Coming to See Myself as a Vernacular Intellectual

A short essay taken from remarks at the annual 2007 convention on getting the Exemplar Award. I look back over my career as an ongoing attempt to democratize writing--operating from the stance of a vernacular intellectual (a concept coined by Grant Farret)

A Unilateral Grading Contract to Improve Learning and Teaching [co-written with Jane Danielewicz]

Regular grading is a problem for many reasons--but most of all because it so often harms the climate for teaching and learning. In this essay we describe and explain a contract grading system that we have found extremely beneficial to teaching and learning. It\u27s a hybrid system. Students are guaranteed a B if they do all the things laid out in the contract. The teacher gives evaluative feedback as usual, but no teacher judgment can endanger the guaranteed grade. Grades higher than B, however, depend on teacher judgments of writing quality. The central leverage lies in designing a set of activities that--if engaged in over fourteen weeks--will get all students to improve enough to deserve a B

Vernacular Literacy

How our present culture of literacy serves to exclude many many potential writers--and why changing that culture is a sensible and feasible goa

POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES: LESSONS FROM BABAN RAFI, NIGER

This paper is divided into six chapters. The first introduces the central issue under investigation: the hypothesized relation between devolution of authority over natural resources and the sustainable exploitation of those resources. This chapter also provides a discussion of the research methodology employed in the course of the investigation. Chapters 2 and 3 constitute a unit compiling a broad composite of social and (to a lesser degree) physical traits relevant to locally prevailing resource exploitation practices and patterns. Thus chapter 2 consists of a detailed physical and social profile of the site of Baban Rafi, while chapter 3 focuses on past and present resource use and tenure systems. Chapters 4 and 5 address the broad institutional issues that, it is argued, will substantially determine the potential for success of policies based on devolution of forest resource use and management rights. Such issues include present and past legislation and policy, the nature and strength of state structures, state-civil society relations, social structures and organization, intercultural relations, and markets. Chapter 4 describes the institutional and policy environment from a national perspective, while chapter 5 investigates the composition and impact of institutions at the site of Baban Rafi. Chapter 6 summarizes the findings and states the conclusions of the study. This chapter comments especially on policy issues and warns of the potential dangers inherent in the uncritical translation of theory into policy.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Unilateral Grading Contract to Improve Learning and Teaching

Contract grading has achieved some prominence in our field as a practice associated with critical pedagogy. In this context we describe a hybrid grading contract where students earn a course grade of B based not on our evaluation of their writing quality but solely on their completion of the specified activities. The contract lists activities we've found most reliable in producing B-quality writing over fourteen weeks. Higher grades are awarded to students who produce exemplary portfolios. Thus we freely give students lots of evaluative feedback on their writing, but students can count on a course grade of B if they do all the required activities--no matter our feedback. Our goal in using contracts is to enable teachers and students to give as much attention as possible to writing and as little as possible to grades. (Contains 17 notes.

Canadian Orthopaedic Residents Perception of Their Needs in Elbow Surgery Teaching

Introduction: The aim of this paper is to guide training program and review course curriculum planning in elbow disorders. To this end, a nationwide email survey was administered to residents’ in orthopaedic surgery training programs.Material and Methods: The survey had 12 items that examined learning needs in several domains: assessment of acute and chronic elbow disorders, treatment of elbow disorders and the perceived effectiveness of various practical skills simulation sessions. A rank order list of learning needs was created. Results: Eighty-eight of 351 residents completed the survey (25%). Ninety percent of respondents thought that a one-day course would be helpful. The majority of residents felt comfortable evaluating acute traumatic elbow disorders.  Their level of comfort was lower in treatment of elective disorders, with only 4% of residents comfortable managing posterior interosseous nerve and 5% comfortable managing chronic elbow instability. Only 24% of residents were comfortable treating terrible triad injuries.Conclusions: Residents reported a need for additional education in elbow surgery; especially for elective disorders. Educational needs were clustered in several areas including surgical approaches, ligament repair, and surgical management of fracture dislocations

Looking Again at Clarity in Philosophy: Writing as a Shaper and Sharpener of Thought

Bryan Magee's recent paper ‘Clarity in Philosophy’ argues that instead of focusing on clarity at the sentence level, writers should emphasize formulating their ideas clearly before any writing takes place. In part using text-analysis of three well-known philosophers, I will uphold Magee's assertion that clear writing is not necessary in order to be considered a great philosopher. On the other hand, I will challenge his ideas regarding the relationship between language and cognition by reflecting on ways in which writing aids the development of ideas