Academically Adrift
I attended an online seminar today entitled, Academically Adrift: Findings and Lessons for Improvement. The speakers (who were also the principal researchers) discussed some very interesting findings to their research using the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA). Their research focused on the question of whether or not students are “improving their critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills during college.” They also asked some secondary questions about student context of learning and how disadvantaged students fared compared to others in these skills.
The metrics they used, from the Collegiate Learning Assessment, were qualitative (scenario-based) rather than quantitative, focusing on essay-writing from research and syntopical reading, rather than multiple-choice assessment. Some of their findings, while not surprising, were illuminating. For instance:
- Since 1960, students have cut the number of hours they study (after class) in HALF.
- Yet, students expect to attain higher grades now then ever before.
- Moreover, student critical thinking ability has actually DECREASED over time and doesn’t improve much once they are in college (it’s even worse among African-Americans and other disadvantaged youth).
Factors cited as reasons for these declines in critical performance included:
- Lack of institutional incentives emphasizing undergraduate learning (the primary reason)
- Students being inadequately prepared
- Students being busy with other things
- Faculty not being adequately prepared to teach
Students majoring in business and education/social work were found to have the least amount of critical thinking skills when measured using the CLA, while students in Math/Sciences and the social sciences scored highest.
College selectivity also was found to be a minor factor; more selective schools had more critical students. Also, students who studied alone, read more than 40 pages per week, and studied more than 20 hours per week were found to perform better on the assessment. When they studied with peers, interestingly, student critical thinking performance tanked.
I wanted to ask them a question during the Q&A session but never got a chance to; or rather, they didn’t get around to answering my question (admittedly I was late to posting it). So the question I asked, which I will also pose to you, is this:
Is there research indicating how students in online education programs (which are generally less selective, but also with more study time alone) perform on measures like the CLA?
Chris Lott directed me to this useful rubric for critical thinking skills for undergraduates: https://my.wsu.edu/portal/page?_pageid=177,276578&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
I love learning and reading. But when I took the library class (the required one at UAF) the only thing my fellow students cared about was finishing the assignment as fast as possible.
I wished (and wish still) that I had instead taken the class online (it was offered as a online course as well.) That way I could have not been driven along with the hoard who wanted to get out of the library, and I would truly have learned all the fabulous reference material that the UAF library had to offer.
It seems people don’t take classes to learn something. They do it to get a degree, to get the job, to get the car and the summer house. And I do believe there is peer pressure. One of the benefits for me studding at UAF was all the writing assignments… and if I told someone that they thought I was being silly. Because “no one likes to write papers”.
I know, it’s a depressing state of affairs. Learning has taken a back seat to ambitious accomplishment..ie. the attainment of goods. Oh well, there is nothing you or I can do about other people’s motivations, and I can’t believe it’s possible to be happy with things over knowledge…but then I only have my own perspective to base that on.