Our Underachieving Colleges (eBook)

A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More - New Edition

Derek Bok (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2009 | New Edition
440 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-3133-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Drawing on a large body of empirical evidence, former Harvard President Derek Bok examines how much progress college students actually make toward widely accepted goals of undergraduate education. His conclusions are sobering. Although most students make gains in many important respects, they improve much less than they should in such important areas as writing, critical thinking, quantitative skills, and moral reasoning. Large majorities of college seniors do not feel that they have made substantial progress in speaking a foreign language, acquiring cultural and aesthetic interests, or learning what they need to know to become active and informed citizens. Overall, despite their vastly increased resources, more powerful technology, and hundreds of new courses, colleges cannot be confident that students are learning more than they did fifty years ago. Looking further, Bok finds that many important college courses are left to the least experienced teachers and that most professors continue to teach in ways that have proven to be less effective than other available methods. In reviewing their educational programs, however, faculties typically ignore this evidence. Instead, they spend most of their time discussing what courses to require, although the lasting impact of college will almost certainly depend much more on how the courses are taught. In his final chapter, Bok describes the changes that faculties and academic leaders can make to help students accomplish more. Without ignoring the contributions that America's colleges have made, Bok delivers a powerful critique--one that educators will ignore at their peril.

Autor

Derek Bok is President Emeritus and Research Professor at Harvard University and the author of many major books on higher education, including (with William Bowen) The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions and Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education (both Princeton).

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.2.2009
• Reihe/Serie: The William G. Bowen Series
• Reihe/Serie: The William G. Bowen Series
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Lernhilfen ► Sekundarstufe I
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Erwachsenenbildung
• Schlagworte: academic degree • Academic tenure • active citizenship • Active learning • Allan Bloom • alumnus • Aptitude • awareness • Bachelor's degree • Basic writing • Career • Citizenship • civic engagement • Classroom • Cognitive skill • College • community service • coursework • critical thinking • Curriculum • Doctor of Philosophy • dormitory • Education • educational program • Educational Research • Ethical Dilemma • extracurricular activity • Faculty (academic staff) • Foreign Language • freshman • Funding • general knowledge • Global Citizenship • Grading (education) • Graduate school • Graduation • great books • Harvard College • higher education • Howard Gardner • indoctrination • Institution • International Relations • International Student • Internship • James Shulman • language proficiency • Law School • learning • Lecture • lecturer • Legislation • Liberal arts education • Liberal Education • Major (academic) • medical school • Moral Development • Moral Reasoning • National Survey of Student Engagement • New Course • of education • Pedagogy • percentage • Philosopher • Political Correctness • Political Philosophy • Political Science • Politics • Profession • Professional School • Professor • Public Policy • Public speaking • Racism • Requirement • Scholarship • Scientist • secondary education • Seed Money • Seminar • Skill • Social Science • Student • Student leader • Students' union • Suggestion • Teacher • Teacher Education • teaching assistant • Teaching Method • Technology • Test (assessment) • To this Day • Tuition payments • Tutor • undergraduate education • University • vocational education • Writing • year
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-3133-4 / 1400831334
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-3133-3 / 9781400831333