Open Access: An “Academic Spring” - 26 April 2012

Open Access: An “Academic Spring”


One of the many academic databases we have access to at the American University of Beirut is the well-known database Elsevier Science Direct. Faculty members and students use this resource to a considerable extent. Yet, I was recently surprised to learn that the database had been boycotted by thousands of academics worldwide as part of the boycott of the Anglo-Dutch science publishing giant Reed Elsevier, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific, technical, and medical information, and owner of Lexis Nexis (another popular resource).

On April 1 – though this was not a joke – The Chronicle of Higher Education published “An Open Letter to Academic Publishers About Open Access” written by Jennifer Howard. Howard warned publishers that they should be nervous because of the new “Academic Spring” - the revolt against expensive publishers spreading throughout academia and represented by the Open Access movement.

Open access of course may be defined in various ways; the definition may be restricted to the relatively new open access journals, or it may include the less formal posting of working papers, blogs, and other non-peer-viewed work. While the traditional requirements of conventional academic careers may dictate otherwise, who knows what the future might bring for academia? Web 2.0 has done miracles so far. Besides, the United Nations, represented by UNESCO, supports open access.

If spring is here, can summer be far behind?


Posted by May Mikati on 26 April 2012, 5:51 PM

Softening Up the Language - 16 April 2012

Softening Up the Language


Language teachers often find themselves teaching about euphemisms, whether intentionally or not. A euphemism is a relatively harmless word or expression meant to replace a more offensive one. The blind are commonly referred to as “visually impaired” or “visually challenged”, spying is “surveillance”, and stealing can be “appropriation”.

A particularly interesting word often used as a euphemism is “overqualified”. When referring to a rejected job applicant, the term may be used as a cover-up for the fact that the employers do not wish to reveal their reasons for the rejection, or that the applicant is too old for the job, resistant to new technologies, or too demanding in terms of compensation.

The Economist editors recently published a report on euphemisms from around the world. Entitled “Making Murder Respectable”, their article defines euphemism as “a mixture of abstraction, metaphor, slang and understatement that offers protection against the offensive, harsh or blunt”. Noting that the British are “probably the world champions of euphemism”, the article concludes that, without euphemisms, the world would be a more honest but harsher place to live in. No witness to “the global war on terror” with its “friendly fire”, “collateral damage”, and “enhanced interrogation techniques” could possibly disagree.

Euphemisms definitely soften up the language, don’t they?


Posted by May Mikati on 16 April 2012, 8:34 AM

A "New Word Order" - 06 April 2012

A "New Word Order"


My previous blog post was about lexicography in the Internet age: how dictionaries are coping with the speed of language change. Here is solid background, and further reflection, on this ever more mercurial subject.

A Guardian article dated 2001 shows that back then the “New Word Order” was beginning to set in. Competition was suddenly hotting up between dictionary makers. Lexicographers had started implementing more sophisticated methods to keep up with language evolution. The author, D. J. Taylor, notes that speed had suddenly become of paramount importance in a field not particularly notable for speed. Hopeful for the future, he used a most revealing analogy: “If language is a butterfly, endlessly and effortlessly soaring above the heads of the entomologists who seek to track it down, then the nets are getting larger every year.” He reminded readers of Samuel Johnson, the most influential English lexicographer, who was the first to vehemently reject the prescriptivist approach, indicating that language is so variable that trying to police it is a doomed endeavour. Taylor added that while language does need to be tracked closely, it is like a beast that transforms itself into something else by the time one has finished the process of capturing and dissecting it. Some words take on new meanings between detection and publication.

Policing language is one thing, and tracking it is another. No wonder the constant searches, solicitation of user input, statistics and research. Will any of the well-known dictionaries ever implement live online updates to their definitions, or will they continue to solicit new input, adding appendices of possible new words, between editions? If they do all go “live”, that may be better for users, but any print editions published would automatically become obsolete. Will these dictionaries follow in the footsteps of the Encyclopedia Britannica soon?

Far-sighted thinkers, such as Michael Rundell, might ask whether there is a future at all for lexicography, or whether dictionaries will simply “dissolve” into our computers ("The Future of Lexicography: Does Lexicography Even Have a Future?”) . It would be interesting to watch and see.


Posted by May Mikati on 06 April 2012, 2:46 PM

How Dictionaries Cope With Language Change - 05 April 2012

How Dictionaries Cope With Language Change


Can English language dictionaries cope with the current speed of language change? While such change usually involves grammar, pronunciation, spelling, and phrasing, the English language appears to be changing particularly fast in the realm of phrasing: the incorporation of new words and expressions relating to various topics, influenced, among other things, by the speed of technological change. Yet, it may be inferred that technological change is not a sufficient criterion for such change. Japanese, for example, has changed little, compared with English, according to a recent National Science Foundation report; other social and cultural factors appear to play a role ("Language Change").

Paul McFedries’ intriguing web site Word Spy (The Word Lover’s Guide to New Words) is a good example on the density of new expressions entering the English language, some of which are making it into the dictionaries. To cope with the phenomenon, well-known dictionaries are providing constant online updates. Merriam-Webster, for example, has a section for words proposed by the public: “You know that word that really should be in the dictionary? Until it actually makes it in, here's where it goes” (“New Words and Slang”). How, then, in the perpetual tsunami of new vocabulary, do dictionary editors decide which new words to include in updates to their dictionaries? First of all, an unabridged dictionary is likely to include more new words than an abridged one because of space considerations. Secondly, new words go through a long process before they are either incorporated or dropped, as illustrated through the example of Merriam-Webster. To make a long story short, a typical procedure involves the following broad phases: editors “reading and marking” a variety of published material, noting neologisms, variant spellings, etc.; saving the marked passages, along with their citations in a searchable database, showing not only where each text came from but in what context the new word was used; and “definers” reading through the citations, deciding which words to keep based on the number of citations found for each word as well as the variety of publications where it is used over a substantial period of time (“How Does a Word Get into a Merriam-Webster Dictionary?”). The process is almost identical in the Oxford Dictionaries (“How a New Word Enters the Oxford Dictionary”).

Dictionaries are coping with the speed of change with the help of technology: easier access to a variety of publications, searchable electronic databases, user input and faster statistics. With time, dictionaries can only become more objective -- descriptive rather than prescriptive as most were in the past. They are also becoming more democratic. A Wikimedia era of McDictionaries or a regulated lexicographic democracy? You decide.


Posted by May Mikati on 05 April 2012, 4:43 AM

April Fools? - 27 March 2012

April Fools?


Have you ever been tricked on April Fools’ Day? Apparently, some of the best known April first pranks have taken place in higher education settings.

In 1983, a Boston University professor of history, John Boskin, when interviewed about the origin of April Fools’ Day, fabricated a story that was published by the Associated Press and later withdrawn. He claimed that some court jesters in the days of Constantine had told the emperor they could run the empire better than he did and that, amused, Constantine allowed a jester called Kugel to become king for a day, April 1. When the young AP reporter got the “story” published, Boskin used the incident to teach his students about false reports in the media: how the media can take a joke, innuendo, or story, consider it as authentic, and spread it. Luckily, the credulous reporter’s career was not ruined; he is now an associate professor in the College of Communication (“How a BU Prof April-Fooled the Country”).

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been associated with other well-known April first pranks. Among these was the 1998 hacking of the institutional web site by students who announced the “unprecedented acquisition of a non-profit educational institution by a Fortune 500 company”. They claimed that a huge Disney scholarship fund would reimburse past and future students for the following twenty years; the Engineering School would switch to “Imagineering”; the Sloan School would be renamed the Scrooge McDuck School of Management; there would be a Donald Duck Department of Linguistics, and Disney characters would appear in lectures to keep students alert, facilitating the learning process ("Walt Disney Corporation to Acquire MIT for $ 6.9 Billion").

The University of Cambridge has also had its fair share of April Fools’ Day stories. A posting on a student forum in 2011 announced that, due to government spending cuts, the Vice Chancellor had announced Cambridge would soon become a science only university ("Cambridge to Cease Arts Teaching by the End of the Decade"). While some naive readers were shocked, others realised that could only have been a joke.

Let us all be on the alert this April first, and every day of every year; few are as fortunate as the Boston former AP reporter though many are equally, if not more, gullible.


Posted by May Mikati on 27 March 2012, 12:13 AM

Fooling Around in the Classroom? - 24 March 2012

Fooling Around in the Classroom?


Does humour detract from the quality of teaching and learning? I would say that joking in the classroom is a high risk activity for educators. It depends on the quality – and quantity – of the humour, as well as its timing. Personally, on the rare occasions that I do use humour, I relate jokes to the subject matter I am teaching, and the first joke I tell in any class usually receives a positive reaction from students. Beginning with the second or third witticism (if there is one), students’ reactions vary. Alarm bells seem to start ringing for the paranoid in the audience. Yet while some appear uneasy, others may start imitating the humour in an effort to reciprocate.

Psychologist Ted Powers has written on the usefulness of humour in both teaching and assessment, citing Boughman’s famous statement, “One of the greatest sins in teaching is to be boring”. Powers’ definition of humour is a broad one, including any event that elicits laughter: “It is not limited to jokes or humorous stories but can include props, puns, short stories, anecdotes, riddles, or cartoons. It can be anything that creates a positive feeling in students and makes them smile and laugh.” He refers to studies that have shown the benefits of occasional appropriate humour: increased attention and focus, a more liberal atmosphere, helping with class management, better retention of information, and reduction of anxiety on a test or quiz ("Engaging Students With Humor"). Similarly, Melissa Wanzer’s “Use of Humor in the Classroom” discusses research on the benefits and challenges of using humour.

Retired linguist and humour specialist Don Nilsen advises caution regarding the timing of humour, which could be counterproductive when students are under stress, such as before exams or when major projects are due. Additionally, he warns against the use of sarcasm ("Humor Studies: An Interview with Don Nilsen"). However, he and his wife Alleen are great advocates of humour, having started a conference about it in the 1980s, which was always held on April Fools’ Day weekends. They published a journal and wrote books on the subject, including an encyclopedia of American humour ("Twenty Five Years of Developing a Community of Humor Scholars"). Don Nilsen also gave undergraduate and graduate courses in linguistic humour and language play. He illustrated language devices such as chiasmus (the use of criss-cross structures) through funny examples, as in a bumper sticker that read “Marijuana is not a question of ‘Hi, how are you’ but of ‘How high are you?’”.

The field of humour studies is a well-established one now. Take a look at the International Society for Humor Studies, for example. You’ll see a journal, conferences, seminars and workshops, and resources galore.

Humour, then, may be more serious than you think! Language teachers, especially, should try some language play every now and then to lighten up their material. While this may be a challenging activity, it may be quite rewarding.


Posted by May Mikati on 24 March 2012, 10:14 PM

Bloggers' Block? - 22 March 2012

Bloggers' Block?


For those who enjoy writing, the blogosphere beckons with magnetic force. Yet even experienced writers suffer from occasional writers’ block. They may run out of topics to write about or things to say about their subjects. Apparently, stress is one of the main enemies of creative writing; brain science has shown that the mind tends to “freeze” when an individual feels threatened or is under stress. On the other hand, a relaxed mood promotes creative writing (see Rosanne Bane’s “The Writer’s Brain: What Neurology Tells Us about Teaching Creative Writing”). Other causes of writers’ block include worrying too much about the audience or the appropriacy of the topic.

To spice up their sites, some bloggers write joint blogs or occasional joint articles. Others invite guests to write pieces that they can publish; however, guest blogging has been criticized for drowning the voice of the guest by merging it with that of the host.

Extensive reading of course helps generate ideas for blogs. Similarly, reader feedback may trigger future blog posts. I would therefore like to encourage readers to comment on my postings. I have received scattered responses so far; positive but vague verbal remarks from a few colleagues, a number of “likes” through Facebook, and one anonymous student comment on a post entitled “Reflecting on Student Expectations”. In that comment, the student remarks that while instructor humour can aid learning, disrespectful humour is counterproductive. That reader’s interest in the subject of classroom humour has encouraged me to dedicate a future posting to the subject, so do stay tuned for that.


Posted by May Mikati on 22 March 2012, 11:31 AM

No More Britannica in Print - 18 March 2012

No More Britannica in Print


In January I blogged on the topic of print versus online publications, asking the question “Are Books Out of Fashion?”. Today, a follow-up post is due on the occasion of the oldest English encyclopedia, Britannica, going completely digital. This is a turning point, I believe, not just for the publishing industry, but for humankind at large as other such publishers are likely to follow.

Is it a question of literacy? Is it that people don’t read any more? Of course not. Students read and cite Britannica and other reference works all the time. They use the online version, though, not the hard copy. The death of print does not mean the end of publishing; it is simply a matter of medium. Publishers are realizing that the online versions are easier to maintain and more popular, delivering the databases in better quality. Nor is it a matter of competition from the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, according to Jorge Cauze, Britannica President ("Encyclopedia Britannica Ends Print, Goes Digital").

Isn’t this kind of move also a triumph for the environment? Are we saving the trees at last? Definitely – and technology has advanced in such a way that the paper we are still using need not be recycled any more. A simpler, faster process for re-using paper has been invented in Cambridge: toner removal, rendering paper ready for re-use in no time. The new approach would not only save trees but also reduce emissions from the pulp and paper recycling industry ("Use a Laser, Save a Tree").

News for educators and environmentalists alike.


Posted by May Mikati on 18 March 2012, 12:40 AM

Language Purists versus Language Change - 11 March 2012

Language Purists versus Language Change


Languages change whether the language prescriptivists like it or not. The purists out there are irritated by the truncation and blending of words, the borrowing from other languages, the use of gender-neutral terms (such as “chair” and “server”) promoted by feminists, etc. This blog would have been a “web log” still if it hadn’t been for the process of language change; and France would have been stuck with “Mademoiselle” for ever (“Au Revoir ‘Mademoiselle’”).

Grammars change with time as well. In English, the levelling of “whom” and “who” is one example; the move from such expressions as “if I were” to “if I was” is another. Those who stick to the old ways may be outed by their language use as illustrated in this popular language joke:

St. Peter (at the Pearly Gates of Heaven): Who is it?

Voice: It is I!

St. Peter: Go to hell, we already have all the English teachers we need!

Language teachers beware!


Posted by May Mikati on 11 March 2012, 4:55 PM

Student Perfectionism: A Two-Edged Sword - 08 March 2012

Student Perfectionism: A Two-Edged Sword


Does perfectionism ail our students at the American University of Beirut?

Besides worrying about their course loads, students are concerned about excelling in their courses. At U.S. style universities, counseling centers play a role in identifying issues affecting student performance. The University of Texas Center for Mental Health and Counseling identifies a number of important student concerns that could apply to any university. Among these is perfectionism. The Center distinguishes perfectionism from a healthy pursuit of excellence. Perfectionism involves setting unrealistic standards, never being satisfied, becoming depressed, constant fear of failure and rejection, over-sensitivity to criticism, and seeing mistakes as disasters rather than as stepping stones to success. A healthy pursuit of excellence, in contrast, involves high but realistic standards, enjoyment of process as well as product, tenacity in the face of challenge, appreciation of constructive criticism, and seeing mistakes as opportunities for learning and improvement. The University of Buffalo Counseling Services site has a web page entitled “Preventing Perfectionism”, where it is pointed out that the condition can be crippling, inviting disappointment due to the unrealistically high expectations set for oneself and others. Similarly, Dr. Anthony Kamaroff of Harvard Medical School refers to the pros and cons of perfectionism in “Perfectionism Is a Two-Edged Sword”, warning that it may be exhausting and counterproductive.

UK and Australian universities have also identified relationships between perfectionism and mental health problems. See “Perfectionism and Mental Health in Australian University Students: Is there a Relationship?”, the University of Leicester Graduate School section on “Managing Problems”, and this leaflet on “Perfectionism” from the University of Dundee. Definitely food for thought for AUB students.


Posted by May Mikati on 08 March 2012, 8:45 PM

Encouraging Creativity - 14 February 2012

Encouraging Creativity


Are you a creative individual?

Researchers and policy makers have recently started stressing the need for promoting creativity among students in higher education although the definition of creativity varies across fields and concepts, so that the teaching of creativity may be discipline-specific (Marquis & Vajoczki, “Creative Differences: Teaching Creativity Across the Disciplines”). A 2007 European Universities Association report points out that “the complex questions of the future will not be solved ‘by the book’, but by creative, forward looking individuals and groups who are not afraid to question established ideas and are able to cope with the insecurity and uncertainty that this entails” (Creativity in Higher Education, p.6). The report emphasizes the need for diversity of teaching staff, students, and learning experiences for the promotion of creativity. A 2010 publication by the same association further stresses the importance of creativity and diversity as part of quality assurance ("Creativity and Diversity: Challenges for Quality Assurance Beyond 2010").

Do all teachers encourage creativity among students? Unfortunately not. School teachers may confuse student creativity with unruliness, preferring discipline and conformity. Rather than spontaneity and critical thinking, usually associated with creative students, instructors may prefer character traits associated with obedience to authority, seeing creativity as more of a burden than an asset in the classroom. Since creative people tend to ignore social conventions, they can give a hard time to teachers trying to manage a class of twenty or more students.

Sternberg and Williams, both psychology professors, have pointed out that young children tend to be more creative than older ones because society curbs spontaneity with time – for example, by expecting children to colour within the lines in their colouring books. Innovative ideas are not readily accepted by the masses:

"When creative ideas are proposed, they are often viewed as bizarre, useless, and even foolish, and are summarily rejected, and the person proposing them regarded with suspicion and perhaps even disdain and derision…. Creative ideas are both novel and valuable. Why, then, are they rejected? Because the creative innovator stands up to vested interests and defies the crowd and its interests. The crowd does not maliciously or willfully reject creative notions; rather it does not realize, and often does not want to realize, that the proposed idea represents a valid and superior way of thinking. The crowd generally perceives opposition to the status quo as annoying, offensive, and reason enough to ignore innovative ideas….Although people typically want others to love their ideas, immediate universal applause for an idea usually indicates that it is not particularly creative". (How to Develop Student Creativity)

Sternberg and Williams suggest various ways of encouraging creativity among students. The main way is for educators to serve as role models for creativity. Other ways include cross-fertilizing ideas, rewarding creative ideas and products, encouraging sensible risks, promoting self-responsibility and self-regulation, and delaying gratification.

Of course there have been some cynical approaches to creativity, as in Albert Einstein’s statement, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” However, the concept has been associated with leadership, career success, energy, sanity, empowerment and individuality:

• “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs

• “But the person who scored well on an SAT will not necessarily be the best doctor or the best lawyer or the best businessman. These tests do not measure character, leadership, creativity, perseverance.“ William J. Wilson

• “I firmly believe that all human beings have access to extraordinary energies and powers. Judging from accounts of mystical experience, heightened creativity, or exceptional performance by athletes and artists, we harbor a greater life than we know.” Jean Houston

• “For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.” Jean Dubuffet

• “I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.” Bill Gates

• “Living creatively is really important to maintain throughout your life. And living creatively doesn't mean only artistic creativity, although that's part of it. It means being yourself, not just complying with the wishes of other people.“ Matt Groening

University students need to understand that there’s more to life than conventional textbook information (or web information for that matter). Get a life – be creative.


Posted by May Mikati on 14 February 2012, 12:52 PM

Must We Still Travel? - 12 February 2012

Must We Still Travel?


Has the internet relieved us of the need to travel? Partially perhaps.

St. Augustine once said, "The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only one page." This would have been true until very recently. The internet has changed the world, however. In this global village we now inhabit, communication across borders is easier than ever. There are virtual worlds out there reducing the need for travel. Online education and training, virtual business meetings, and applications such as Google Earth are just a few examples. Before we know it, tele-immersion will be at our fingertips.

“What is tele-immersion?” you may ask. It is technology, using holographic environments, which will allow users in different parts of the world to interact virtually, in real time, in three-dimensional space, giving them the illusion that they are talking face-to-face in the same room. While tele-portation is a far-fetched futuristic idea, tele-immersion is not. Its applications will include contexts such as conferences, theatre and sports performances, education and training (such as that of soldiers and doctors), and tele-presence in other remote or hazardous situations. The technology will allow users to have unrestricted views of other users’ environments, greatly surpassing current video-conferencing. Some holiday travel may also be replaced with tele-immersion. Of course there will be technical hurdles, such as bandwidth issues and the need for expensive supercomputers, but, as with any new technology, these hurdles can gradually be overcome.

In the future, the curious and restless among us will still want to explore far-away places at first hand, in a manner similar to that of Robert Louis Stevenson who once said, “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” However, future travel will be more out of choice than necessity when the new technology succeeds.


Posted by May Mikati on 12 February 2012, 9:37 AM

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