outcomes. Here are some examples of turning a “Yes” question into a “No”-oriented one.
Extra Credit Reading
With Compact, Universities Weigh Whether to Give Up Freedoms for Unknown Payout (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, October 8, 2025): Higher ed organizations have raised alarm over a federal government document that asks universities to agree to significant restrictions without specifying what they’ll gain—or what they’ll lose for refusing.
International Student Arrivals Drop 19% (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, October 7, 2025): Some experts note that the entry data contradicts enrollment increases shown in SEVIS data—while others say the declines are even more extreme than the arrivals data indicates. [In a related article, see Small US College Towns Reel Amid Trump Immigration Crackdown: ‘They Need International Students’ (Stephen Starr, Guardian, October 4, 2025): From Ohio to Florida, the US government’s clampdown on students from abroad threatens rural universities and local businesses.]
Trump’s Imperfect Compact Is a Perfect Opportunity (Danielle Allen, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 6, 2025): Colleges shouldn’t sign. But they also shouldn’t dismiss the need for a new framework.
The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities (Alan Blinder and Michael C. Bender, New York Times, October 3, 2025): The conservative ideas behind the Trump administration’s “compact” for universities were developed in part by Marc Rowan, a wealthy financier who has sought to shape higher education.
Trump Asks 9 Colleges to Commit to His Political Agenda and Get Favorable Access to Federal Money (Collin Binkley and Aamer Madhani, AP, October 2, 2025): A document sent to the universities encourages them to adopt the White House’s vision for America’s campuses, with commitments to accept the government’s priorities on admissions, women’s sports, free speech, student discipline and college affordability, among other topics.
The White House’s New ‘Compact’ Would Offer Universities an Edge in Grant Funding. What’s In It? (Chronicle Staff, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 2, 2025): We’ve seen what the Trump administration’s stick looks like. Let’s look at its carrot.
International Experience as a Career Asset: Exploring the Earnings Impact of Education Abroad Participation (Amelia J. Dietrich, Forum on Education Abroad, 2025): One key insight: Students who studied abroad earn on average $4,159 more in their first job after graduation than those who did not.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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GLCA/GLAA Event
How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning with Todd Zakrajsek
College can be both exciting and overwhelming, especially for neurodiverse students balancing studying, organization, and campus life. We hope you will join us for this webinar, How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning, with Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, Tuesday October 14 at Noon EDT. We will look at how AI can step in as a supportive partner and help neurodiverse learners with study routines, organization, and even social connections. Together we’ll explore practical strategies for using AI to reduce barriers, build confidence, and create more opportunities for success in college.
Anticipated learner outcomes:
- Describe at least 3 aspects of college that are particularly challenging for neurodiverse students.
- Create or implement at least one specific strategy pertaining to how AI might be used to help neurodiverse students be more successful in college.
- Explain at least one area in which neurodiverse students may have an advantage over other students with respect to college life and learning new content or skills.
Todd D. Zakrajsek PhD, is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at UNC at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the SOM he was a tenured associate professor of psychology and built faculty development efforts at three universities. Todd has authored/coauthored 6 books in the past 5 years and has given keynote addresses, campus workshops, and conference presentations in all 50 states, 12 countries, and 4 continents. Follow and connect with Todd on Twitter (@toddzakrajsek), Instagram, and LinkedIn. Read more about his work at https://www.toddzakrajsek.com/
A link will be sent the day before the event and the session will be recorded. REGISTER HERE.
Teaching and Learning
Students Who Lack Academic Confidence More Likely to Use Generative AI for School (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, September 30, 2025): New survey data also finds that students with robust peer support and strong internet search skills are less likely to rely on AI tools for academic help.
How Students Should Practice, In and Out of Class (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 26, 2025): A professor structures exercises to reduce busy work and boost engagement.
A Final Project that Can Bring Joy and Meaning (Peter C. Herman, Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2025): With the rise of AI-enabled cheating, a creative assignment can be a powerful alternative to the traditional term paper.
Students on Academic Quality, Success (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2025): Undergraduates across institution types rate the quality of education they’re getting highly and share what could boost their academic success.
5 Ways Students Can Think about Learning So That They Can Learn More (Jerrid Kruse, The Conversation, September 16, 2025): Five beliefs beyond the growth mindset that can help students become better learners.
Cultivating Critical Hope: Reflections on Pedagogical Partnerships in Higher Education (Austen Morris, Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 2025): Pedagogical partnership broadly seeks to rewrite the narrative surrounding faculty and student dynamics into one of partnership, where students and faculty are colleagues.
Extra Credit Reading
HHS Moves to Cut Harvard Off from All Federal Grants and Contracts (Laura Spitalniak, Higher EdDive, October 1, 2025): The agency’s Office for Civil Rights on Monday recommended blocking the university’s access to the funding to protect the public interest.
Should College Get Harder? (Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, September 30, 3035): A.I. is coming for knowledge work, and yet college seems to be getting easier. Does something need to change?
White House Considers Funding Advantage for Colleges that Align with Trump Policies (Laura Meckler and Susan Svriuga, Washington Post, September 28, 2025): The proposal could transform the government’s vast research funding operation, which has long awarded university grants based on scientific merit.
Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders (J. David Goodman, New York Times, September 26, 2025): The university system said faculty must comply with President Trump’s order recognizing only two genders, possibly a first for a major public institution of higher education.
Where the Battle Over Free Speech is Leading Us (Louis Menand, New Yorker, September 26, 2025): Menand considers two books, Christopher L. Eisgruber, Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right (Basic), written by the president of Princeton, and Fara Dabhoiwala, What Is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea (Belknap), by a member of Princeton’s history department.
Poll: Public Confidence in Higher Ed Growing (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2025): According to the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy polling published Thursday, 47 percent of 1,030 Americans surveyed said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education institutions, with a net positive rating of 33—up 13 percentage points since 2023.
Compassion Fatigue in Educators (Chiara Horlin, The Learning Scientists, September 25, 2025): A 38-minute podcast featuring Dr. Chiara Horlin, on wellbeing in educators and specifically about a phenomenon called ‘compassion fatigue.’
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Teaching and Learning
How Instructors Create Breathing Room in Their Courses (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2025): Provides examples from a number of faculty as to how they build some extra space into their courses to better weather unexpected issues and provide students, and themselves, a break.
Course Correction (Nicolaus Mills, Inside Higher Ed, September 24, 2025): Asking students to interview faculty before they sign up for classes is a practice more colleges should try.
Going Old-School: Professors Use Print Books to Teach AI (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, September 24, 2025): Faculty members help students practice close reading and analysis with a physical book, building life skills and social connection.
AI Is Making the College Experience Lonelier (Khafiz Kerimov and Nicholas Bellinson, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 22, 2025): Does ChatGPT’s ‘study mode’ mean students will spend less time talking with their peers?
How One Professor Demystifies Writing (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 19, 2025): It helps to express interest in hearing what students have to say.
Is It Time to Overhaul Your Course? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 18, 2025): Because students are skimming or skipping the reading, or not doing assigned problem sets, professors find they can’t advance to the next level of the course as quickly as they normally would. So what are some options?
The Study Habits of Tomorrow’s Freshmen (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 18, 2025): Carlson reviews Jenny Ander and Rebecca Winthrop’s The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better (Penguin Random House).
Learning about Grades from an Emerging Failure (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, September 18, 2025): 48-minute podcast with Emily Pitts Donahoe considering alternative grading systems.
How to Improve Student Comprehension of Difficult Texts (John Orlando, The Teaching Professor, August 18, 2025): Concrete steps to take to help your students navigate complex readings.
Extra Credit Reading
The Richness of Podcasting in Higher Education (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, September 25, 2025): 48-minute podcast on using podcasting in higher ed.
Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons (Kevin Gannon, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 24, 2025): Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.
How to Think, Not What to Think (Sian Leah Beilock, The Atlantic, September 19, 2025): College is not just about transmitting knowledge—it’s also about learning and practicing the skills that connect us to one another.
How the Education Dept. Wants to Advance ‘Patriotic Education’ (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, September 19, 2025): Professional historians say the department’s plan is part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to create an Orwellian “truth ministry” and omit the more troubling aspects of the nation’s past.
American Higher Ed Never Figured Out Its Purpose (Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, September 18, 2025): The centuries-long debate over who and what college is for has yet to be resolved.
Americans Tend to View International Students Positively, Though Some Support Limitations (William Miner, Sneha Gubbala, and Laura Silver, Pew Research, September 17, 2025): Nearly 80 percent of respondents in a Pew Research Center survey agreed that it’s good for colleges to admit foreign students, a view that cuts across party lines.
Is College Worth It? (Art & Science Group, September 2025): A new survey finds, among other things, that 8 in 10 of those students who didn’t plan to enroll but seriously considered it thought college was worth it, and 94 percent of those who planned to attend thought college would be worthwhile.
On the Bookshelf
Carlo Rotella, What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics (University of California). Rotella provides an account of teaching a required core-literature course at Boston College in the spring of 2020. In One Course’s Small Victories (Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2025), Scott Carlson discusses the book in an interview with the author.
CTL Events
Are your students reading…or just turning the pages? Could a few small changes shift how students approach reading?
Reading requires students to integrate what they are reading with prior knowledge. One of the biggest problems that students face is that they don’t often bring the right strategies to a reading situation. Rather, they attempt to read a text the same way they read a novel. We hope you will join us for a workshop: Getting Students to Read with Dr. Chris Hakala, (Springfield College), September 29, 2025 at Noon.
In this workshop, we will talk about what it takes to learn from text: what reading strategies might be helpful to ensure that students have a better understanding, and better motivation, to learn from text. Some strategies include pre-reading, pre-lecturing, goal-oriented reading, etc.
Dr. Chris Hakala is the Director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at Springfield College, where he is also Professor of Psychology. His academic work in psychology has focused on psycholinguistics, and specifically, reading comprehension.
In the workshop, Chris will:
· Introduce the concept of reading from the cognitive science perspective
· Show the differences in processing that is required to learn from text versus narrative
· Do a demonstration to show what it’s like for students to try to read without prior knowledge
· Give examples, and demonstrations, of how to improve the ability to read this kind of text
Register HERE for this virtual event on Monday, September 29th at Noon EDT (confirm time zone here). A link will be sent the day before. The session will be recorded.
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Co-Directors:
Lew Ludwig ([email protected])
Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected])
