Brandon Witherow contemplates their relations.
academics
The Last Work of a Student or the First of a Scholar?
That slogan puzzled me the first few times I heard it but I think I understand it more clearly now. I was puzzled because the word “scholar” means “student.” It’s a Latin word derived from the noun Schola or school. A scholar . . . Continue reading →
Advice Regarding Your MA (Historical Theology) Thesis
[Written originally June, 2011] Students frequently ask the same questions when beginning their MA (Historical Theology) thesis. They are not certain where to begin. The prospect of a 30,000 word project itself seems daunting and then there is the problem of choosing . . . Continue reading →
What Do Profs Do?
Darry Sragow is in the news and not in a good way. Watch the video of what Mediaite calls his his “greatest hits” below. What most of the media coverage has missed so far, is that he’s more than a political science prof, he’s . . . Continue reading →
Selling Short
My argument is not that learned monographs have no value (of course they do, whether widely read or not), or that blog posts are somehow superior as “scholarship” (of course they’re not), but simply that we might be selling online publications short . . . Continue reading →
Get Thee To A Library
Reading online is great. It’s fast. It’s convenient. It’s accessible but there’s still a lot of important information that you can’t get from the web. I’m not writing against e-books, even though they still have weaknesses (e.g., footnotes don’t work and reading . . . Continue reading →
Taking Notes By Hand Works Best
Pop quizzes, of course, are not the best measure of learning, which is an iterative and reflective process. Recent Princeton University and University of California studies took this into account while investigating the differences between note-taking on a laptop and note-taking by . . . Continue reading →
Ambivalence About Student Evaluations
Student ratings continue to be the source of information most widely used to assess teaching. The use of written, formal student ratings increased from 88.1 to 94.2 percent over the ten-year period. A dean in Texas wrote, “Students are the most accurate . . . Continue reading →
Who Should Go To Seminary?
Dan writes to ask this question. It’s a good and important question and the answer is in two parts: anyone but not everyone. First, anyone may go to seminary. Since I teach at a seminary and I know how we operate, I’ll . . . Continue reading →
Clear Evidence Of Declining Academic Standards
In classics, two major changes were made. The “classics” track, which required an intermediate proficiency in Greek or Latin to enter the concentration, was eliminated, as was the requirement for students to take Greek or Latin. Students still are encouraged to take . . . Continue reading →
Get Thee To A Library
Reading online is great. It is fast. It is convenient. It is accessible. There is still, however, a lot of important information that you cannot get from the Web. I am not writing against e-books, even though they too have weaknesses (e.g., . . . Continue reading →