Inflection point

Setting the treadmill at 12.5 km/h, I had time to think a fair bit before I had completed those 21.1 kilometres and could take the high-speed train back to Gothenburg. Wrapping up a week in Halmstad with lots of teaching, it feels like we are at an inflection point in higher education when the student groups are becoming so heterogeneous that traditional learning activities are no longer meaningful. No matter how much I seek to simplify the content (at the expense of the more advanced students), I still find myself talking above the heads of a large number of students. As far as I can tell, we need to engage these students at a very different level (especially as the number of students with special needs has increased four times over the last twelve years) while, at the same time, provide meaningful learning opportunities for those who are far ahead, something that is simply not possible in a lecture setting.

Though I will have one class on Zoom while in Prague, I will otherwise take a few days off from work now to be with Anna and the boys as I revisit my beloved Central Europe.