A few thoughts about why improving student learning in the US higher ed context is so hard to do. (These ideas may apply elsewhere, but I’m thinking specifically about US higher ed.) 1. Improving student learning requires changing student behavior – changing the things students do in order to learn. Students learn by doing – by playing, interacting, manipulating, reading, watching, listening, reflecting, arguing, summarizing, etc. Faculty can promote student learning only by influencing what students do. Faculty exercise this influence in two ways: through the specific activities they assign students to do, and through the ways they support them…