Comments for Laree80774's Weblog

Comment on Class Evaluations by Gina

Gina — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:55:40 +0000

Wise thoughts, Lauren. Many people who study education advocate the sort of feedback you advise: dynamic, taking place throughout the semester. At the same time, I think your view is, in some regards, cynical, and I”m sorry if anyone you’ve encountered has led you to that view. Conscientious instructors care about whether they are reaching not just the “average” student, but each student. As such, they read their evaluations seriously. I can guarantee you that there is not one full-time instructor in English Composition, whose evaluations I see (and whose teaching I also evaluate), who does not agonize over bad evaluations–even if only from a couple students–and attempt to take legitimate (constructive) criticism and make changes based upon it.

A couple issues: To assume that a bad grade given a student is a result of bad teaching is, I think, faulty logic. Sometimes that’s the case, and sometimes not. (A good grade is not always a result of good teaching, either.) Also, to assume that commenting on a class is a waste of time assumes that there is no collective gain. Even in the worst case scenario, the fact is that if a teacher is really awful and you give that teacher a negative evaluation and that teacher doesn’t bother to change: then, at least, you’ve done your fellow students a favor by warning them off a bad teacher, have you not?

Comment on Crime Maps: “What’s Going on in your Neighborhood?” by Gina

Gina — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:44:21 +0000

I, too, was fascinated by the “Stanford Circle” crime focus. At the same time, before the shuttle, students often (also under the influence) made poor decisions, mainly in coming home from the Grove or Miami Beach. They walked down Grand Avenue, and often were mugged at gunpoint. Or they drove home, without a designated driver. Trying to figure out whether the Shuttle is valuable to UM students would involve comparing the overall crime rate (including DUIs, hit and runs, accidents, and muggings) before its institution and after.

Comment on The World Without Us by Gina

Gina — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:30:41 +0000

You might be interested in the organization EarthWatch. They have long published an annual assessment of human impacts on the planet, and are involved in various enterprises that promote sustainability. Their emphasis is on working together with scientists to solve environmental problems. Here’s their website.

Comment on Pride by Gina

Gina — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:02:37 +0000

Lauren, you reference Tracey and Robbins–is there a particular article or book you encountered? Is the last question in the blog theirs or yours? Seems as if, if pride is gained as a result of measuring one’s acts against expectations, then it is probably something that accrues over time. In other words, one would need to succeed multiple times in order to gain “authentic” pride. What is the inverse of pride? Shame? Guilt?

Comment on Understanding emotional facial signals by Amy Wilson

Amy Wilson — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:14:40 +0000

This is an interesting post. I took psychology last semester and one thing we learned last semester was that humans are very good at recognizing faces. Even young children show different reactions to faces than other stimuli. I wonder if chimpanzees react in a similar manner. I know it would be very hard for me to tell chimpanzees apart but I assume that chimpanzees would do a much better job of recognizing members of their species. I think this must have an emotional tie as well. The last sentence did throw me off because I think non-verbal communication is very primal. What could it have evolved from? Also, during biology lab we discussed the shared derived characteristics between chimpanzees and humans (basically what sets us apart from primates). Prehensile feet and hands and verbal communication are two examples of the very few things that set us apart from chimps!

Comment on Understanding emotional facial signals by Allison

Allison — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:16:45 +0000

Wow… I would love to take part in this type or research. Evolution has interested me since I was a little girl. Before I ever took a biology class or knew anything about evolution, i would ask my mom why apes and humans are similar. It is funny that there are still people that do not believe in evolution. The evidence out there makes it so obvious and studies like this are so fascinating!

Comment on Understanding emotional facial signals by Gina

Gina — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:38:15 +0000

Hmmm. It would seem as if non-verbal communication would have come before verbal communication–or, at least, that’s the general view of evolutionary biologists, isn’t it? So your second-to-last sentence is a bit misleading. The pressures, then, with regard to language formation, would presumably have acted upon the already extant facility for recognizing, from external cues, another creature’s internal state (or emotion). Or, perhaps, since a good deal was already being communicated by physical cues–not only facial, but also postural–could language have evolved on some parallel track? Maybe simply on physical bases, like throat and glottal configuration?

Comment on Mirror Neurons by Gina

Gina — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:25:30 +0000

Andy raises an interesting point: is all communication the same, neurologically? It certainly isn’t in terms of methods, so perhaps brain functions are quite different. Does evolution ipso facto mean congruent functions across all primates? As for mirror neurons, they’re fascinating in their own right: many scientists conjecture that they play a role in behaviors we would term “empathic”.

Comment on Mirror Neurons by andy88

andy88 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:23:18 +0000

Seems like pretty interesting research, it be interesting to see how human/primate language patterns could be compared with those of sea mammals such as dolphins or seals. Dolphins and whales communicate by what appears(sounds like) as completely different methods than humans or even primates, but perhaps there are similarities worth noting, considering both monkeys and whales/dolphins are taught to communicate with humans for performance of tricks.

Comment on Mirror Neurons by Kathryn

Kathryn — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:29:48 +0000

I think the discovery of mirror neurons was a great step toward better understanding language and how it developed. It is really interesting to think that human language did start as more of a visual language instead of the verbal language it is now.