Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses

Amazon.com: Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses
"In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year.
A bachelor’s degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions.
And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they’re born.
Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question posed by Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there?

For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s answer to that question is a definitive no
.
Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year.
According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college."

No comments: