I’ve written before about the evils of grading (for example, see here and here), the main purpose of which is to make certifying students easy. Our current grading system in mathematics is counterproductive to learning (students are inhibited from engaging in essential learning activities out of the fear that is naturally induced by typical high-stakes … Read more
Dr. Brian Goldman is an emergency-room medical doctor and host of the excellent CBC radio program White Coat, Black Art. As I was tidying up some computer files I came across some notes from one of his CBC radio appearances from 18 May, 2011. Goldman was discussing mistakes in the context of medical practice, and … Read more
I recently finished reading Proofiness, written by Charles Seife, science writer and journalism professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, and it’s excellent. There are a number of glowing reviews out there (see Stephen Strogatz in the New York Times, John Allen Paulos in the Washington Post, Alexandra Witze in … Read more
On March 3rd, Diane Ravitch appeared on The Daily Show to promote her recent book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System (a New York Times review is here). It’s a great episode, and worth watching (here if you live in the U.S., here if you live in Canada). Ms. Ravitch discusses … Read more