OT: College is a waste of time?

[Pete Dashwood]

Following on from discusdsion in some current threads here I came across
this:

"There are now ways to measure learning, chief among them the Collegiate
Learning Assessment. Known as the CLA, the essay-only test gives students a
set of materials and asks them to synthesize evidence and write a persuasive
argument. More than five hundred colleges use the exam to measure their
curriculum and teaching, although few release the results, or even averages,
publicly.

There are reasons they don't want the public to know the truth. A few years
ago, two researchers tracked a representative sample of 2,300 students at 24
colleges and universities who took the CLA three times in their college
careers: at the beginning of their freshman year, at the end of their
sophomore year, and finally, before graduation.

The study's bottom line: 45 percent of students in the study made no gains
in their writing, complex reasoning, or critical-thinking skills during
their first two years of college. After four years, the news wasn't much
better: 36 percent failed to show any improvement.

The main reason for this, the researchers found, was a lack of rigor.
Through surveys they learned that students spent about 12 hours a week
studying on average, much of that time in groups. Most didn't take courses
that required them to read more than 40 pages a week or write more than 20
pages over the course of an entire semester.

Students who studied alone did better, as did students whose teachers had
high expectations or assigned a significant amount of reading or writing.
Those who majored in the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences, and
math did the best. And the majors that did the worst? Education, social
work, and the most popular major on US college campuses: business."

So, it looks as if you are better off studying on your own, doing a lot of
reading (and writing...) and being suspicious of Education, Social work,
and Business, as taught in US Colleges.

It seems the first two years at College are pointless so you might as well
save your money and go in the third year :-)

Pete.

--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."

[Alistair Maclean]

On Saturday, 11 May 2013 01:29:42 UTC+1, Pete Dashwood wrote:
> Following on from discusdsion in some current threads here I came across
> this: "There are now ways to measure learning, chief among them the Collegiate

> Learning Assessment. ... It seems the first two years at College are pointless

> so you might as well save your money and go in the third year

Perhaps the cause of the problem is that few educational institues teach critical
reasoning as a subject. Certainly, my school and university relied upon learning
by rote and not critical reasoning.

[0rober...@gmail.com]

I think that the biggest lesson to be learnt by prospective students is to work at it. I also think that, while they have their place, multiple response tests do little towards teaching and testing students on how to put together a reasoned argument or explanation based upon acquired facts.
Robert