In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to
college every year. A bachelor's degree is now required for entry
into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin
planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when
they're born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks
the fundamental question posed by "Academically Adrift" are
undergraduates really learning anything once they get there?
For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's
answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive
research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the
first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a
standardized test administered to students in their first semester
and then again at the end of their second year. According to their
analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four
institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no
significant improvement in a range of skills--including critical
thinking, complex reasoning, and writing--during their first two
years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and
Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come
as no surprise--instead, they are the expected result of a student
body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional
culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the
priority list.
"
Academically Adrift" holds sobering lessons for students, faculty,
administrators, policy makers, and parents--all of whom are
implicated in promoting or at least ignoring contemporary campus
culture. Higher education faces crises on a number of fronts, but
Arum and Roksa's report that colleges are failing at their most
basic mission will demand the attention of us all.
General
Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
2011 |
First published: |
2011 |
Authors: |
Richard Arum
|
Dimensions: |
153 x 228 x 23mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
272 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-02856-9 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
General
|
LSN: |
0-226-02856-9 |
Barcode: |
9780226028569 |
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