The World of Scholarly Thinkers!
I remember December of 1988 pretty well. I was graduating from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor’s degree. The doctoral candidates were getting ready to file across the stage. Dr. Alfred Hurley was speaking to the group and and the end he said, “Welcome to the world of scholarly thinkers.” I had a thought about that then… what have I been doing? Dr. Hurley had obviously never taken Dr. Lott’s anatomy or physiology class!
Fast forward to August of 1993. I was graduating from the University of North Texas with a Master’s Degree. As the doctoral candidates were preparing to file across the stage, Dr. Alfred Hurley was speaking to them and said, “Welcome to the world of scholarly thinkers.” Again, I wondered… what have I been doing? Dr. Hurley hadn’t been in my cardiovascular exercise physiology class.
Fast forward to today. I started a residency for my doctorate. I’m starting to understand what Dr. Hurley was speaking about on both of those occasions. This program in it’s design is very rigorous. The drop out rate for most doctoral programs is around 50%. My group of five, we are committed to finishing this work in three years.
Welcome to the world of scholarly thinkers… kinda scary.
My cohort…
Greg Bicknell (me)
Angie Bicknell (my beautiful and extremely intelligent wife)
Phyllis Scott
Sharon Brodin
Cheryl Schwaebler
Pencil in February 2011 for our commencement exercises… only about 1096 days… done before you know it.
Higher Ed. – Engaged Learning – Part II
As I was reading my e-mail yesterday I came across the e-letter from the President of the University of North Texas. Not that we are close, I’m just a number on a list of alumni that receive the information. I do like reading about my alma mater and supporting the university in any way that I can.
In this article President Bataille says,
“the days of the “sage on the stage” are nearing an end. At UNT, a group of faculty members are leading the nation in an effort to redesign the way some large-enrollment courses are taught to undergraduate students. Successfully focusing large-enrollment undergraduate courses to be more student centered is a nationwide challenge and the need to create assessment-driven alternatives to current practice is a concern for the entire higher education community.”
It’s good to see that the university is looking to create assessment-driven alternatives. It’s good to see that the faculty is involved. It’s about time. Those mass classes for so long have been known as the weeder classes. Weeding out those students who didn’t “belong” in higher education. I remember struggling through a few of those classes as I had no interest in them. I hope we at the elementary and secondary school level can lead the way for the universities to get better! That is my hope!
So, President Bataille if you are listening, how about that interview? It only takes about two minutes and I will spot you the first question! Do you know who Lane Ledbetter is?
Higher Ed… Engaged Learning?
I am enjoying the time I get off this summer. This morning I was reminded of the work that still needs to be done. I was reminded by an email that I received from my alma mater about how teaching needs to change, about how the sage on the stage is not what should be happening. My alma mater, The University of North Texas, is changing the way things are being done in the large section classes. You remember those classes… you were number 27 or 156 or worse 315 of 517. Having skimmed the article it sounds like they are changing higher ed in much the same way we would like to transform our schools… more on this later. I wonder if I can get in for an interview?
