Headagogy, with Steve Pearlman

Steve welcomes the University of Wyoming's own TK Stoudt and his students, Amy Bezzant, Maddy Davis, and James Roberts.  Hear about the triumph (and trials!) of peer assessment from an educator who's newer to implementing it, and from students who encountered it for the first time.  What really happens when we give Excalibur to Uryens?  Why should you have a campfire in your classroom?Should Maddie marry an NFL player?Learn the answers to all that and more!

Ken Bain, author  of  What the Best College Teachers Do and What the Best College Students Do, joins Headagogy to discuss his latest book, Super Courses: The Future of Teaching and Learning.  The discussion with Bain not only delves into examples of these courses and their relationship with problem based learning, but also into critical ideas for teaching and learning, such as why "expectation failure" is so absolutely critical.  Learn the steps you need to take to start your own "super course."

In this concluding episode on peer assessment, Steve conveys the research on peer assessment, learning outcomes, and soft skills.  There should be no doubts about its value, especially, in the words of Walter Lippman, "It takes wisdom to understand wisdom. The music means nothing if the audience is deaf."

Continuing his assessment into peer assessment as an important method of ungrading, Steve not only talks about how he implements it, but several other important issues, such as how peer assessment:De-emphasizes the focus on gradesRelieves students' stressFosters democratic ideals and an empowered populous, andIMPROVES learning outcomes.

In this first episode of a three part series, Steve delves into the hot topic of "ungrading" with a focus on the particular and unique value that involving students in assessment brings to the greater ungrading discussion.  Learn more about grades as the locus of power in academia, the unconscious forces behind grades, students' literal capacity (or lack thereof) to understand grades, the relationship between grades and social constructionism, and, most importantly, the movie, Excalibur.  

The continuation of the interview with Kieran O'Mahony.

This interview with Kieran delves into fascinating neuroscience about learning that can help transform what we do in our classrooms through understanding things like the Reticular Activating System, working memory, and neurotransmitters.  Kieran offers concrete things every educator can immediately adapt in order to improve their learning outcomes and their students' enjoyment of education.  At the same time, the interview delves into the remarkable ways our educational system, including practices still in place today, dis-formed itself around misunderstandings of scientific findings by the likes of B.F. Skinner, E.L. Thorndike, and Marion Diamond (to name a few).  

What is the relationship between STEM and creativity?  Or, at least, what's the perceived relationship?  And what happens when we invest millions of dollars and years of effort to improving STEM educational practices?  What happens cognitively when we do it well for just a few months?  All that and more, including a shoutout to Louisiana.

Steve interviews Dr. Cornelius N. Grove about his most recent book, A Mirror for Americans, which delves into the research as to why students in East Asia invariably outperform American students on international tests.  The discussion explores myths about education in East Asia, such as the misconception about drilling, and delves into educational and cultural differences that make students in East Asia so successful.  This podcast provides a wonderful mirror for American educators by establishing East Asian practices as a point of contrast and thus elucidating tacit assumptions we hold about education, assumptions we might otherwise overlook.

Steve tackles some of the controversy around Critical Race Theory (CRT), in part by examining its lineage back to critical theory and critical pedagogy.  In doing so, he delves into broader question of how power is wielded in the academy, and what the academy is as a power structure.  Curiously, also, Ferris Bueller.