Waubonsee Community College

Academically adrift, limited learning on college campuses, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-248) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Academically adrift

bibliography

587209637

Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa

Professional development collection

limited learning on college campuses

Are undergraduates really learning anything once they get to college? The answer is no. As troubling as their findings are, the authors argue that for many faculty and administrators this conclusion will come as no surprise and is the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority listThis volume presents a study that followed 2,300 students at 24 universities over the course of four years. The study measured both the amount that students improved in terms of critical thinking and writing skills, in addition to how much they studied and how many papers they wrote for their courses. The authors conclude that college has become less rigorous in general -- in part due to factors such as outreach marketing, the loss of the humanities curriculum, and students' instructor evaluations -- due to their findings that more than a third of students showed no improvement in critical thinking skills after four years at a university

College cultures and student learning -- Origins and trajectories -- Pathways through colleges adrift -- Channeling students' energies toward learning -- A mandate for reform