Study Says Students Learn Little in College
January 19, 2011
A new book is claiming that students learn very little during college.
"Academically Adrift," which was just released yesterday, tracks the progress of 2,300 students through the Collegiate Learning Assessment test taken three times during college. The study found that about 45 percent of the students showed no significant gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication after two years of college. More disturbingly, 36 percent performed no better after four years. Students who did improve during college did so modestly.
"How much are students actually learning in contemporary higher education?" write the authors Richard Arum, professor of sociology and education at New York University, and Josipa Roksa, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. "The answer for many undergraduates, we have concluded, is not much."
Lack of rigor appears to be part of the problem. The study found that many students are taking undemanding courses: About a third took no courses where they read more than 40 pages per week, and half said they never took a class in a typical semester that required writing more than 20 pages. Nevertheless, students earned a 3.2 grade-point average.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Arum pointed out that graduating more students will not make the United States more economically competitive. Rather, he said, academic rigor is what's needed.
"You can't just get it through osmosis at these institutions," he told the AP.
The conclusions confirm the findings of another recent study conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which found that less than five percent of schools require economics and less than a quarter have a solid literature requirement. Of more than 700 institutions included, 60 percent received a "C" or below for requiring three or fewer subjects.
"ACTA's study of more than 700 top colleges and universities around the country, enrolling over 6 million students, shows that students can graduate from college without ever having exposure to composition, literature, foreign language or American history," writes ACTA President Anne D. Neal in a Washington Post blog. "Is it any wonder that students learn little and do little, when colleges today expect little of them?"
Higher education officials have weighed in on the new book as well. "In the race to completion, there is this assumption that a credit is a credit is a credit, and when you get to the magic number of credits, you will have learned what you need to learn," noted Debra Humphreys, vice president for communications and public affairs of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, who was quoted by Inside Higher Ed. But she added that the book shows that "you can accumulate an awful lot of credits and not learn anything.
Compiled by Yaffa Klugerman
Sources:
"'Academically Adrift,'" Inside Higher Ed, January 18, 2011, Scott Jaschik
"Guest Post: 'Academically Adrift,' Indeed," The Washington Post, January 19, 2011, Daniel de Vise
"Students Not Learning a Lot in College, Tracking Study Finds," Associated Press, January 19, 2011, Eric Gorski
