Promoting Significant Learning - 30 January 2012

Promoting Significant Learning


In the days of our students’ parents and grandparents, learners thrived on memorization, mostly out of context. Much learning was abstract, theoretical, dry, and irrelevant to people’s careers or everyday lives. Teachers clung to their “content” as if it were Holy Scripture that could not but benefit their pupils. Times have changed though, and that type of education is now considered inappropriate.

Researchers have realized that what engages students is the usefulness of the knowledge gained and the likelihood that it will impact others. That is why teachers these days are expected to demonstrate the relevance of their courses to their students, promoting creative applications. Showing students the significance of a course promotes intrinsic motivation. An excellent definition of significant learning comes from Dr. L. Dee Fink, author of the book Creating Significant Learning Experiences. Dr Fink came up with a “Taxonomy of Significant Learning”, which he sees as a successor to the classic taxonomy of cognitive skills developed by Benjamin Bloom and his associates in the 1950s. In his view, “individuals and organizations involved in higher education are expressing a need for important kinds of learning that do not emerge easily from the Bloom taxonomy, for example: learning how to learn, leadership and interpersonal skills, ethics, communication skills, character, tolerance, the ability to adapt to change, etc.” (“What Is Significant Learning?”).

Fink’s taxonomy revolves around the following kinds of learning:

• Foundational knowledge

• Application

• Integration

• The human dimension

• Caring

• Learning how to learn

In a recent interview, Fink elaborated on the importance of the shift from the content-centred approach to a learning-centred approach, stressing the need for change not just at the classroom level, but also at the organizational and national levels ("Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An HETL Interview with Dr. Dee Fink"). If you’re an educator still stuck on Bloom’s ideas, read Fink’s work. You’ll surely find it significant.


Posted by May Mikati on 30 January 2012, 2:36 PM

Are Books Out of Fashion? - 26 January 2012

Are Books Out of Fashion?


Are books out of fashion? Five years ago, Thomas Benton, a college English lecturer observed that “The library -- perhaps like the human body -- must be purged of its decadent physicality and relocated into the realm of pure intellect, pure information, pure rationality, eternally updated, preserved as an endless stream of instantaneous electronic data” (“Red-Hot Library Lust”). Back then, researchers were wondering whether print books would still be available in five years’ time: “Does print really have an anticipated life span of five more years? Will e-books finally take off? After nearly two decades of talking about how e-books are right around the corner, have we finally reached the corner?” (Nelson, "E-Books in Higher Education: Nearing the End of the Era of Hype?")

Electronic publishing clearly is not erasing books in the sense of content; on the net, even “old books” are available. Online one can find old, out of print, and rare books, in electronic form. It’s not just a matter of hard copy versus electronic books though: people prefer shorter texts these days, and they read in a different way. Our students are an excellent example. They skim, scan, and read small chunks of text, unlike previous generations. Their preference seems to be for information from web sites rather than books, whether electronic or hard copy; the wider web is more appealing to them in its immediacy than the e-book section of the online library, just a few more clicks away. On the other hand, some academics claim “We're Still in Love With Books”; the transition away from old-fashioned reading has been slower than anticipated. As William Pannapacker put it, when new media emerge, they do not immediately replace old media.


Posted by May Mikati on 26 January 2012, 11:08 AM

In Defense of Cheating? - 20 January 2012

In Defense of Cheating?


One of my favourite essays on contemporary approaches to assessment is Donald Norman’s “In Defense of Cheating”. First of all, the title is clever, and secondly, the message is well thought out: change the educational system instead of accusing students of cheating; they only “cheat” because of the way they are taught and assessed. Emulate real life by replacing memorization and individual work with engaging activities and more collaborative work.

Norman emphasizes from the beginning of his article that his purpose is not to encourage deception but to reform the outdated curriculum and assessment practices. In his view, eliminating the need to “cheat” is more important than punishing students after the act. Prevention is better than cure. Changing the instructional philosophies is a must to avoid situations where “students cram for exams, regurgitate the material at exam time, and seldom retain it afterwards.” He underlines the need to emphasize processes – giving students credit for the way they reach their answers, including collaborative work (required in the workplace), and stressing comprehension rather than seeking answers in a vacuum.

Next Norman discusses plagiarism and grading. On plagiarism he has something clear to say: “The sin of plagiarization is not that it involves copying -- this should be rewarded -- but that it doesn't give credit for the originator.” I have to admit that while “copying” is not necessarily as great an idea as Norman makes it sound, using and acknowledging sources is an important skill, not just in academic work, but in real life. What he probably means is that the worst part of plagiarism is the unethical claiming of others’ ideas or work as one’s own. As for grading, Norman is opposed to the way it is done on a curve rather than for mastery: currently, “a person can only get a higher grade if someone else receives a lower grade.” He prefers a system where competition is de-emphasized, and absolute standards are spelled out, even if that means everyone receiving an A. Additionally, he proposes dividing the curriculum into modules that students can master at their own pace: “Admission to higher grades or to universities -- or even employment -- could be based upon what students know. Schools or employers would not look at grade point averages, rather they would judge students by their particular skills, by their ability to work in teams, and by the set of modules that they have mastered."

“In Defense of Cheating” should not fail to grab the attention of educators, employers, or – of course – students!


Posted by May Mikati on 20 January 2012, 1:02 PM

The Psychology of Projection - 13 January 2012

The Psychology of Projection


I recently came across this well-expressed observation on Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Facebook page and have been mulling over it ever since: “Persistently viewing others as dishonest, lazy, sinful, and ignorant can be a way of compensating for something you fear. If there's a pattern of seeing others as failures, you need to notice this pattern as evidence of what you're attracting into your life.”

The first part of Dyer’s statement struck me because I have encountered suspicious, cynical people who have turned out to be unscrupulous themselves. The psychological mechanism at work in their case is known as “projection” – such people often project their own shortcomings on others. You may encounter these individuals anywhere: at school, in the workplace, and in society at large. The lazy may suspect hard working people of laziness; cheats may see honest people as probable cheats, etc. This phenomenon, first identified by Freud as a psychological defence mechanism, is generally thought to be unconscious. Mentally ill people, especially paranoid schizophrenics, are notorious for their displays of projection. The second part of the statement also rang true because even if those around you are actual – rather than imagined - failures, it would only be fair to ask yourself why you are in that situation: why haven’t you managed to attract better people into your life? Couldn’t you be partly to blame? Could you have possibly even caused others' failure? These are interesting questions to ponder for people in the workplace in general, and in education in particular.


Posted by May Mikati on 13 January 2012, 11:55 PM

What Employers Expect from Our Graduates - 08 January 2012

What Employers Expect from Our Graduates


Our students want an education that satisfies the requirements of potential employers, but what do employers look for in fresh graduates these days? Globally, employers may be shifting their attention from grades and experience to softer qualities, and communication skills appear to be the top requirement. In the U.S., writing skills are a “threshold requirement” as reflected in a 2004 report of The National Commission on Writing: “Writing: A Ticket to Work … Or a Ticket Out” .

A recent survey by the National University of Singapore Careers Centre also ranked communication at the top of the requirements list, based on the responses of 118 companies. This was done as part of the Graduate Global Talent Development Programme (GGTP) – a new initiative by NUS to produce global-minded graduates. The other top criteria identified were passion, analytical thinking, interpersonal skills, and the desire to learn (see Andrew Abraham’s “Top 5 Qualities Employers Seek in Fresh Graduates”). In Australasia, similar results were obtained. Based on a 2010 Graduate Outlook Survey of 350 graduate employers, the list of employer criteria other than communication skills does include academic results and experience. However, these rank fourth and sixth respectively (see “Skills Employers Want” ). Likewise, U.K. companies seek soft skills, which they often find lacking in fresh graduates, according to a study by Industry in Education, a national education trust: employers "are looking as much (or more) at personal skills for immediate deployment, as they will be at the specialist content of the degree" ("Graduate Job Seekers 'Lack Personal and Interactive Skills' Demanded by Industry").

With the increasing massification of higher education, finding the right job is no longer a piece of cake for the average university graduate. In an increasingly competitive global job market, it is useful for students to know the variety of qualities they should cultivate in order to strike the right chords with potential employers. It is also important that educators integrate these soft skills into their teaching, or at least bring them more to light.


Posted by May Mikati on 08 January 2012, 6:57 PM

Are Faculty Members Like Cats? - 26 December 2011

Are Faculty Members Like Cats?


If you go to Google and type in “Managing people is like”, the rest of the sentence will come out as “herding cats”. If you then replace the word “people” with “lawyers”, you will get hundreds of hits; replacing it with “scientists” gives a few dozen. Try “students” instead, and you’ll get around sixty hits. With “academics”, “faculty”, “faculty members”, “professors” and “teachers”, you get hundreds. The idea of faculty members being described by deans and other administrators as cat-like is quite intriguing. I was surprised when I heard the expression used in the UK not long ago, but it turns out that it’s so commonly used in the English speaking world that it has lately become a cliché.

Why do administrators in western universities liken faculty members to cats? Judging from various internet sources, it appears that administrators are annoyed by the independence of the teaching staff, not to mention other qualities such as shrewdness, suspiciousness and resistance to change. One university president recently remarked that “Faculty members are professional contrarians, and the academy rewards them for it by giving them tenure.…When you finally give in to the contrarians, they can't take ‘yes’ for an answer” (see "Shared Faculty Governance: An Essential Institution" ). The theme of resistance to change recurs in various sources. Suzanne Lohmann once emphasized this in a paper entitled “Herding Cats, Moving Cemeteries, and Hauling Academic Trunks: Why Change Comes Hard to the University”. In that paper she referred to the difficulty of managing faculty, changing the curriculum, and promoting change in general in American universities: “Just like private corporations, institutions of higher education grapple with a combination of external forces that are pushing for change and internal forces that are resisting change, except that these two sets of forces are magnified in the case of the university.”

From personal experience working as a course coordinator, I can confirm that managing people is not a walk in the park, but I do not think that faculty members have special feline qualities that other people lack. The fact that the same metaphor is used for other categories of people proves it.


Posted by May Mikati on 26 December 2011, 6:41 PM

Reflecting on Student Expectations - 28 November 2011

Reflecting on Student Expectations


Other than high grades, what do university students want from their educational institutions in general and their teachers in particular? Decades of teaching experience combined with a broad internet search should give a clue.

It is unwise to over-generalize about students as the composition of any institution is rarely homogeneous. Besides, individual students change their expectations over time. Still, there may be common denominators shining through. One such commonality, especially in Western-style institutions is the perception that students are customers/clients of their academic institutions, that they have “customer rights”, and that they are justified in demanding a service that meets their expectations. Besides being subject matter experts, students expect their teachers to be skilled communicators; to be enthusiastic about the subject matter, motivating their students; to structure courses effectively, and support students in their learning. Other demands include friendliness, linking the subject matter to the workplace, giving clear instructions, showing interest in individual students, and giving prompt, high quality feedback.

In a recent study at Memorial University, researchers isolated dozens of adjectives for effective university teachers from various student survey responses. Further analysis revealed that the following characteristics were considered the most important by the majority, whether in conventional or online teaching: respectful, knowledgeable, approachable, engaging, communicative, organized, responsive, professional and humorous (“Students' Perceptions of Teaching in Higher Education”).

A short video by the Bok Center reflects some of the above points well, based on the views of forty Harvard undergraduates. Additional requirements are energy, enjoyment, clarity and step by step explanations. One warning though: “an entertaining professor does not make a good class” ("What Students Want: Teaching from a Student's Perspective").

A Berkeley article entitled “What do Students Want?” captures the essence of students’ expectations from a university in general: research possibilities, the right major, and effective advising. As one Berkeley student put it, however, “academic momentum” is critical: "That first A+ really gets the ball rolling!"


Posted by May Mikati on 28 November 2011, 10:28 PM


Feedback

I was just organizing my schedule for next semester. I totally agree with what is said above. Though some students have an active social life and just want an easy course that will give them an easy 80, I think I prefer a course with a professor that is engaging and evaluates students based on how much effort they put into the course(attendes, attentive, does homework regularly). As for major courses(especially if its a tough major like Engineering) I think students look for the professor that would give grades but at the same time explains well and is available to answer questions always in case it is the kind of material that would be used frequently in the future. Humor is a plus, but not for professors that use their humor in a disrespectful way...

Engineering Student | 10 December 2011, 9:24 PM


Thank you for the feedback. It's good that this blog is becoming more interactive. Besides, student input is definitely relevant here.

May Mikati | 29 December 2011, 2:18 PM


2 comments

Reckless Words Pierce Like a Sword - 07 November 2011

Reckless Words Pierce Like a Sword


The power of words is a mystifying thing. Gossip, for example, has been described as a form of verbal terrorism. Well known proverbs reflect how words can be a two-edged sword:
• Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. – Proverbs 15:4
•The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. – Proverbs 12: 18

Then there is this English maxim emphasizing that you do not need harsh words to get your point across in an argument; mild words can be more persuasive:
•Use soft words and hard arguments.

A Chinese proverb confirms this:
• Harsh words and poor reasoning never settle anything.

What else has rightly been said about words? Here are some Arabic sayings:
• If words are of silver, then silence is of gold. (One must be careful not to overgeneralize this though as in some situations silence might signal cowardice or capitulation.)
• Lies are the plague of speech.
• Proverbs are the lamp of speech.

Another adage, often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, applies to many contexts (as technical communication students will agree):
• A picture is worth a thousand words.

The list is endless, but these Latin proverbs are especially noteworthy:
• Dictum sapienti sat est: A word to the wise is sufficient.
•Vox audita perit littera scripta manet: The spoken word perishes, the written words remain.
•Acta non verba: Deeds, not words.
• Sunt facta verbis difficiliora: Works are harder than words - i.e. "Easier said than done."
• Verba docent, exempla trahunt: Words instruct, illustrations lead.

This short video illustrates how words can change a message: "The Power of Words".

Finally, Rudyard Kipling once noted that "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."

Stay tuned for more words.


Posted by May Mikati on 07 November 2011, 1:16 PM

Post Nubila Phoebus - 01 November 2011

Post Nubila Phoebus


The Latin proverb “post nubila Phoebus” should, in my view, be applied to the internet, imbuing the proverb with a different, contemporary meaning.

In the old proverb, Phoebus, another name for the sun god Apollo, represents the sun (hope), and the clouds represent hardship or trouble; the translation of this proverb is therefore “after the clouds, the sun”/ after trouble, hope. On the other hand, now that, as you know, the cloud is used as a metaphor for the internet, a new proverb can be coined, meaning “after the internet, hope, knowledge or truth”; besides hope, the sun has, since the days of Plato, also represented intellectual illumination.

Whether in student learning, teaching, or any other profession - barring abuse - the access to information that the internet provides represents hope, and the transparency it gives to thoughts and processes is the key to knowledge or truth.


Posted by May Mikati on 01 November 2011, 6:18 PM

Top Liberal Arts Blogs - 31 October 2011

Top Liberal Arts Blogs


The web site University Reviews Online lists “The Top 100 Liberal Arts Blogs”. The chosen blogs are arranged under the following subjects: Arts, Economics, Education, English, History, Math, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Political Science, Science, Sociology, and Theology. A blog entitled “Dangerously Irrelevant”, by Dr. Scott McLeod, an Education Professor at Iowa University, is described as “one of the most popular edublogs on the net”. It should be of interest not only to students and teachers of education, but to anyone involved in one way or another in education or instructional technology. For example, a recent post outlines “5 key trends for the future of education”: openness (open access for academic research and greater transparency in teaching); greater transparency of the knowledge creation process (i.e. openness about how articles, books, etc. are synthesized); mobile learning; alternative forms of assessment; and alternative classroom environments.

Another impressive education blog, Pedablogue, by Michael Arnzen, includes an interesting “Student Outcomes” section, with videos of former students discussing their current career status in relation to their past education: “‘Student Outcomes’ is a continuing series of interviews with my former students who are now experiencing ‘real life’ after college. Considering how much of our work is based on the assumption that ‘learning outcomes’ will be met, I thought it would be a good way to catch up with them and to see what sort of impact college has had on their lives in the long term”. Not a bad idea.

The list of English academics’ blogs is longer and more varied, encompassing bloggers such as confessed conservatives and alleged feminists. It also includes a self-proclaimed snob who begins one posting with the sentence “There are times when I'm confronted by my own snobbery” – in reference to having hesitantly applied for a non-academic summer job once. A number of these blogs appear to be anonymous, and a few are inappropriately personal.

The ranking of the above sites as “top” academic blogs was last done in 2005. Some may have drifted since then. Overall, not a bad listing though.


Posted by May Mikati on 31 October 2011, 8:39 PM

Reflecting on Teacher Blogs - 05 October 2011

Reflecting on Teacher Blogs


Lately I’ve been looking at a variety of teachers’ blogs. It’s useful to see what others are doing. The blogs I encountered range from the most personal/informal to the clearly professional.

One of the professional blogs I found is owned by a retired college English teacher; the years of experience must help with the generation of ideas. In “Ask the English Teacher”, the writer focuses on the language much more than on himself. The titles of his posts clearly indicate this: “A Lost American Accent”, “How to Pronounce ‘the’”, “Original English”, “Capitalizing Proper Nouns …or Not?” etc.

Another interesting blog belongs to a school teacher who writes about technology in the English classroom. You will notice, however, that the writer of “Enhanced English Teacher” indicates that she is not posting much because she is busy, and seems to have turned to Twitter instead since 2010. Clearly tweeting is much easier for busy teachers than full-fledged blogging. Some less formal, more personal blogs include the following: “Hipteacher”, by a writer, teacher, and educational consultant; “ESL Blogs from English Teachers in Asia”; and “Ranting Teacher” by yet another busy educator who has recently turned to Twitter. The lines between the professional and the personal can be blurry as in “Jimbo’s English Teaching in Japan” - and at the extreme of informality (and possibly lack of professionalism) are blogs that can have negative repercussions on the writers’ careers, as indicated in this article about a suspended teacher: “Blogging High School Teacher Has No Job - and No Regrets”.

While blogging is still thriving, one conclusion seems to be that it is giving way to tweeting in some cases, but tweeting is micro-blogging, so any talk of the death of blogging is premature and possibly flawed. For now, I shall stick to blogging as it is more expressive in my view. Still, writing a blog is not an easy business. It requires time, tact, and perseverance, and it is more likely to be successful if it is reader-centered.


Posted by May Mikati on 05 October 2011, 9:54 PM

English Mania Now - What Next? - 21 September 2011

English Mania Now - What Next?


In 2009 the American entrepreneur Jay Walker argued that the world’s mania for learning English is good because English “represents hope for the future” as the language of global problem-solving. In his talk “The World’s English Mania” he gave the example of Chinese students manically learning English in order to better their prospects - and here is a link to a transcript of the talk in case the video is inaccessible: http://dotsub.com/view/2b38ad8e-fd71-4f90-9534-40b3000f6a24/viewTranscript/eng. Knowing that English is currently the language of business, science, and diplomacy, many listeners would probably agree.

What Walker forgot to mention, ironically, is that the Chinese language Mandarin is one of the fastest growing languages in the world. Perhaps he was thinking only of the near future. In contrast, the British linguist David Graddol had taken a more far-sighted view of the issue as far back as 2006. In his book English Next he pointed out that global English may be a passing phase with the rise of other languages such as Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic. In fact, according to his research, Arabic seems to be the fastest growing language currently, demographically speaking, though even by 2050 the majority of Arabic speakers will be very young (p. 61). Two sections of his book, “English Challenged” and “Beyond English” explain the need for native speakers of English to learn other languages.

A mania is usually a passing phase, so what next is definitely a good question to ponder.


Posted by May Mikati on 21 September 2011, 11:48 PM

Teacher Quotes - 17 September 2011

Teacher Quotes


When the new academic year starts, the frequency of my blog posts will probably decline as I’ll be much busier. Lately, though, I’ve been scouring the web for quotations about teachers and teaching as a way of starting a new year: something very general but highly relevant nevertheless. Luckily, most of the quotes I encountered were favourable, but this one about teachers of English sounded really out-dated (though it may have been true a century ago, it could currently be interpreted as insulting):
•In order to teach chemistry or psychology or even history or Greek a man must actually know something, but for the teacher of English nothing seems to be necessary beyond a crude capacity to read and write. ~Henry Louis Mencken

On the other hand, here are the quotations that rang the most true:
•In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~Jacques Barzun
•Teaching creates all other professions. ~Author Unknown
• Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more. ~Bob Talbert
• Education costs money, but then so does ignorance. ~Sir Claus Moser
• Nine-tenths of education is encouragement. ~Anatole France
•Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. ~Bill Gates
•Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. ~Bill Gates
•A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. ~Thomas Carruthers
•The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward


Posted by May Mikati on 17 September 2011, 1:18 AM

Blended Learning: "The Best of Both Worlds" - 13 September 2011

Blended Learning: "The Best of Both Worlds"


Blended learning, also known as hybrid learning has rightly been described by many as superior to both distance education and conventional, face to face education as it combines “the best of both worlds”. Pedagogically speaking, the online environment fosters a constructivist approach to learning more easily and transparently than the traditional classroom does. It encourages student input and interaction, allowing the teacher to become more of a “guide on the side” than a “sage on the stage”. It also allows for the display of course content in an organized, systematic way. Furthermore, it is more flexible in that it caters better to multiple learning styles. While some learners are verbal (preferring text), others may be auditory or visual learners, preferring audio or video, which can also be delivered online. In this sense, some deliberate redundancy in content is considered not only desirable but commendable, as long as the effect is not one of “cognitive overload”.

The face-to-face environment tends to be considered more suitable for certain aspects of education: some experiments and discussions, certain components of team assignments, oral presentations, individualized tutoring of students, and most of all, for reliable assessment. Not that all assessment needs to be conducted in the physical classroom: most diagnostic and formative assessment can be carried out successfully online.

In 2005, I presented a paper on the subject of blended teaching & learning at the annual conference of the International Association of Teachers of English, in the U.K. The paper was entitled “The Transition to Hybrid Courses: Some Practical Implications”. At that time, there was talk on campus of possible future distance course delivery, but sensing justified opposition to the idea of 100% online courses, I felt that exploring less aggressive possibilities was necessary. Besides, the online infrastructure we had gradually built up for our web-enhanced courses could easily cater to blended courses. All that remained to be done was further development, refinement and organization of the online components of courses we already had in place. There was no need to change learning objectives although some could be tweaked to reflect the online course elements more effectively. By 2010, AUB had started offering blended courses, along with the relevant training for faculty members. The class I offered last year in this new format went well.

Pedagogically, it is difficult to argue with blended learning. Technically, though, it may rightly be observed that internet speeds in Lebanon present a hurdle. Lebanon has been very unfortunate in this regard over the past two decades; it has had the slowest connections at the most exorbitant prices. On the other hand, if internet speeds and prices improve soon as promised, new horizons will open up for teachers: better reliability of e-learning in general and, in particular, better prospects for using online video in teaching and learning. Currently peripheral and supplementary, video may become more central, not only to content delivery but also to assessment. Teachers: brace yourselves for this brave new world of teaching and learning.


Posted by May Mikati on 13 September 2011, 8:28 PM

Should Students Work or Learn? - 13 September 2011

Should Students Work or Learn?


The term “work” is used synonymously with “study” when it comes to describing what is expected of students, yet the appropriateness of the term in the context of learning has been challenged by Alfie Kohn, who has written extensively on education and human behaviour. In the article “Students Don’t Work – They Learn” he explains that in paid work the important outcome is the product, while in learning (especially at the school level), the process is much more important. Whereas a worker’s product is expected to be perfect, a student’s product should be valued for the improvement it shows rather than perfection.

While Kohn is known to be unconventional in his views and somewhat controversial, his idea of the need to de-emphasize grades may ring true with many teachers, and may be especially relevant in the teaching of English as a second language and composition where grammar and writing skills develop gradually over time and rigid formulas are to be rejected. On the other hand, his opposition to take-home assignments may be opposed by stakeholders who believe that “practice makes perfect”. Still, he sees such assignments, especially for children, as an unwelcome “second shift”. In a newer article, Kohn launches a more vehement attack on “homework”: “If slogging through worksheets dampens one’s desire to read or think, surely that wouldn’t be worth an incremental improvement in skills. And when an activity feels like drudgery, the quality of learning tends to suffer, too (“The Truth About Homework: Needless Assignments Persist Because of Widespread Misconceptions About Learning”).

Kohn concedes that some aspects of the workplace do apply to the classroom, but they are not enough to complete the metaphor. While in both collaboration should be valued over competition, people’s input over dictatorship, and intrinsic motivation over extrinsic rewards, the objectives are not of the same nature. Even though some managers may care about their workers in the same way that teachers are concerned about their pupils, there is more emphasis on results in the workplace: “the bottom line is that they are still focused on--well, on the bottom line.” This business-style approach, where every task is a means to an end (in this case a grade, the honour list, etc.) is unsuitable for the educational system in Kohn’s view; curiosity, exploration and discovery should be appreciated, rather than mere “factory-style” performance and achievement.

Rejecting the workplace metaphor for student learning, as many teachers would, has implications for teaching and assessment. If we expect students to experiment, be creative, and learn through trial and error, we cannot compare their outcomes with those of an employee, and our assessment tools need to reflect this, hence the need for greater emphasis on constructivist learning and formative assessment, and hence the superiority of terms such as “activities” and “projects” over “homework”.

Finally, Kohn has produced a DVD entitled NO GRADES + NO HOMEWORK = BETTER LEARNING. Quite a character – no wonder Time magazine has described him as "perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores." Taken with a grain of salt, his ideas present a brave challenge to conventional thinking in education.


Posted by May Mikati on 13 September 2011, 12:30 AM

Considering Workplace Metaphors - 12 September 2011

Considering Workplace Metaphors


As a language teacher, I am rather fond of metaphors, and among those I have analyzed with my students are a number of workplace metaphors. For example, the metaphor of the tree and the shadow represents the difference between true character and reputation, and the metaphor of the shark portrays the attitudes and behaviours of the workplace bully.

This blog post will take more of a bird’s eye view of the workplace. Whether you would liken your place of work to a home, a military establishment, a prison, or a lunatic asylum may be a personal matter, and the list of possibilities is extensive. A thorough internet search can produce dozens if not hundreds of possibilities that have already been used – though of course it is always nicer to invent one’s own. For now, let’s examine some of the workplace metaphors found on the internet and see if any are especially suited to educational institutions. Here are some from the Creative Think blog by Roger van Oech:
•Our company is like a supertanker. It's large and powerful, but moves slowly. Also, once the course is set, it's tough to change.
•Our company is like the sun shedding light on the computer world.
•Working here is like a nightmare. You'd like to get out of it but you need the sleep.

Horse metaphors are common in describing the workplace from the leader’s point of view as Nancy Lowery explains in her article “The Perfect Metaphor”. She illustrates the idea using these examples: "Handing over the reins of responsibility", "Leading the charge" and "Don't put the cart before the horse".

Sports metaphors are popular in the workplace, as in “touching base”, being “in the zone” and “winning the game”. The “family” metaphor is also common; however, as Dale Dauten argues in his article “We are Family. Really?”, one doesn’t want employees to feel like children in relation to managers. He proposes the “group of allies” metaphor instead as allies bond through a shared cause without necessarily having to be friends or “family”; they simply recognize that by helping each other, they are furthering their cause.

While interesting, these metaphors may not be particularly relevant to the teaching/learning experience though I suspect many students (and probably teachers and administrators) might identify with the “nightmare” one!

The metaphor of “bringing the whole world into the classroom” (used by Norwegian teachers to describe the introduction of smart boards to Norwegian schools) would be one of the most relevant to our current educational mission. With the faster internet the Lebanese government has promised, our teaching should more easily bring the world into our classrooms for the benefit of our ambitious, knowledge-hungry students and our society as a whole.


Posted by May Mikati on 12 September 2011, 1:51 AM

Reflecting on Affirmative Action - 09 September 2011

Reflecting on Affirmative Action


The subject of affirmative action is a highly controversial one in the U.S. for several reasons, including the fact that some people view the phenomenon as a form of reverse discrimination, negating meritocracy. Still, AUB purports to be an affirmative action institution, so it would be interesting to reflect on what the concept means and how it originated.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, affirmative action is “a policy or a program that seeks to redress past discrimination through active measures to ensure equal opportunity, as in education and employment.” A key term here is “past discrimination”; instituting affirmative action therefore means that you are admitting past wrongdoing, a noble thing. Another key term is “active measures”; in the U.S. these measures generally involve quotas for women and minorities in order to counteract, for example, the effects of discriminatory employment practices. Still, the definition of “discriminatory practices” has been contested; for example, it has been claimed that there is a difference between intentional and unintentional discrimination. Furthermore, the meaning of "equal opportunity" has been questioned.

A euphemism for affirmative action commonly used these days at AUB – and please correct me if I am wrong - is “promoting diversity”. However, besides the quotas we hear about (but most of us don’t know much about) in admissions and hiring, the method of application of affirmative action remains somewhat elusive. We do see the following statement appended to job advertisements: “The American University of Beirut is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer”. Additionally, we can find a “Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment” mentioning equal opportunity regardless of “gender, race, religion, color, national origin, disability, marital status, age, creed, citizenship, or veteran status”. That’s about it, though.

Historically speaking, civil rights programs in the U.S. grew out of the need to end slavery and stop racial discrimination. By the time the Civil Rights Act had taken effect in the 1960s, the concept of affirmative action had come to encompass - besides race - color, religion, sex, and national origin. In the 1980s the Reagan administration sought to water down the effects of the phenomenon, but Congress later passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, emphasizing the importance of compensation, payback, and restitution in cases of unlawful harassment and intentional discrimination.

In the past decade, affirmative action has come under attack once again, especially by those who believe that it is obsolete, no longer needed, because their society has already become egalitarian (colour blind, etc.). However, its proponents want to broaden the concept further. The latest news on affirmative action comes from a New York Times article proposing the widening of its scope to include the physically unattractive, offering “ legal protections to the ugly, as we do with racial, ethnic and religious minorities, women and handicapped individuals” (Hamermesh, “Ugly? You May Have a Case”). You might think this is a joke, but the author, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, ends on a serious note: “… you shouldn’t be surprised to see the United States heading toward this new legal frontier.”

AUB has more urgent issues to deal with, but it does tend to follow U.S. trends. Following up on this latest piece of news, therefore, wouldn't be an entirely irrelevant activity.


Posted by May Mikati on 09 September 2011, 2:41 PM

Analyzing University Rankings - 07 September 2011

Analyzing University Rankings


From my point of view, this year’s global university rankings have been propitious. First of all, AUB has made it into the “Top 300 in World QS University Rankings” for 2011/2012, moving up significantly from last year. Its rank is identical to that of Beiging Normal University and very close to that of well known institutions such as National University of Ireland, George Washington University, University of Newcastle, and University of Utah. This is an amazing achievement, considering the difficulties AUB is constantly bombarded with by virtue of its location in a particularly troubled part of the world. Secondly, Cambridge, which I have also become associated with, has once again established itself as the number one university in the world. Not only that, my Cambridge department/subject, Linguistics, ranks first globally, and my college, Trinity, has outdone all other Cambridge colleges (“First-Class Arts and Humanities Students Help Trinity to Top Place in Cambridge League Table”).

Since the QS world rankings have come to be regarded by many as the most reliable guide to university performance, it is important to understand what they mean and where they come from. Well, the letters Q and S stand for Quacquarelli (a Wharton MBA graduate who in 1990 founded a company specializing in education and study abroad) and Symonds, the British entrepreneur who partnered with him in 1998. Today, QS has hundreds of employees operating from offices in different parts of the world. QS methodology appears to be based on six indicators, with different weights: academic reputation (40%, from a global survey), employer reputation (10%, from a global survey), citations per faculty (20%, from SciVerse Scopus, a global database), faculty student ratio (20%), proportion of international students (5%), and proportion of international faculty (5%). In terms of sub-categories for academic reputation, the QS advisory board claims to have rejected financial criteria such as research income, focusing rather on the following: geographic/cultural diversity, unbiased approach to different subjects, contemporary relevance, reduced language bias, statistical validity, and resistance to data manipulation. As for the “employer reputation” indicator, it targets the reputation of university graduates among employers (focusing on quality) rather than the other way around. As part of this, employers are asked to list “up to ten domestic institutions they consider best for research” as well as “up to thirty international institutions they consider best for recruiting graduates”.

What has kept Cambridge at the top then, exactly? Its average of ratings across indicators: it is second globally on academic reputation, third on employer reputation, thirty eighth on citations per faculty, thirty second on faculty student ratio, thirty fourth on international faculty (with two gulf universities ranking first and second) and thirty eighth on international students. On average, it has scored better than Harvard, MIT and Oxford. For example, while Harvard ranks first on both academic and employer reputation, it is way behind on the last three indicators.

Back to AUB: Attempting to compare it with other universities in Lebanon on the QS web site, using the site’s search engine, can be mystifying. It produces only two hits for “Lebanon”: American University of Beirut and “Islamic University of Lebanon”. Where are the other Lebanese universities we are all familiar with? Could some of them appear among the top 700 to be released next week? That would definitely be something to explore.


Posted by May Mikati on 07 September 2011, 12:47 PM

Avoiding Workplace Gossip - 05 September 2011

Avoiding Workplace Gossip


Here is a follow-up on the topic of workplace noise and chit-chat.

One form of such noise is gossip. From the point of view of evolutionary psychology, gossip seems to have had a survival value for human beings in the past; in terms of networking, influence, and alliances, it can play a constructive role according to the Psychology Today article “The New Word on Gossip”. However, in the workplace, gossip can be a waste of time and, in that sense at least, counterproductive. Additionally, it is often based on half-truths and concocted ideas, as illustrated in this educational video: “Gossip in the Office and Workplace”. Twisting information while passing it on is rarely funny. Common sense dictates that you don’t pass on certain things you’re told, yet some people can’t help doing this. They parrot what they’ve been told, either as they’ve heard it or in a clearly contorted form. Hence, a relatively benign comment may metamorphose into a hideous story – often blown out of proportion – propagated to a third, fourth, and fifth party. Those who gossip usually forget the possibility of “spontaneous trait transference”, also known as “the boomerang effect” in social psychology. They forget that gossip can backfire.

On the other hand, one cannot deny that some types of gossip can have their benefits. Unless you hear that someone’s just had a baby or that another’s relative has passed away, you are not likely to take the right action. This type of workplace chatter is a far cry from the other type often confused with free speech.

Dealing with workplace gossip is a tricky business. It may be likened to handling computer worms, Trojan horses, and viruses that corrupt people’s work, or to cookies at best. No matter how careful you are, things may unexpectedly go wrong. Still, professionalism dictates that you find for yourself a workplace environment that is relatively immune to such intrusions so that you may work in peace, ensuring efficiency – prevention is better than cure. If you can’t find such an environment – as such things don’t come pre-packaged with jobs – then you may need to create one for your own sake and that of your colleagues and organization as a whole.

Here is how Einstein related work to idle talk: “If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”


Posted by May Mikati on 05 September 2011, 8:10 PM

Handling Office Clutter - 03 September 2011

Handling Office Clutter


My previous blog post was about office noise and one way of escaping it. Besides the chatter, there is also the clutter to be dealt with.

Office clutter, whether physical or electronic, can be very distracting, and at best unsightly. Whether you are the source of the clutter or not, the more you control it, the more efficient your work is likely to be. Overflowing paper and e-mail can be a sign of disorganization, and though they may take time to sort out on a regular basis, the time saved later, for better productivity, is worth it. In fact, an organized office not only saves time, it also saves face. As Don Aslett, author of The Office Clutter Cure puts it, “Your desk is you.”

Reducing initial use of paper and/or saving only electronic copies of paper documents is definitely one way of reducing clutter. Let’s face it: old documents that have long been dealt with belong in the recycling bin, not on desks or in the corridor outside. Clicking “Save” should be given priority over clicking “Print”, and proper filing should replace hoarding. This can be combined with making sure that one’s desk contains only the material pertinent to the work currently at hand.

E-mail and electronic files need sorting on a regular basis. Old useless documents should be deleted and important ones arranged into clearly labelled folders and subfolders. If you’re afraid of losing these documents, keep multiple copies for backup, and never place important office documents on a personal computer that is virus-prone. Always update your anti-virus. Even workplace computers aren’t perfect; for example, if you are a teacher, your usb may be affected by a virus picked up from a classroom computer, which might then affect an office computer, etc., hence the need for more than one backup: backups may be affected simultaneously, in a sort of chain reaction, so try to keep at least one of them properly secured and relatively out of reach.

It may be argued that an organized office is a purely personal matter or a matter of keeping up appearances, but it is partly a professional matter and could be more public than you think. Besides wasted time, disorganization may lead to missed deadlines and meeting tardiness. Besides, your office may give an impression not just about you personally, but also about your organization and how you work. It might additionally affect neighboring offices depending on the situation.

It may also be a cultural matter, and correct me if I’m wrong, that in some workplaces people like to physically display their work because, if they don’t, the perception may be that it doesn’t exist: a relatively empty office, no matter how neat, is not as convincing as one with piles of paper here and there – right? Some even go as far as citing Albert Einstein on this: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what's an empty desk a sign of?"

If Einstein had envisioned our digital age, wouldn’t he have phrased his statement differently?


Posted by May Mikati on 03 September 2011, 7:13 PM

Headphones in the Office - 29 August 2011

Headphones in the Office


My first use of office headphones took place several years ago when I attended an international online conference on online teaching, and – ever since – their use has become multi-purpose, including selection of video and audio material for courses and listening to background music while I work.

In this blog post I would like to focus on the latter application: background music. What is it for? Well, calm music can create a mildly stimulating yet relaxing atmosphere. I’ll have to admit though that I find it more appropriate when involved in routine, simple office work such as straightforward typing than when the work requires deep concentration or focused reading. The headphones also help muffle any intruding noise from corridors, neighbouring offices, etc.

Before AUB subscribed to the online Naxos music database, available on campus through the University Libraries, one would have to play audio clips (or CDs) over and over again, but now one has a wider choice from the database. The bulk of the music seems to be classical/ instrumental though one can still find other genres such as opera. Search for Pavarotti, and you’ll see. Searching for Fairouz though won’t deliver any hits, nor will searching for pop groups such as ABBA, which you’ll have to find on sites such YouTube; any accompanying videos should preferably be kept in the background away from view as they can be distracting!

Basically, when there is external noise in the office, rather than ask people to be quiet, one can try to muffle the sound – but should one have to? When people take a break, talk in the corridors, or chat loudly with their students, shouldn’t they remember that someone else is working and may need to concentrate? Or is the “real” work of a teacher supposed to take place at home these days, with the office being a mere transitional stop between the classroom and the home? Deliberate noise should, in my view, be considered a form of harassment, but most workplace noise does not seem to fit into that category. Disturbance from campus construction and student events is an example I’ve encountered complaints about in faculty emails.

Am I recommending the use of headphones as a solution? Yes, it could be a partial solution. One must be realistic though: it won’t block out all the noise and may be interpreted as burying one’s head in the sand rather than confronting the source of the problem.


Posted by May Mikati on 29 August 2011, 11:28 AM

Workplace Etiquette/ Netiquette - 21 August 2011

Workplace Etiquette/ Netiquette


Etiquette is a broad subject relevant to various aspects of one’s social life, including school, air travel, driving a vehicle, sports, and of course the workplace. Workplace etiquette is important because it helps people avoid misunderstandings by encouraging organization and effective communication. It also fosters a less stressful, more productive workplace atmosphere. In one way or another, the subject is relevant to all employees, regardless of their field and where they have been placed, or misplaced ;-), on their institutional hierarchy. For example, emoticons such as the one I have just used may be considered a violation of the workplace code, depending on the type of communication. They would definitely be frowned upon in formal correspondence, whether in the form of letters or e-mails. You need some guts to break some of these taboos, but in an informal, semi-professional blog such as this, it wouldn’t be considered too eccentric to use them – or at least one would hope not.

Netiquette is only one small part of workplace etiquette. One would need several blog posts to touch upon other important aspects of workplace etiquette, which encompasses peripheral matters such as gossip, written and unwritten dress codes, and various issues relating to sight, sound, and smell, as well as core matters such as punctuality and productivity, and avoidance of discrimination: nepotism, sexism, racism, looksism, ageism, discrimination based on lifestyle or irrelevant disability, etc.

Back to netiquette then. Since a considerable proportion of workplace communication takes place through electronic means (e-mail, web postings, teleconferencing, etc.), the topic is not to be taken lightly. For example, researchers have noticed that people tend to be more spontaneous in electronic communications than face to face. While this is commendable in some situations, rash messages are to be avoided. With one click, your message is irreversible, while face to face you may more easily clarify it if it is vague or patch it up if it is regrettable. The use of rude, angry messages known as “flaming” is a well-known problem in internet messaging. Online, people more easily forget the human at the receiving end, or misinterpret messages due to the absence of nonverbal cues such as tone of voice, facial expressions, and posture. Special care is therefore necessary.

Lack of concision, rambling on and on, is yet another violation of workplace rules of conduct as in terms of efficiency, it wastes your audience’s time, affecting their productivity. It may also be interpreted as a personal insult to recipients if they sense that their time is not being valued. Caution is necessary: whether in writing or verbally, give your audience what they need, no more, no less.

Furthermore, electronic communication renders the disclosure of information to third parties much easier. Inappropriate forwarding, cc’ing and bcc’ing of messages are unacceptable, as is misuse of company resources such as computers, e.g. in playing games while on duty. Yet the worst type of violation of all in my view is hacking into personal or sensitive information, especially when accompanied by further illegal or unethical use of the data, as in plagiarism or selling of content to third parties.

The list of subtopics is endless – and of course no one is perfect, especially since people may say or do things under stress that they would never accept under normal circumstances. Still, as a language teacher I’d like to stress that minding your language is an essential part of minding your workplace manners. For more insight into the topic of netiquette, see Virginia Shea’s famous book, The Core Rules of Netiquette, which I have recommended to my students; it is an EXCELLENT resource.

P. S. Please excuse the capital letters above; I didn’t mean to shout!


Posted by May Mikati on 21 August 2011, 10:29 PM

Soaking Up the Sun, and Not Just for Fun! - 12 August 2011

Soaking Up the Sun, and Not Just for Fun!


How could sunbathing help with your career? Isn’t the idea a little far-fetched – possibly outrageous even? Not really. You’re only going to sunbathe in your vacation time, so – unless you overdo it – there’s no negative impact whatsoever on your work performance. On the contrary, you may be relaxing, recharging yourself for work, and possibly even reflecting on your work as I am doing now while writing this at the beach – if you’re not actually getting some work done there that is!

Reading work-related material and writing while at the beach is easy if you’re not distracted. I’ve done it repeatedly and successfully in the past though I’ll have to admit that this vacation was so seriously busy that half the summer slipped by before I finally got to the beach.

Scientifically speaking, the sun can give you a useful mood lift too, especially if you don’t normally get much sun due to the nature and environment of your work – e.g. if you’re in a closed office most of the time. Depression is a top enemy of productivity and creativity. Haven’t we all heard of people who became depressed and much less productive partly due to insufficient outdoor exposure? Haven’t we also heard of people in Scandinavian countries who have committed suicide partly due to sun deprivation? Clearly, if you’re living in Lebanon you’re not likely to be that deprived of the sun, but you may still need more of it, depending on your lifestyle. In any case, everyone needs to get away from the office every now and then, even if only for a change of scene. Monotonous work routines are notorious for killing creativity.

The sea and wind can give you the perception of an added energy boost at the beach. It’s windy today although the temperature is over 35 degrees C. Water is spraying from the waves, reaching me, a dozen or more meters away. The sound of the waves crashing and the wind humming stimulates the mind in an unusual way. The cooling effect of the wind, along with the water spray, will keep me in the sun a little longer than initially anticipated. A second application of sunblock will allow me to finish this piece in one sitting. I’m running out of paper and my laptop isn’t with me; I’m not in the habit of carrying it to the beach though I do envision a paperless beach, in parallel with a paperless office, in the not too distant future.

On a still lighter note, come to think of it, a tanned co-worker or teacher may be perceived as a less boring, and possibly less threatening character – someone to listen to and cooperate with. Who wants to be around a serious, pale-looking teacher or colleague sitting at their computer day in, day out, year after year? Very few I would think. Wouldn’t you agree that a bronzed employee tends to be perceived as more fun to have around than a nerdy looking one, who is more likely to give the impression of being strict and mean, possibly even nit-picking, if not ruthlessly competitive (and hence to be fought and, whenever possible, humiliated)?

Appearances can play a role in one’s career, and they can be surprisingly deceptive, so one must unfortunately pay attention to them though of course not at the expense of one’s time or dignity. Not that everyone around is superficial in judging others; rather, it is more of a subconscious matter. Everyone knows that even intellectuals are affected by appearances though I suspect few would want to admit it. Sad, isn’t it? Well, cheer up, there’s much more to life than this superficiality. Get out and get some sun, and (forgive the pun) - who knows? -perhaps you’ll remember this post the next time you roast!


Posted by May Mikati on 12 August 2011, 10:33 PM

Connecting With Students - 10 August 2011

Connecting With Students


If you are a university teacher these days, you are likely to find yourself connecting with students not just during a course but before and after it. This has become much more common in the past ten years, first with e-mail and now, additionally, with social and professional networking. How does one manage this upsurge of communication and all these “contacts”?

Before a course, you are likely to receive enquiries about the content of the course, the assessment methods used, as well as your grading range. Some students like to fathom the likelihood of their scoring high with you well in advance; some will explain that they are, for example, pre-med students in need of high grades – as if you’re supposed to promise these before you know them. While explaining the syllabus in advance is fine, giving promises is completely inappropriate. Others will simply ask you to raise capacity in your full section, so that they can register, even though they don’t know you and they still have years to graduate. Their persistence is usually unjustified and is not always flattering. Rather than feeling flattered one may rightly wonder whether these students have been told one is an “easy” teacher.

Technology facilitates interaction during a course as well though it can be abused at times. Some of the enquiries one receives are completely redundant, such as questions about assignment deadlines and presentation dates. These are usually posted on the course website – and often in more than one location. Still, one finds oneself answering one such question after another on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. Other enquires revolve around “why did I get this grade” when the posted scoring rubrics or checklists clearly indicate the required criteria – and these have already been explained in class. While it is commendable for a teacher to be responsive to student enquiries, some of them are frankly a waste of a teacher’s time, and I wouldn’t blame you if you were to ignore the redundant ones though I haven’t had the nerve to be so mean yet.

After a course there may also be questions of “why did I get this average” when simple calculations would explain it – or comments such as “I didn’t know we had to submit a reflection at the end” when it is clearly indicated on the schedule and elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are a member of a professional network, such as Linkedin, you may receive requests to connect with students there. I don’t find it inappropriate to accept such requests from former students, and actually consider it wiser to add them as contacts there (where one can follow their career progress) rather than as “friends” on Facebook, which can get a little too informal at times. This is of course a personal choice for a teacher though I’ll have to confess that one of the few students whose friend requests I did accept on Facebook graduated this year with the highest average in the history of AUB, and this wouldn’t have come into the light if it hadn’t been for Facebook. What a double-edged sword!


Posted by May Mikati on 10 August 2011, 11:49 PM

How Jogging Can Jog Your Memory - 23 July 2011

How Jogging Can Jog Your Memory


No, this posting isn’t about the fitness or weight loss benefits of jogging – that’s really old hat! What I’d like to reflect about are the mood and memory boosts associated with jogging/running, as there is interesting new scientific research in this field, and anything that can enhance one’s mood or memory should definitely enhance one’s work.

Psychological research has proved that running can be addictive because some related chemicals produced – mood enhancers – are just like those that drug addicts take when they want to get “high”. Take a look at this article on “Endocannabinoids and Exercise”, from the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It emphasizes the sedative, anti-anxiety effects of exercise such as running, along with the general sense of well-being produced. While it does mention the “impaired working memory ability” and “difficulty in time estimation” associated with the “runner’s high”, these effects appear to be temporary; one may compare these effects to the rise in pulse which is reversed after exercise (Olympic athletes, for example, are known to have very low resting pulse rates – around half of the normal person’s).

Here is a 2010 Guardian article discussing the link between running and the brain: “Start Running and Watch Your Brain Grow, Say Scientists”. It revolves around a study claiming that aerobic exercise triggers new cell growth, and that the region of the brain affected is linked to memory: “Neuroscientists at Cambridge University have shown that running stimulates the brain to grow fresh grey matter and it has a big impact on mental ability….The work reveals why jogging and other aerobic exercise can improve memory and learning, and potentially slow down the deterioration of mental ability that happens with old age.” The study compared two groups of mice: a sedentary group and a running group. The latter showed better memories and sharper perception when objects were switched: “Brain tissue taken from the rodents showed that the running mice had grown fresh grey matter during the experiment. Tissue samples from the dentate gyrus part of the brain [one of the few regions of the adult brain that can grow fresh brain cells] revealed on average 6,000 new brain cells in every cubic millimetre.”

The Cambridge study appears to corroborate findings from an earlier Columbia study involving 11 volunteers: “Aerobic exercise—an hour a day, four days a week for three months—led to changes on brain scans that seemed to indicate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus” (Anne Underwood, “Jogging Your Memory”, Newsweek, Dec. 1, 2007).

So if you haven’t started jogging yet, what are you waiting for? On the other hand, if I see you at the track some day soon I might assume that you’ve read this and caught on. See you there!


Posted by May Mikati on 23 July 2011, 3:20 PM

Long Summer Holidays - 18 July 2011

Long Summer Holidays


Long summer holidays can bore one to death if unplanned. I don’t often opt for a long vacation in summer, but when I’m not teaching I’m usually busy with something else: working on a publication, preparing new material for the following year, etc. I might get to travel a little but cannot rest for long without the sense that time is being wasted. Do I consider myself a workaholic? The Merriam-Webster definition of a workaholic is simply “a compulsive worker”, so I assume I’m probably a borderline case though this self-assessment is rather subjective! Luckily, workaholism is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), so one may safely assume that it is not an illness though the “compulsion” part does have a ring of OCD to it (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)!

Besides, there’s a difference between merely working/ being busy and being productive. It’s good to find tangible ways of measuring one’s own productivity, for the sake of self-fulfillment. One’s self-esteem must not depend on what others think, however, but rather on one’s conviction that one has done one’s best. The quality of one’s work and efforts should matter the most. One must never be proud of high quantity poor quality work output no matter what pressures one is under.

In the end, it remains true that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Vacation time is important for refreshing oneself and zesting up one’s spirit. One can be more physically active in the holidays than when one is glued to one’s desk or in front of a computer all the time. Without vacations we would all be duller, and probably fatter and much less healthy as well; and vacation time needn’t be all play: it can be partly productive. Just consider this blog, for example. It wouldn’t have started if it weren’t for the summer holiday that triggered it. Instead of silently ruminating about one’s work, one can blog about it, reflecting and sharing one’s experiences for the benefit of others.


Posted by May Mikati on 18 July 2011, 11:18 AM

Head in the Clouds - 22 June 2011

Head in the Clouds


The internet has transformed teaching at AUB to such an extent that one may safely claim our heads are now in the clouds. Ever since the learning management system WebCT (now called BlackBoard) was adopted at AUB, our lives have been taking a different turn. The chalkboard and class handouts have been replaced with online course material within a much more interactive framework. Although we have not yet reached the stage of the “paperless faculty” envisioned by a former dean, teaching and learning will never be the same again at AUB.

Back in 2001 I took to WebCT like a fish to water although my computer experience was quite limited. I was the first teacher to use an LMS in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences though I’ll have to admit I didn’t plunge deeply into it till 2004. By that time my teaching had become substantially web-enhanced.

This year – after years of training in online and blended learning (most of it voluntary) - I have finally transformed one of my courses from face-to-face into blended/hybrid format, meaning I have placed enough material and activities online to actually eliminate more than a quarter of class contact hours in that course. Moodle, the LMS AUB now uses instead of WebCT, has definitely made its mark. Lecture notes and assignment submission, glossaries and discussions, team projects, wikis, videos, and other supplementary material are now all accessible on or through Moodle. Without it, most faculty and students would be like fish out of water.

I enjoyed teaching online – and still do – and when the process was still new, I researched it thoroughly, giving conference presentations and publishing a number of articles about it. The next step after web-enhanced and hybrid/blended courses would be a far riskier one: 100% online course delivery. I doubt that AUB will ever want to reach that stage. Besides, from my latest continuing education interactions with Illinois Online Network participants, I have gathered that many blended courses were created as a step back from the fully online format rather than the other way around.

Having one’s head in the clouds does not mean floating in the cloud altogether. One’s feet must be kept firmly on the ground.

Note: While the term “cloud” is used metaphorically here, “cloud computing” in the strict technical sense of the term could mean hosting of data and applications on remote servers such as those of Google and Microsoft. See, for example, this InfoWorld definition of “What Cloud Computing Really Means” and this University of London Computer Centre blog entry: “Moodle in the Cloud”.


Posted by May Mikati on 22 June 2011, 4:07 PM

To Blog or Not to Blog - 16 June 2011

To Blog or Not to Blog


The democratic nature of the internet is well-expressed through blogs. Ever since blogging came into fashion, I have admired bloggers for their initiative and courage, and for sharing valuable information and experience with readers. Such participation of ordinary people in the shaping of trends and opinions globally was still a dream a decade ago. Thanks to the internet, the dream is coming true.

Although I admired blogging, I was not enthusiastic about starting a blog myself initially – whether professional or personal. A professional blog would be time consuming – too much of an additional responsibility. It would require research, substantial investment of energy, and constant updates and follow-up. A personal blog would be – well – too personal; only extroverts would go for that kind of thing I thought, and I shrank from the idea. I do enjoy writing, however, so I finally started this blog: a record that is neither intended to be professional in the sense of a conventional “niche” blog nor strictly personal or diary-like, but rather a synthesis of the two extremes. I decided to focus it on my work and workplace in general rather than on anything else. Relatively unknown among colleagues despite decades spent at AUB, this could be a chance for me, I thought, to step outside the realm of anonymity. The text could also enlighten readers less experienced with AUB, and possibly provide a different angle on things to fellow old-timers.

As this blog evolves, it may drift from its initial purpose, but if it does, I hope it moves more in the professional direction rather than the personal direction. I also hope it becomes interactive, so please feel free to post your comments.

Finally, here’s a funny YouTube video on blogging: "To Blog or Not to Blog!!"


Posted by May Mikati on 16 June 2011, 9:52 PM

The Feline Population of AUB - 11 June 2011

The Feline Population of AUB


In my student days, the campus cat population was much smaller than it is now. No one ever really seemed to take much notice of the cats, let alone feed them as I occasionally did with “Picon” cheese while waiting for early morning classes. Their presence did not seem obtrusive, either, but you can’t really judge till you have an office where they can barge in uninvited. Why do they barge in if I longer feed them? Do some of them still remember me from back then? One would doubt that as they don’t live that long. It must be because others feed them, and they get used to it.

Times have certainly changed. Lately, the AUB cats have become a prominent campus phenomenon, something of a trademark. Having multiplied over the years despite seemingly serious efforts to curb their numbers, they now feature on university post cards and calendars, and in various publications, such as the student yearbook. They sleep in office buildings, such as Fisk Hall. One also suspects that they will soon outnumber the faculty members; as if it’s not enough that faculty have to compete with each other, they now find themselves competing with the cats for attention and recognition! A special cat budget was announced once, at a time when budgets were being tightened in other areas.

When the AUB administration decided to organize cat feeding, this seemed ironic: how could feeding the creatures help AUB? Wouldn’t it attract more of them to the campus? The answers are found in former AUB president Waterbury’s new book, A Photographic Remembrance of Lebanon (p. 138). He states that well-fed animals are less likely to fall ill and spread disease than neglected, sick ones. Besides, he confirms that many cats were spayed/ neutered over the years under the supervision of a university vet. Waterbury admits though that, after the 2006 war, AUB suffered from the effects of “a new surge in cat dumping”.

Personally, although I don’t like the creatures, I can easily recognize some of them. There’s an attractive white cat which, on close inspection, has different-colored eyes; you can see it on the 2010/11 AUB calendar. Sadly, a particularly charming grey Persian disappeared a couple of years ago; when I mentioned this to some animal feeders, they commented that its disappearance was a good sign – someone was probably taking good care of it.


Posted by May Mikati on 11 June 2011, 4:04 PM

AUB Campus Parking - 06 June 2011

AUB Campus Parking


There isn’t much to be said really about parking on campus except that it’s been a controversial issue ever since I first heard about it in 1992 when I applied to park on campus. The November 1991 College Hall disaster was still fresh, and although all my colleagues were still parking inside the campus (outside Fisk Hall) back then, I was told that for security reasons everyone would be moved to the peripheral parking areas soon, and I was one of the first to have to park in the periphery. Only deans and chairs kept parking in the same old spots for a while after that. My fellow instructors resented having to park in the periphery, especially when years later the convenient peripheral lot behind Fisk was completely evacuated (also allegedly for security reasons), but with some exceptions of course. Many English Department faculty members were then asked to park in places such as the lower campus, and later an area closer to the Medical Center, now used for public parking.

In case you’re wondering why I walk up and down the campus stairs every day, peripheral parking is the answer – very peripheral in some cases! My colleagues prefer to park on or near Bliss Street – and those who live near by just walk.

A very new development is student parking on campus. Though expensive, the possibility now seems to exist in the Olayan School of Business. One wonders how many students are using the facility and how many waste time daily looking for a place to park outside. From what I’ve seen, parking is a nightmare for some students.


Posted on Monday, 06 June 2011, 3:16 PM