The Toolbox Collection • Volume 3: Assessment of Student Learning
I
INTRODUCTION
n our 21st century culture, higher education has taken quite a beating. Many say it’s not worth the expense, and that students would be better off simply enrolling in the “School of Life” or its graduate equivalent, “The School of Hard Knocks.” These kinds of observations are not uniquely new. In 1934, Stanford professor Walter Crosby Eells observed: They say that our universities are aimless institutions that have prostituted themselves to every public whim, serving as everything from a reformatory to an amusement park; they are only service stations for the general public; they are a bargain-counter system presided over by quacks; they are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds dimmed … The ultimate values of college education are best summarized in the well-known fact that with a Harvard diploma and a dime one can get a cup of coffee anywhere. The colleges are shamelessly robbing men of priceless years; in a half-century the degeneration of the American college will be complete. (pp. 187, 189) Eells went on to take issue with these “picturesque exaggerations,” as he described them. It would appear that higher education has been, and will always be, under the microscope of public scrutiny. For higher education professionals, it would be quite natural to take offense at negative comments about the perceived quality of the field in general, and, more specifically, the quality of instruction at the course level. Obviously, none of us can make the changes necessary to fix all of the prevailing concerns about the quality and value of a college degree. Each of us can, however, assure that the courses we personally teach are offered at an optimal level that responds to the learning needs of our students. As an example, consider the following questions as they relate to your own actions as a faculty member:
Sometimes we can’t quite put our finger on something important because we’ve got all of our fingers wrapped around a bunch of other things that are not important. -Craig D. Lounsbrough, counselor/writer
»» What is important for students to learn and demonstrate in the courses that you teach? »» How do you know whether they are actually mastering the prescribed course content? 2
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