ctse_newsletter_spr12

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Center for Teaching and Scholarly Excellence CTSE Newsletter

Spring 2012

Vol. 8, No. 2

Less Work, Higher Grades Are college students learning anything?

Today, they spend 27 hours. Yet when today’s entering freshmen are asked whether they expect to earn a GPA of a “B” or higher in college, 70 percent say yes. Back in 1971, only 27 percent said yes. More disturbing still: When researchers from the Social Sciences Research Council gave more than 2,300 students at 24 colleges the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) – a test that poses complex questions based on workplacelike scenarios to assess critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills – 36 percent of students showed no statistically significant gains from their freshmen to senior years. “Not even one point on a

scale from zero to one hundred,” says New York University sociology professor Richard Arum, who directed the study. Dr. Arum presented the latest data from the six-year longitudinal study at a recent CTSE event. Earlier findings were published in Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, a book Arum co-authored with University of Virginia sociologist Josipa Roksa, which rattled the academic world when released in early 2011. The research project followed students from two dozen diverse institutions from their freshman year to two years past graduation, measuring their progress through surveys, transcripts, and direct assessment with the CLA. Arum says prior research has exaggerated how much learning takes place at college because it has relied only on self-reports – asking students how much they think they’ve

IN THIS ISSUE Stimulating Simulations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Coaches for Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Students With Disabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Scholarship in Teaching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Where Students Get Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Having a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Photo by Rachel Katz

In the early 1960s, college students, when polled, reported spending about 40 hours a week studying or in class, according to research by economists Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks.

Richard Arum, co-author of Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, led a six-year study of learning among 2,300 college students.

learned. “We’re Americans … If you ask, are you a better-than-average driver, 85 percent of us will say yes.” Arum and his colleagues discovered that, over four years of college, many students show no gains in their ability to write clearly and think critically, at least as measured by the CLA. (For sample questions, see collegiatelearningassessment.org.) By major, CLA gains were highest in the traditional arts and sciences and lowest in communications, business, social work and education. Differences in student learning were not associated with parent background but were strongly associated with race. “We continued on page 2

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