News of the Week – Aug 21, 2026
This week’s issue is curated by Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón. Sergio is Director of The Gertrude B. Lemle Center for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship and Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College.
Teaching & Learning
How to Teach a Good First Day of Class (James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education, Aug 21, 2018). An oldie but a goodie: in this piece, Lang offers a feel-good and helpful guide to the first day of classes (looming for a big chunk of us). He opens with principles for day one that, semester in and semester out, I find affirming: lead with curiosity and learning, humanize yourself and your students, set up course expectations.
What Do You Know? Judging Your Own Learning Doesn’t Always Improve It. (Michelle Miller, Substack, August 03, 2026). In this piece, Miller surveys recent research that tests whether learning self-checks lead to improvement (it doesn’t), and concludes that deliberate teaching of material and explicit retrieval activities are the way to go. Interestingly, this piece echoes many other recent research articles (and Substack rewrites) that is starting to insist that growth mindsets and metacognition is all good and intuitive, but without good research proven pedagogical practices (retrieval, spacing, etc) it yields very little beyond vibes.
Just-In-Time Assessment Strategies for Lasting Learning (Joshua D. Morrison, National Teaching and Learning Forum, April 07, 2026). Last semester, I found this article useful to remind myself to integrate small real-time, in-class checks to gauge student understanding and adjust learning before things got too bad. I promised myself I would re-read it to have it in my toolkit this semester.
Tech-ish
Against Optimized Efficiency: Why Foreign Language Learning Still Matters (Kit Pribble, Critical AI, April 1, 2026). The author argues that language is not code, like functionalists often believe. As all of us language teachers know, language proficiency entails an engagement with and openness that” lies in the capacity to engage meaningfully and intentionally with the target language, with a full understanding of the social and cultural beliefs and practices that language articulates”.
The Psychology of Technology: The Science We Need in the Age of AI (Nathanael Fast and Juliana Schroeder, Designing Tomorrow, June 3, 2026). The authors reflect on a decade leading the Psychology of Technology Institute, and warn that, as generative AI rapidly scales, developers must avoid pushing for optimization at the risk of eroding attention, trust, and mental health. They share their Institute’s framework for an interdisciplinary research program paired with proactive ethical interventions—including public tracking indices, ethical design standards, and evidence-backed policy.
Around the GLCA
In case you missed it, here is the recording of the most recent GLCA CTL program, Right on Time or Just in Time: Welcoming Students into Class with Larry Chavis (Kalamazoo College), Cory Christenson (Washington & Jefferson College) and Lew Ludwig (Denison University). Watch the recording and learn about strategies your colleagues have tried for beginning class in ways that help students feel welcome, engaged, and accountable to one another.
Editor: Colleen Monahan Smith, GLCA, [email protected]