Bill Goffe

I’m forming an “economics education writing group” for this summer. Such groups work as a commitment device to help academics write more. We’ll meet on Wednesdays on Zoom from 9am to 1pm (eastern time). For more information, please e-mail me at [email protected] .

I’m forming an “economics education writing group” for this fall. Such groups work as a commitment device to help academics write more. We’ll meet on Wednesdays on Zoom from 9am to 11am (eastern time). For more information, please e-mail me at [email protected] .

I’m forming an “economics education writing group” for this spring. Such groups work as a commitment device to help academics write more (there is extensive literature on this point). We’ll meet on Fridays on Zoom from 9am to 1pm (eastern time). We’ll start on January 17 and end on May 2. I hope that participants will attend for at least two hours; the time should enable West Coast economists to participate for this long. We’ll also have weekly readings and brief discussions on scholarly writing. For more information, please e-mail me at [email protected] . #teachecon

Despite having read this many times, I'm still inspired by this instructor's approach to teaching. In part, I'm thinking of work by @SChewPsych on how students can come to trust their instructors to be beneficent. "On the first day of class, I walk down off the stage to the middle of the auditorium and say, ‘I’m on your side. I’m not up there — I’m down here. I want you to know how important it is to me that you be successful." news.utexas.edu/2019/09/19/n…

Another teaching challenge.

Pleased to be leading this semester-long "class" for faculty on the fundamentals of cognitive science for college instructors. We're basing it off of a paper by @SChewPsych . digital.la.psu.edu/cognitive…

The idea that we often avoid thinking is almost insulting, but as described here, there is a wealth of evidence this is true. To hopefully get my students to think, I pose challenging (clicker) questions in class. Hopefully this fulfills @DTWillingham's "conditions". More is in Ch. 1 of his book, "Why Don't Students Like School."

I'm sure that this applies to college instruction as well. I'd argue that "deliberate practice" is a better instructional goal.

Very interesting point on motivation -- no wonder so many college students seem to give up after a poor first exam. How might course be structured differently to give students some success early on? Here's some of the text (extracted with ChatGPT from this image): "Evidence suggests that personal interest is very closely related to experiencing a sense of success. We become motivated by becoming better at something. This has two main implications. Firstly, as much as a teacher may be focused on making a concept interesting, it is even more important to teach it effectively so that students achieve success and feel they are improving. It also suggests that motivation is within an individual’s control and something they can decide to develop. Imagine a person who starts running. After a little persistence, they will begin to see their times reduce or their distance increase and this will become motivating. Similarly, students can use the study skills we have taught them to work hard at a subject, improve their understanding and gain that sense of motivation."

Not surprising, but in this survey, 81% of those aged 18-29 feel they use their phones too much. I'll be paring this with a demo that illustrates a very large majority of us do not multitask well at all. The implication is that they need to be particularly careful about phone use in class. I also plan to use a feature of @iclicker Cloud that records how much class time is spent on phones that is not class related. news.gallup.com/poll/393785/…

There was a major solar storm the night of August 11-12 and it made an appearance over State College, PA (right in the middle of Pennsylvania). This was take with my phone, a Pixel 6 with its "Night Sight." I was surprised that it showed up through the light pollution of State College. With my eyes, I could get hints of the red and I could easily see the upward pointing streaks. For locals, this was taken on Nixon Road not far from Sunday Drive. As a plus, I was able to see a few of the Perseid meteors (but no pics). Maybe of interest to @TamithaSkov #aurora #Auroraborealis #northernlights

Wish there was even discussion of this at the college level. Note this article has links to papers that find that classroom laptop use is associated with less learning.

Interesting background info on first year college students. It reminds me of the work of @jean_twenge on how common adult activities are now starting later than they did with previous generations. srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com…

Cool idea -- a text that uses input from thousands of students on how they worked problems. pearson.com/en-us/subject-ca…

This seems to be the latest word on the debate between students taking notes by hand or by typing. I was not aware that there was so much research in this area.