Introducing the Issue

It's nice to have data on your side. It isn't the whole answer to anything, but it can narrow the scope of error and improve the odds of doing the next thing you do better than the last. Harry Allen and his colleagues at Ohio State have been doggedly thorough and persistent in tracking the quantifiable effects of their special course for remedial math students. Allen is the first to say they've more to learn, but in the meantime his example has much to teach everyone who cares about making a difference through teaching. The courage to look closely and keep on trying for a positive result isn't as easily come by as one might suppose. Whatever else Allen's data show, they are a model of a scientific dedication to teaching.

Tom Rocklin's TECHPED suggests that faculty may want to learn HTML and Web page design for the same reasons they finally learned word processing--control and the creative opportunities it affords. Al McLeod, in his third major article for the Forum, maintains that group process can affect "learning readiness." The rub is that its influence swings both ways. The negatives of group dynamics center on shame, says McLeod, and shame turns out to be a much more subtle and unintentional matter than we suppose.

To round out this mix of concrete, practical and speculative articles, I've included a sort of "blue sky" speculation on what might be called the pedagogy of delight. The PBS series "Antiques Roadshow" (now one of the most popular programs on television) raises some interesting questions about how and why and what we learn. Could the model of learning seen each week on that program, as participants learn the history and "value" of their treasured possessions be applied in college classrooms? What would it take? What might it mean? It's a show I'd like to see.