Communal Learning/Teaching

Somewhere in my academic background I remember hearing about and experiencing communal learning. Communal learning had to do with working and/or living together to accomplish projects and learn about a particular subject with others. I remember this especially in some of my sociology classes and especially during my summers living at HoneyRock (For all you HoneyRockers my prayers are with you during this difficult time). Communal learning was always a challenge - but usually good. Learning from one another and learning together - with all of its challenges - brings a richness to the learning experience.

Today I experienced - for the first time - communal teaching. The faculty at Scott actually work together to design course curriculum, syllabi, and even finalize the grades in individual courses together. It was a lot of work and it was a long meeting - but it was a fantastic experience. For example it came to our attention that 2 or 3 students had missing assignments or slagging grades in more than one class. So we are going to follow up with those students individually. The consensus was "Humm, something must be happening in so and so's life. We need to find out what is going on." While I can never imagine a faculty meeting in the U.S> to review one-another's grades - I think some struggling North American students fall through the cracks because their faculty never take time to sit down together and compare the grades of all their students at one time.

By the way, having other faculty members look at your grades significantly decreases grade inflation. Several professors were told - you need to "mark harder. Surely ALL of your students aren't B+ or A- students." Grade inflation is a huge problem in North American institutions and I think something like communal teaching and grading would combat that problem.

Cool experience. Thought I'd share!

Thanks for all the well wishes and congratulations concerning the twins. We are thrilled, and I'm encouraging Jenny to make sure she takes some time off of her feet every day. Working on meals can be a full-day affair standing in the kitchen. We want to avoid her being on bed rest and/or having other health issues. Carrying twins is enough work as it is!

Love to you all,
Todd