This is another post that I wrote after reading old papers written when I was a graduate student… this one from 1999. Our goal for students is typically understanding; we don’t want our students to simply recall, we hope to see in them knowledge of facts and comprehension on concepts. But maybe we don’t. Actually, Read More
195: Generative AI: We Are Getting What We Asked For I just finished reading of a pre-print paper on AI (Shaw & Nave, 2026). It is a paper I expect to be the subject of a longer post in the future, but I was struck by a sentence in the “Societal Implications” section of the Read More
194: Inquiry and Authentic Assessment I have been looking through old papers I wrote as an undergraduate and graduate student years ago… actually decades ago. In 1997, I enrolled in a curriculum development course and a graduate student, and made this observation: An inquiry-based science curriculum that includes authentic assessment is not familiar to most Read More
I once took a stand with a colleague against a program intended to encourage reading. I was responsible for managing the IT in the school along with my teaching duties and she was the school librarian. In this program, students read books, then took computer-based tests on the contents; students were expected to earn a specific number of points by passing tests each marking period. The librarian was frustrated by students asking for books Read More
I’m always interested in the idea of becoming educated. What exactly happens when we have truly learned something? This idea is opposed by other things that we conflate with learning. Inert learning is the opposite of what is learning to me, and we are all familiar with this as we forget what was on the Read More
I recently rediscovered a story from my teaching career decades ago. It was recalled in a paper written in the after 1990s while working on my master’s degree. The course was “Reading and Writing in the Content Areas,” and I was describing a situation in my grade 7 math classroom. “Today in class, we started talking about triangles. I put on the Read More
In 1989, I was preparing to participate in a science curriculum project; actually, I was invited to chair the committee, but the curriculum coordinator decided it would be very unpopular to have a first-year teacher assume that role. I did reflect on the work the committee was going to undertake, and this post contains a Read More
Recently, I have been looking through some writing I did in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some of it is not noteworthy but some if it is. This post is drawn from a note I made in the spring of 1993. Science fair projects are a staple of science teaching (or at least it Read More
Standards are collections of actions that are undertaken by organizations to ensure they are aligned with the actions that should be taken by similar organizations. Many who work in information technology in the United Stated are familiar with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which defines the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) to help organizations manage and reduce cybersecurity risks. In education, there Read More
I colleague asked for my take on the difference between the two. I figured it mught be an interest post for my blog too. Design Versus Planning When I was an undergraduate student studying to become an educator, my peers and I took great pride in our lesson planning. When I was a graduate student Read More