If you’ve ever taken the time to wander around the typical college campus on a Friday night – or even a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Weekend night for that matter – you likely already know that the most popular things to do in college are drink, do drugs, engage in sexual congress and otherwise wile away the hours in non-academic and unproductive pursuits. A new study, however, points out officially that college students are not actually learning very much in school. The study, which tracked 2,300 undergraduates, found that 45% of them showed no real improvement in various important measures of critical thinking, reasoning and writing abilities.
As it turns out, American universities and colleges also appear to be dumbing down the curriculum to meet the specific "needs" (if you will) of students. Half of the students in the study did not take a course that required 20 pages of writing or more during the prior semester of their studies. The findings of this particular study are presented in a new book titled "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses." The study was put together by a pair of sociologists, who have a knack for studying the obvious. Still, the work produced by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa does shed light on what most must suspect already.
Noted David Paris, the president of the New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, "The great thing, if you can call it that, is that it’s going to spark a dialogue and focus on the actual learning issue. What kind of intellectual growth are we seeing in college?"
As it turns out, American universities and colleges also appear to be dumbing down the curriculum to meet the specific "needs" (if you will) of students. Half of the students in the study did not take a course that required 20 pages of writing or more during the prior semester of their studies. The findings of this particular study are presented in a new book titled "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses." The study was put together by a pair of sociologists, who have a knack for studying the obvious. Still, the work produced by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa does shed light on what most must suspect already.
Noted David Paris, the president of the New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, "The great thing, if you can call it that, is that it’s going to spark a dialogue and focus on the actual learning issue. What kind of intellectual growth are we seeing in college?"
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