The National Teaching & Learning Forum April 2013

The National Teaching & Learning Forum Insider In Wisconsin, where I live, it’s darn cold. We’ve had snow, but worse, we’ve had rain and so everything has a coating of ice. In walking anywhere, we concentrate a lot on not falling; so, we’re eagerly waiting for spring and just as eagerly looking for something worthwhile to take our minds off it all. Whether you’re in sunny California or ice bound, the current issue of the FORUM offers plenty to occupy your mind and heat up your thinking. Seriously, this issue of the well-known publication on college teaching and learning takes on some vital issues that have been difficult to digest, but important to the life of higher education. --James Rhem, Executive Editor Our current issue is now available online. Subscribers are reading our current issue! Read our Editor's Note online for free. FEATURED The issue begins with an interview with Alan Schoenfeld about his book How We Think: A Theory of Goal-Oriented Decision Making and its Educationa Applications. Schoenfeld, a professor of mathematics and education at UC-Berkeley, spent decades working with his Teacher Model Group analyzing video of expert teachers in the classroom in order to construct an empirical model of teaching. Far from offering a ‘how to’ pattern, Schoenfeld’s model, like Watson and Crick’s double helix, explains much but leaves open an infinite field of unique expression. The FORUM’s new “ CREATIVITY CAFÉ” authors discuss the difference between teaching creatively and teaching creativity. One entertains; the other empowers. RECURRENT Developer’s Diary Ed Nuhfer’s DEVELOPER’S DIARY continues an examination of the character of “metadisciplines.” This installment explores the deep differences between science and technology on the one hand and the commonalities within such seeming different disciplines as architecture and medicine. Techped Mike Roger’s TECHPED column pays a visit to Jose Bowen’s book Teaching Naked (which began as an article in the FORUM V16N1). What has technology done for teaching? How much is the right amount? Bowen thinks technology clarifies many aspects of what’s essential about teaching and can help purify the “naked” moments. Mike pretty much agrees. AD REM... Finally, remember those annoying “go-getters” who seemed about to game the system, figure out what the teacher wanted and win A’s without seeming to be too concerned about developing an abiding understanding of the material? Marilla Svinicki’s AD REM . . . column revisits the long held understanding of motivation for “performance” versus motivation for “understanding” and reports that new research finds a mix of these motivations may actually be best. So, she says, perhaps inviting a little competition in the classroom may be a good thing after all.   SPECIAL OFFER FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS Subscribe today and save 10% on personal print and online rates. Print subscriptions, regularly $59 USD, are only $53.10. Electronic subscriptions, regularly $59, are only $53.10 Use offer code NTLFW3 when you order online to guarantee your savings.                                            National Teaching & Learning Forum is a publication of:      Jossey-Bass/Wiley |  One Montgomery Street, Suite 1200  |  San Francisco, CA 94104      Phone: 888-378-2537  |  Fax: 888-481-2665  |  wiley.com

The National Teaching & Learning Forum April 2013