Dustin Kidd

According to this post on USA Today , biology professor Dominique Homberger was removed from her courses mid-semester for grading too strictly. Homberger has taught at LSU for 30 years, is a full-professor, and has never received warnings or any other sort of intervention from the administration in the past. University's publish no guidelines on how many students should pass (or fail) a course in a given semester, nor are there established baselines for how much a passing student should learn. We rely on academic freedom and peer review: she has the freedom to set standards and devise methods; her peers are charged with reviewing her performance at various intervals (tenure, promotion, raises, etc.). This intervention by LSU administration undermines academic freedom and also undercuts the value of peer review. Personally, I am opposed to instructional styles that fail to challenge students and I am also opposed to challenging students through trickery. Our task is to promote ...

Increasingly, I find that some students use email as a way to get my approval for all creative decisions they have to make for their assignments. Obviously, we didn't have email when I was in college, so I have taken the emails for granted as a logical technological development. But now I'm paying more attention and putting my foot down at this abuse of emails. Students need to think for themselves, make their own decisions, and be prepared to face consequences. I don't think this warrants any new policy on the syllabus, but rather a deliberateness in my response. Instead of approving particular decisions, I'm going to respond to these questions with one of my own: What decision are leaning towards and why? Also, why are you hesitating? I can then focus on whether or not they are thinking about the subject on the right terms, but still require them to come to their own conclusions.

Produced this feedback for my students and thought other might find it useful. If you have additions, post 'em! Avoid parenthetical expressions. If it's worth saying, say it in the text of your paper. Most people skip over the parentheses as they read. Save parentheses for citations. Avoid lists and pairs that add text without adding meaning. Examples: "culture and society," "discussions and debates," "issues, topics, and themes." Use first and last name on first usage, and last name thereafter. People who; object that. The tendency is to use 'that' for everything, including people, resulting in statements such "people that like this TV show will...." Instead, phrase it as "people who like this TV show will...." Double-space everything, including footnotes, box quotes, and references. You should always double-space anything for which you will receive feedback. Set your word processor defaults to 12pt. Times New R...

Social theory can often feel too abstract for many students, particularly when it is disconnected from empirical research. These tricks have worked in my classroom to make the theory feel more tangible and more usable. 1. Coding the article. The basic components of a theory reading are often harder to find than those for a research article. Student readers may need extra help in finding those components so I push them to identify the following: The Question: The Assumptions: The Answer to the Question (presumably the argument): The Argumentation/Evidence (empirical, ideological, logical, practical?) The Conversation in Which it Operates: The Hook (what makes this answer to the question better and different?): The Irritation (What's under the author's craw? What pissed them off so much they had to write this piece?): Key Words with Definitions/Conceptualizations: 2. Mapping the Theory: I ask students to draw a map of the theoretical frame that is presented, identifying things ...

Today I'm examining the evaluations for my undergraduate course from last semester. The course is called Development of Sociological Thought, but it's basically the theory requirement for our sociology majors. The section was capped at 30. I pushed a few students with especially low grades to withdraw early. 25 students completed the course, of which 20 completed the evaluations. I should note that I ask students to complete evaluations at the beginning of class, rather than at the end. When students complete evaluations at the end of class, the form becomes the only barrier to leaving the classroom, so they tend to complete them fairly quickly. By distributing evaluations at the end of class, the forms become a way of delaying my lecture, so they are happy to take their time and give lots of thoughtful feedback. Here's the summary of the evaluations. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of students who made the comment. What worked well? Discussions (8) Fe...

Today, Temple released student evaluations from last semester. I taught two courses last semester--an upper-level undergraduate seminar on social theory and a graduate seminar on classical social theory. Reading evaluations can be tricky. The self-critical eye tends to be drawn towards particularly damning comments. The self-praising eye tends to be drawn towards comments that are especially kind. Either can lead to a distorted image of what actually happened in the classroom from the students' perspectives. The multiple choice items provide a better sense of the mean, but even this quantitative data can be misleading. My school places one of three letters next to the scores, indicating whether the number is in the upper levels (U), middle levels (M), or lower level (L). The assignment is based on the percentages in "strongly agree" (U), "disagree," and "strongly disagree" (L). But a professor who receives "agree" from 100% of his stu...

http://dustinkidd.blogspot.com 1. Business on Board : A function of the Arts and Business Council. Provides training to prospective board members and connects them with local arts organizations. 2. Philadelphia's Young Nonprofit Leaders : Provides training and resources for staff and volunteers, including board members, for local nonprofits. "Young" is broadly defined. 3. Blue Avocado : An online magazine about non-profit boards. 4. Board Cafe Archives : The predecessor to Blue Avocado. Has a nice section on recruitment and diversity. Here's a good one . 5. BoardnetUSA : A board recruitment and placement website. Like Monster.com for boards. 6. VolunteerMatch : Similar function to BoardNet. 7. Bridgestar : Connects corporate employees to nonprofit service. 8. Eide Bailley : Non-profit toolbox. Includes a nice short article about board service. 9. BoardSource : Recruitment and Orientation resources. More resources throughout the site. 10. Wharton Nonprofit Board...