Bill Goffe
@BillGoffe
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Avid traveler, Penn State economist, and a fan of evidence-based teaching methods.
Joined May 2012
I’m forming an “economics education writing group” for this summer. Such groups work as a commitment device to help academics write more. We’ll meet on Wednesdays on Zoom from 9am to 1pm (eastern time). For more information, please e-mail me at bill.goffe@psu.edu .
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I’m forming an “economics education writing group” for this spring. Such groups work as a commitment device to help academics write more (there is extensive literature on this point). We’ll meet on Fridays on Zoom from 9am to 1pm (eastern time). We’ll start on January 17 and.
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Generate videos in just a few seconds. Try Grok Imagine, free for a limited time.
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Despite having read this many times, I'm still inspired by this instructor's approach to teaching. In part, I'm thinking of work by @SChewPsych on how students can come to trust their instructors to be beneficent. "On the first day of class, I walk down off the stage to the.
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RT @PennStateEcon: Penn State Economics is hiring Teaching Faculty at the Assistant or Associate Level .
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Another teaching challenge.
Inattention (but not attention) is contagious in college students, and different than distraction
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Pleased to be leading this semester-long "class" for faculty on the fundamentals of cognitive science for college instructors. We're basing it off of a paper by @SChewPsych .
digital.la.psu.edu
A considerable amount is known about how humans learn, but this information is often unknown to college instructors. This endorsement experience will introduce instructors to some of these principles...
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The idea that we often avoid thinking is almost insulting, but as described here, there is a wealth of evidence this is true. To hopefully get my students to think, I pose challenging (clicker) questions in class. Hopefully this fulfills @DTWillingham's "conditions". More is in.
p. 1 of Why Don't Students Like School?: "Unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking.".
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I'm sure that this applies to college instruction as well. I'd argue that "deliberate practice" is a better instructional goal.
As many of us begin a new school year, it is a great time to read (or reread) this article from @HealJim and @C_Hendrick: Just because they’re engaged, it doesn’t mean they’re learning!
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Very interesting point on motivation -- no wonder so many college students seem to give up after a poor first exam. How might course be structured differently to give students some success early on? Here's some of the text (extracted with ChatGPT from this image):. "Evidence.
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Not surprising, but in this survey, 81% of those aged 18-29 feel they use their phones too much. I'll be paring this with a demo that illustrates a very large majority of us do not multitask well at all. The implication is that they need to be particularly careful about phone.
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There was a major solar storm the night of August 11-12 and it made an appearance over State College, PA (right in the middle of Pennsylvania). This was take with my phone, a Pixel 6 with its "Night Sight.". I was surprised that it showed up through the light pollution of
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Wish there was even discussion of this at the college level. Note this article has links to papers that find that classroom laptop use is associated with less learning.
"Teachers say that phone bans in the classroom have helped improve students’ ability to concentrate on their lessons and work in groups. Even so, the bans could have limited effect on the larger problem of technology in the classroom."
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And the correct link is . The link above is to another paper; sigh.
science.org
Two field studies suggest that giving college students greater autonomy can improve motivation and learning.
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Interesting paper -- offering more autonomy to college students can lead to higher attendance and more learning. The authors point out that offering autonomy to college students is something rarely discussed, despite ample evidence autonomy enhances motivation. The paper's.
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Interesting background info on first year college students. It reminds me of the work of @jean_twenge on how common adult activities are now starting later than they did with previous generations.
srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The social and historical contexts may influence the speed of development. In seven large, nationally representative surveys of U.S. adolescents 1976–2016 (N = 8.44 million, ages 13–19), fewer...
In 1976, 5% of high school seniors were 'straight edge' . No alcohol, no cigarettes, no marijuana in the prior month. In 2021, nearly 40% of high school seniors were straight edge.
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Cool idea -- a text that uses input from thousands of students on how they worked problems.
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This seems to be the latest word on the debate between students taking notes by hand or by typing. I was not aware that there was so much research in this area.
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Still in the Faroes and I took this picture of the village of Gasadalur with the Múlafossur Waterfall. I waited 2+ hours for the clouds to clear from the top of the hill, but it was a fine place to just be. I got very lucky with the bird to the left, but honestly many were
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