teaching

12Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Teaching For Understanding: Challenging The Status Quo In Mathematics

Despite decades of reform efforts, mathematics teaching in the U.S. has changed little in the last century. As a result, it seems, American students have been left behind, now ranking 40th in the world in math literacy. Several state and national reform efforts have tried to improve things. The most recent Common Core standards had a great deal of promise with their focus on how to teach mathematics, but after several years, changes in teaching practices have been minimal. As an education researcher, I’ve observed teachers trying to implement reforms – often with limited success. They sometimes make changes that are more cosmetic than substantive (e.g., more student discussion and group activity), while failing to get at the heart of the matter: What does it truly mean to teach and lea...

Here’s What Won’t Work, And What Might – Lawsuits Over Bans On Teaching Critical Race Theory Are Coming

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, VIDEO REELS

Here’s What Won’t Work, And What Might – Lawsuits Over Bans On Teaching Critical Race Theory Are Coming

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida As states and school districts started threatening teachers with disciplinary action for teaching about systemic racism, the question naturally arose: Does this violate the teachers’ First Amendment rights? The First Amendment protects free speech against government punishment, outside of something as extreme as a threat of violence. A school district is a government agency. So anyone punished by a school district for nonthreatening speech seems to have the makings of a First Amendment case. But from years of teaching and researching First Amendment case law, I know that this is where things get complicated. Public school teachers are government employees. And thanks to a much-disputed Supreme Court decision from 15 years ago, government employees, ...

Living Through The Realities Of Pandemics And Inequality While Teaching About Them

29Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Living Through The Realities Of Pandemics And Inequality While Teaching About Them

Jodi Benenson and Tara Kolar Bryan are professors in the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska Omaha. In the fall of 2020 they coordinated a team-taught graduate-level course called Pandemics, Protest and Policy that centered around public policy and management issues happening in real time. Here, they answer five questions about what they learned. 1. How did you teach students about the pandemic while it’s happening? Tara Bryan: We wanted to respond to this unprecedented time in a way that can best serve our students and local community by making the most of our faculty’s related expertise. For example, our colleague Njoki Mwarumba taught about the history of pandemics. Bryce Hoflund shared recent research regarding how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting food insec...

Social Media Offers a New Teaching Tool for Black History

21Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Social Media Offers a New Teaching Tool for Black History

Race Women on Instagram spotlights generations of Black women trailblazers. Have you heard of Rosetta Douglass Sprague? I hadn’t. Then I came across a black-and-white photo on Instagram of a stately yet solemn-looking Black woman who lived during the 19th century that made me stop scrolling through my feed. It’s Black History Month, and here’s an image of someone, although similar to those of which I’m familiar—Ida B. Wells, Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth—I’d never seen. As I read the post, I learned that she was the daughter of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. But she was also a trailblazer of U.S. history in her own right. Although her name is rarely, if ever, mentioned, Sprague was a founding member the National Association of Colored Women, the largest federa...