Mathemagenic

Lois Ann Scheidt:

At the The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (IS_SoTL) conference I was present during a panel discussion where a conference attendee asked the presenter about the "role of a critical friend." The term grabbed me and I knew I had to spend a bit of time finding out what it meant. After some web searching I found the following definition and citation.

A critical friend can be defined as a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens, and offers critiques of a person’s work as a friend. A critical friend takes the time to fully understand the context of the work presented and the outcomes that the person or group is working toward. The friend is an advocate for the success of that work

Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (1993) Through the Lens of a Critical Friend. Educational Leadership 51(2) 49-51

I have been blessed with a few wonderful critical friends who, through their prodding and reservoirs of insight, help me hone my arguments and craft my over all presentation to make the best use of my points, and often they simply keep my spirits up so I can continue working on whatever I am working on at the time. I value their input and hope that I come close to providing the same level of catalyst for their work as well.

I like the term "critical friend," someone whose input is critical to the process and from whom one can expect friendly criticism. Both very necessary to an academic life.

I guess this is pretty much my definition of a friend :)

I woke up still hoping for the best only to find out maps of US in red everywhere. Time to do some workout learning to control my lizard brain...

Britt Blaser:

Each generation must learn anew that real strength lies in mastering oneself, and not in applying force to one's imputed enemies. Sometimes it's everything we can do just to overcome our inner dragon.

More reasons to work on understanding how people learn thinking...

Evening update:

I don't talk much about politics anyway, but today seems to be special. Just a few notes:

1. It's facinating to see the story unfolding through weblogs: arguments, actions, hope, voting reports, quiet hope, dissappointments, getting back to life thinking what could be done with it.

2. I haven't realised how divided is the country. Looking at blue-red-blue US map is self-explanatory, but Alex puts some qualifiers on it. Kerry Victory Speech:

Good morning. I am proud to announce that I am the new leader of the Democratic Union of West and East Coasts (DUWEC). Late last night, it became clear that our nation is divided. On one side, the progressive and liberal secular values that made America, on the other, a radical expansionist, fundamentalist, faith-based project (Christian Reactionist American Patriots). This division is tearing our nation apart, and it has become clear that the differences are insurmountable.

[...]89% of states in DUWEC rank over the national average for knowledge workers, 79% rank over the national average on innovation capacity, 75% rank over the national average on measures of globalization of their economies, and 84% rank above the national average in terms of their digital economies. Given these numbers, it’s no surprise that the average income is 22% higher in DUWEC states than in CRAP states. The average state in the DUWEC has 104 post-secondary institutions, while in CRAP, the average state has 68. Not surprisingly, then, the percentage of people with bachelors degrees is far higher in DUWEC states. [continue reading...]