CETL in the News - February and March Roundup

This spring, CETL staff continued sharing their expertise in teaching and learning with the broader education community.

This big news this spring was, of course, our fearless leader Josh Eyler’s presentation at SXSW EDU in Austin, Texas, in March! Josh presented “Scarlet Letters: Fixing the Problem of Grades” at one of the biggest education conferences in the world, and we’re all very proud of him! You can read Josh’s reflections on his SXSW EDU experience over on his blog.

Photo by Stephanie Fuqua

Josh was also busy writing in support of his forthcoming book Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students and What We Can Do about It with not one, but two essays in The Saturday Evening Post this spring. “The Origin of Grades in American Schools” notes how grades haven’t changed much since Ezra Stiles introduced them at Yale University two centuries ago. “The Holdovers and What It Means to Be a Great Teacher” shares some lessons on teaching from the recent Paul Giamatti movie The Holdovers.

Meanwhile, CETL associate director Liz Norell had a piece published in the personal narrative section of the Journal for Research and Practice in College Teaching. In “Neurodivergence Welcome Here,” Liz shares how her own diagnosis of autism helped her create a more inclusive, welcoming classroom environment for her students by reframing a seemingly “disruptive” behavior. Liz shared more hard stories from her career during an interview on failure that appeared in Joshua Kim’s Learning Innovation blog on Inside Higher Ed. And she continued to explore these themes in her recent appearance on the Think UDL (Universal Design for Learning) podcast in an episode about reflection, curiosity, and psychological safety. So many students and teachers have benefitted from Liz’s vulnerability, and we’re proud to have her on the CETL team.