Academically Adrift

I have not read this book, but it is certainly getting a lot of attention in academic and political circles. Written by two sociologists, Arum and Roska, the study uses data from the Collegiate Learning Assessment. This standardized test is given to college students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. The goal is to measure how much students have learned in 2 years of college. Their finding--students don't do much better in critical thinking, complex reasoning, or writing after spending 2 years in college.

What are students doing in college? Socializing and working it seems. At the same time, colleges apparently put little emphasis on these skills. As a professor I know that assigning work that will take a lot of time to grade gives me pause. There are so many other demands on my time, that I want to minimize the time spent grading. Does this mean my assignments are more simplistic? Perhaps.

A few questions I will want to investigate. Did college students in the past learn more? Have things changed? In the past colleges were more selective in their admissions and fewer students went to college. Did those students learn more, or did they come to college with those skills already? And, are these the skills we want college to emphasize? Are there other things college students are learning that are important?

Around the same time as Academically Adrift was released another study looking at writing in Texas colleges was published. That study found that students did little writing in their college courses.

I think about my own courses. I think the writing skills of students definitely improves over time. Most of my seniors are writing better than my first year students. But, I don't have a lot of writing in my courses. Maybe I need to think about increasing the writing components. I would like to find ways to increase complexity without increasing significantly the time I spend grading.