Punch line: A provocative new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” makes a strong case that for a large portion of the nation’s seemingly successful undergraduates the years in college barely improve their skills in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing.
* * * * *
Excerpted from NYT, College the Easy Way
What are America’s kids actually learning in college?
For an awful lot of students, the answer appears to be not much.
Intellectual effort and academic rigor, in the minds of many of the nation’s college students, is becoming increasingly less important.
“Many students come to college not only poorly prepared by prior schooling for highly demanding academic tasks that ideally lie in front of them, but — more troubling still — they enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment.”
Students are hitting the books less and partying more.
Easier courses and easier majors have become more and more popular.
Perhaps more now than ever, the point of the college experience is to have a good time and walk away with a valuable credential after putting in the least effort possible.
What many of those students are not walking away with is something that has long been recognized as invaluable — higher order thinking and reasoning skills. They can get their degrees without putting in more of an effort because in far too many instances the colleges and universities are not demanding more of them.
The average amount of time spent studying by college students has dropped by more than 50 percent since the early 1960s.
But a lack of academic focus has not had much of an effect on grade point averages or the ability of the undergraduates to obtain their degrees.
Thirty-six percent of the students said they studied alone less than five hours a week. Nevertheless, their transcripts showed a collective grade point average of 3.16.
“The colleges and universities have set up a system so that there are ways to navigate through it without taking difficult courses and still get the credential.”
In their first two years of college, 45 percent of the students made no significant improvement in skills related to critical thinking, complex reasoning and communication.
Many of these young men and women are unable to communicate effectively, solve simple intellectual tasks (such as distinguishing fact from opinion), or engage in effective problem-solving.
“It’s important to get the word out about the lack of academic rigor and intellectual engagement that’s occurring at colleges and universities today.”
The Homa Files 