Hello everyone, and welcome back to CAE!
I've wanted to start off the semester by sharing some of my reflections on the book "Academically Adrift" by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. In the book, the authors described the study of over 2300 students in twenty-four four-year institutions across the US. The researchers have measured the students' critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills through the tool called Collegiate Learning assessment (CLA) in the beginning of the students' freshman year and at the end of their sophomore year. The outcomes of the study suggest that there weren't any statistically significant gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills for at least 45 percent of students. In other words, the students’ academic pathways adrift.
Although the findings of this study may sound disheartening, there were some important take-away ideas from the book. Importantly, the factors were mentioned that influence students' development of the above-mentioned skills. Most certainly, the prior academic preparation play the dominant role in how well the students develop critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills after they enter college. The better prepared the students are when they enter college - the more they develop during their college years. But most important, what students do in college also matters. Students’ college experiences and institutions attended make almost as much of a difference as prior academic preparation. For instance, equalizing academic preparation between African-American and white students would substantially reduce but not eliminate the gap between them. That means that some of the white – African-American student gap might be due to differential higher education experiences.
The following is the list of factors that the authors found contributing to the improvement of critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills of students on college campuses:
Moreover, the achievement gap between white – African-American students is influenced by the subtle cultural factors. The fear of “stereotype threat” leads to a lower performance. For instance, even subtle cues such as being asked to identify one’s race before a GRE-like verbal test can lead African-American students to perform less well.
More on the topic: Arum R., Roksa, J. (2011). Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses
I've wanted to start off the semester by sharing some of my reflections on the book "Academically Adrift" by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. In the book, the authors described the study of over 2300 students in twenty-four four-year institutions across the US. The researchers have measured the students' critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills through the tool called Collegiate Learning assessment (CLA) in the beginning of the students' freshman year and at the end of their sophomore year. The outcomes of the study suggest that there weren't any statistically significant gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills for at least 45 percent of students. In other words, the students’ academic pathways adrift.
Although the findings of this study may sound disheartening, there were some important take-away ideas from the book. Importantly, the factors were mentioned that influence students' development of the above-mentioned skills. Most certainly, the prior academic preparation play the dominant role in how well the students develop critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills after they enter college. The better prepared the students are when they enter college - the more they develop during their college years. But most important, what students do in college also matters. Students’ college experiences and institutions attended make almost as much of a difference as prior academic preparation. For instance, equalizing academic preparation between African-American and white students would substantially reduce but not eliminate the gap between them. That means that some of the white – African-American student gap might be due to differential higher education experiences.
The following is the list of factors that the authors found contributing to the improvement of critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills of students on college campuses:
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Studying on one’s own. The study reports that the
average students studies less than two hours a day, and about twelve hours a
week. African-American students reported studying two hours less per week than
white students.
-
Hours spent in a fraternity/sorority are negatively
correlated with student development outcomes.
-
Working with faculty that has high expectations for
their students.
-
Reading/writing course requirements. Half of students
in the study have not taken a single course that required more than 20 pages of
writing, and one-third have not taken a course that required more than 40 pages
of reading per week. Note that the more academic work and higher academic
demands are associated with the development of a sense of academic purpose or
academic commitment.
Interestingly, the study has not found the positive relationship between the
number of hours students spend studying with peers and improvement in CLA
scores. To my opinion, this has to do with time on task – which is what students struggle with when they study with peers. Moreover, the achievement gap between white – African-American students is influenced by the subtle cultural factors. The fear of “stereotype threat” leads to a lower performance. For instance, even subtle cues such as being asked to identify one’s race before a GRE-like verbal test can lead African-American students to perform less well.
More on the topic: Arum R., Roksa, J. (2011). Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses
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