DOES YOUR MAJOR MATTER
Since we are about to open registration for the Spring 2017 semester, I thought you might like related to that topic. June Y. Chu has an interesting take on student majors. "As an adviser to college-age students, it could be easy for me to say major in what you love and be done. Research shows that employers
often recruit for transferable skills, and there is no direct
correlation between one’s major and career. In fact, Forbes magazine
has presented research findings indicating that only 27 percent of
college graduates are working in a job that relates to their major. Google the phrase “Does your major matter?” and you will find that most
articles out there succinctly state, “Nope, doesn’t matter.” Yet,
sometimes, it does. To be better advisers, we need to consider the
cultural baggage a student brings to a conversation when discussing
their major."
NO LAUGHING MATTER
If you were not able to attend the classroom management faculty development session yesterday, we missed you. The good news is there are more sessions planned, so I encourage you to take a look at the events calendar. One of the topics we discussed was the use of humor in the classroom. Mary Bart offers her take on this teaching technique in a new post. She writes, "I am still pretty regularly criticized for my use of humor—I have been
known to use too much. The long-standing objection is that education is
serious business. It’s no laughing matter. Our goal is education; not
entertainment. Writing about the history of humor in the classroom,
Debra Korobkin notes that before the 20th century,
“collectively, teachers perceived instructing with a sense of humor as
unprofessional, uncontrolled, and undignified.” (p. 154) Use humor and
don’t expect to be taken as a serious professional. Some of that
thinking still lingers today." Continue reading here.
DECODING THE BRAIN
Scientists can now map what happens neurologically when new information
influences a person to change his or her mind, a finding that offers
more insight into the mechanics of learning according to a recent research paper. "At a fundamental level, it is difficult to measure what someone
knows," said co-author and psychology associate professor Alison
Preston. "In our new paper, we employ brain decoding techniques that
allow us deeper insight into the knowledge people have available to make
decisions. We were able to measure when a person's knowledge changes to
reflect new goals or opinions." The process, researchers said, involves two components of the brain
working together to update and "bias" conceptual knowledge with new
information to form new ideas. Continue reading here.
