So I finally found an interesting article that didn't have to do with Libya, politics, or what's going on with Charlie Sheen.
The article is from the Akron Beacon Journal's Eric Gorski, and it concerns, well...you.
Read it HERE.
What does this mean? Are you actually getting something out of your college education? Or is this merely a trampoline for you to bounce on for four (or five or six) years until you're ready to feed yourselves?
You know what I want...300-400 words, on this topic. Be thoughtful about your experiences. I want to know if this guy is right, and if so, why.
-- MP
I think it just depends on the person when figuring out if people are getting anything out of college. Everyone is different and some put more into college than others do. I know for me, in college I am actually doing better than I did in high school. You would think that would be the case for others as well since you are paying big bucks for your education. Instead, it is the opposite which does make me wonder. I do think that college has more distractions than high school did so that might be why the percents are so low. I know some people have told me they really haven't learned alot of new things in college, but I can't say the same for myself. Since my major is fashion merchandising and you can't learn that in high school I would say I have been learning alot. Some people might just say they haven't learned alot because they are just taking general classes and haven't got into there major classes yet. I think it just depends on what college it is and what kind of students are attending. I know for me, college has been sort of a struggle at times so for me to struggle through college, I would say in that case you have to learn something from it and be able to take at least one thing you learned from college into the "real world" and apply it. It might also depend on what kind of high school the students were at. I know just from talking with my friends some of them had higher levels of classes than my school did, which means they could of been more educated before they even started college. So when they do finally go to college and have to take another class about the same as it was taught high school they just repeat it and don't learn anything new. I think there could be many reasons on why students may not learn alot in college. it's just one of those things that we never come to terms with the way I see it.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those students who took out big loans to go to college and as disapointed as i am with this statistic it doesnt matter to me much. I know that i myself am learning alot from being here and i could care less if other people are not learning. Its there on fault for not making the most of their academic experience here you can't force students to learn you can only try to help them learn. But what i find interesting is that the article only looks at students learning key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years. This is only a small fraction of what students can learn in college. Given that most classes make you write papers there are students out there that are really good at everything else but are not very good so much in the writting aspect. I do agree alot with the fact that is harder to study with other people and dont end up learning as much. The people around you can be a huge distraction when trying to study. I have been diagnosed with ADD and have been strugling all my life trying to focus on my studies and find it alot easier to do alone in quite. I also can understand how people in greek life can learn less and not do as well in school. I am in greek life and i find it difficult to balance the two. I know most people think its just about partying but there's alot of work involved in it and alot of places and things you have to show up to it can be stressful and hard to manage your time. I think if you can understand that school is the most important thing your doing right now and stay focused on it you can overcome the struggles of college life and actually learn more in your classes
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see where the statistics shown in the article are coming from and I'm sad to say that they are true for most college students. My college education is being paid for mostly by my parents, but I will have some student loans to pay off when I leave here. I feel like a lot of students are coming into college having no idea what they want to do with their lives. I am not saying that being an exploratory major is a waste of your time, because your first two years you can get your core classes out of the way. But without a general idea of what you want to major in or where you want to go in life, you are wasting your time and money being in college for who knows what. I feel like I am getting something out of my college experience. I am currently taking 19 credit hours, am involved in 8 different clubs and work 12 hours a week. If anything I am learning about time management and how to balance things out in my life without my parents being here telling me how I should handle and prioritize things. Of coarse I know that my school work comes before anything else, but I also feel like I am being babied, and the only way for me to truly learn is to go through college without someone holding my hand. Part of this may be because I am a freshman and the first semester they want to make easy for you. That is no excuse for second semester though. I still have two or three classes where if things are late its okay, and if you don't understand the assignment its okay to just not do it rather than try to make something of it. Content wise- I feel like I have learned some new things, however I feel like a lot of it is just a review of what I have previously learned. I think by the time I reach the second semester of my sophomore year I will be learning all new content, and things wont seem as much like a review anymore. I am a good student and know that I have to be if I want to make anything of myself after college. I am an early childhood education major and there is an extreme over load of early ed. teachers in todays society. If I want to get a job after school I need to do whatever it takes to make myself look good on paper so that I can get involved. If it means taking a ton of credit hours, working and squeezing in as many clubs as I can, so be it. After these four years are done I'll be out in the real world on my own. I feel like by the time that 4 year mark comes I will be ready to be out on my own. The only way to make sure that students will be prepared for the real world after college is that they stay on top of their school work and necessities while in college so when they get out, they are prepared academically, mentally and socially for the real world. College prepares students for all three of these things. It is up to the students to take advantage of what the school as to offer and decide if they are going to use that to help prepare them for their future.
ReplyDelete-Kaitlyn Huml
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ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting topic considering my friend and I were discussing this same matter this morning. I do agree with the author's opinion that people going to college really aren't learning as much as one would expect upon entering a university. I myself had the belief that once I began attending KSU that my mind would begin to evolve and I would gain a better understanding of my field of study as well as how to write papers and etc. I find myself finishing up my fourth year here and wondering not only where the time has gone but my money as well. I have taken all of the required courses to prepare myself for a future in my field but find that I seem to be learning the same things over and over (Some of my classes are still teaching me about things I learned in General Psychology in my freshmen year). So to answer the question of "Does college better prepare you for the future?" my answer would have to be no with a small mix of yes. The classes geared toward your major are useful tools in learning complex ideas of your field of study but electives do not help you at all in some cases. Some students (including myself) take easy electives just to boost their GPA and get an easy grade but how does this really help in the real world? I mean if I am going to be a counselor then how does Music as a world phenomenon apply to me? Or really any class outside my major? It doesn't and it is not helping me learn. If schools really wanted to better prepare us for the future and make us learn, they would bring us in, teach us what we need to know, and let us go.
ReplyDelete-David Hacker
I agree with the article that most college students are learning as much as they should be. Myself being one of them. I do think that most of the blame falls on the students because the material if often available for us. It just comes down to if we want to absorb it or not. Many students often do not read their text books because a lot of the time exams take 80% or more of their questions from lecture. This is where I think a little of the blame falls of the professors, Their students would learn much more if they were responsible for non lecture material at least in general education classes. Another reason some students get less out of classes is because they don’t have anything to do with their major. I think that not reading is for the most part temporary for most college students as long as they can drop the habit when it come time for them to start their major corse work. It is the student that continue not reading or “playing the game called school” that lacking the knowledge they are supposed to have when they graduate. I do regret not trying as hard in my first years of school and I am sure there was knowledge that I missed out on. I am also sure that I am far more interested in my major corse work that I will be doing the reading and learning as much as I can while having job outside of school as well. There should also be more done to encourage more people to go to college and the public schools should better prepare their juniors and seniors for college by expecting more of them. There are also problems with school requiring classes that have the potential to wreak your gpa that have nothing to do with your major.
ReplyDeleteThe article by Eric Gorski states new statistics that show what many students have thought for a very long time. Many students feel like they are not really learning much of anything while they are at college, and many others feel like they are learning when they cram before a test but this is not the case because they do not retain the information. Let's face it, most of the college community does not really care about anything other than the final grade in the class, and there are so many classes that are based off just tests. I know in several of my classes in my two years at Kent State I have had at least 5 classes which the grade was based solely off of tests. Many of these classes also did not even follow a book, but instead the professor said that we would have our tests based off of the lectures that were given instead of the information in the book. Yet another reality check, most students are not going to read the textbook if the professor tells them that the test is lecture based. A written test may not always be the best way to check learning. Critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing are some of the main areas that students go to college to improve upon. When there is a test coming out saying that forty-five percent of students are showing no significant improvement in these areas, we might have to be reconsidering what exactly our universities are teaching us. The United States is continuing to fall behind other nations intellectually, and like Gorski said, raising the graduation rates may not be the way that we improve. Different measures need to be taken by universities to ensure that the students are getting the learning that they are paying for. It is a necessity for the universities to do this otherwise the United States could fall farther behind.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, sometimes it is too easy to say that an individual’s life can be decided by his or her own. Since it is socially acceptable to go to college, you might be a loser and less qualified to deal with the harsh competition in the society. Society tells us we have to finish college to be successful. However, a college degree, as many have found, is no guarantee of a satisfying job.
ReplyDeleteThere are inevitably students feel a drag at sitting in the classroom listening to the endless lectures. I always find students logging on Facebook chatting or keeping texting in the classroom, as if what the professor is saying has nothing to do with them. It is understandable that not everyone is interested in critical thinking when it comes to some serious topics—racism, environment, capitalism, cloning, political hostility, etc, and not everyone is talented at complicated math problem, or difficult and grinding reading, or ton of writing homework. But studying some seemingly irrelative courses will benefit students in the long run.
Essentially, that is why college is set up. I think students should consider the purpose of college before they enter one, and how college will benefit the life purpose and the dreams. As a transfer student from China, I am so surprised to find that some American students unable to spell the long word such as “illegitimate”, “multiculturalism”, and tell the different usage between “affect” and “effect”. I cannot figure out why some students in my philosophy class last semester read less quickly than I do. However, it is not all student’ fault. The societal pressure also contributes to a "troubled institution. Driven by careerism and professional education, the nation's colleges . . . are more successful in credentialing (for future jobs) than in providing a quality education." No wonder the mismatch between faculty expectations and the academic preparation of us student. No wonder the disjointed curriculum whose “disciplines have fragmented into smaller and smaller pieces, unrelated to an educational whole.”
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I believe the author is not completely wrong but not completely right either. Although some courses are easier than others and do not require much effort that does not account for the many other course that do require much effort to pass and especially pass with a decent grade. I believe it depends on two aspects, the teacher, and the amount of effort a student puts into a class. A student can go through their whole college career learning almost nothing because they just wanted to pass their classes and not necessarily get a good grade. They got into the easiest major and took the easiest courses in order to just “get by” until graduation. What is this going to get them? NOTHING. They might have graduated college but if they took nothing from it than they might as well not have gone at all. Now they probably have a major that they hate and never want to get a job with so they have wasted a significant deal of time and money. That is the student effort side of it now I will tell you the teacher point of view.
ReplyDeleteThere is a large range of professors that teach at a university, some good, and some bad. This means a student can have the same class as another student and have two completely different teachers. One teacher can ensure the student is learning by providing assignments that are far from tedious and promote the student’s learning process. They are completely focused on their teaching and although they want their students to receive a good grade in the course are dedicated to making sure they actually get something out of the course. On the other hand there are teachers who might care about their student’s learning process but are really more set on giving tedious assignments and almost hoping the student fails. I know that is an extreme way to say it and that is probably not what they mean to do but that is when the student gets nothing out of a class. They go to class for the attendance points and maybe do a few of the tedious assignments and barely pass but blame it on the teacher for their C or D grade and move on.
I believe I am getting something out of most of my classes because if I am paying for it, I want to learn. I realize that sometimes I do not put in as much effort as I really should but most of the time I am committed to learning aspects to enhance my future.
I really think it depends on the person. Some people will do better in college than in high school and some will be the other way around. Some people who go to college don't even want to go. They can be there because their parents or simply because of tradition. And if either one of those is the reason, and you don't want to be there than you probably aren't going to work very hard at it. There's no way you'll put effort into something that you just don't care about. Another reason could be regarding classes. Maybe history doesn't come easy to you but math does, but history may come easy to your friend. So therefore you won't do well in any aspect of history, no matter how hard you try. I know that if I already know that I'm not good at something and I give it my all and still do bad, I get very frustrated and I just say whatever.
ReplyDeleteTaking out loans for college and then learning close to nothing over the five to six years would be frustrating as hell. Devoting time and energy to write a paper, read a book, study a paper online and getting nothing out of it is pointless. College is just not for some people. But people willing to learn, and willing to put in time deserve to be rewarded and to graduate.
As a student I have to say that although I may not like some classes I've chosen to take or have had to take, they have taught me a thing or two that I have had to use in my life. I have had some classes that I just hate, but in the end I realize that they have taught me things I never knew and it's nice to be able to share that with other people.
I put in my time and effort for the things that I know that I need to do. I crack down on school and really try and focus, although I end up getting side-tracked a lot.
I think what this article is trying to say is that you get what you put into your education. Even though it talks a lot about the failure of the system it also takes about what helps, like studying alone and doing extra reading and writing assignments, which I feel is common sense. It only makes sense that if you go into school just expecting that by being there you are going to get smarter and not putting in extra effort that you wouldn’t gain anything. And similarly, if you go in and put in the time and energy and do the extra work that you will gain something. I defiantly feel that in college you spend a good portion of time doing “busy work” or paying money to take classes that don’t apply to your major such as the LER’s or the FYE classes. Before coming to school I was warned by all of my high school teachers that “in college you won’t be able to wait til the last minute” or “college is going to be so much harder” , but it has been my experience as someone who took AP classes in high school that I did more work in some of those classes then I have for my college classes. And overall college hasn’t been that much more difficult. And that universities because more people are attending them have made the education you receive prepackaged and cookie cutter like. But, I also feel that some of the blame falls on the students. I feel that it is our responsibility to ask deeper questions and if need be do extra research ourselves. We need to be responsible for our education, because that’s what it is ours. It can be as much or little as you want. You can make the choice to look deeper and go past the point that you learn in class, use class as a jumping off point or you can sit in class and do the minimum that is required and put in no more thought then what is asked of you.
ReplyDeleteThe amount a person learns in college completely depends on that individual person. There are some people who will blow off college work and not treat it seriously. Then there are people who seem to be motivated and working all day and then pull all nighters every night to study, read and do homework. It depends on the individual person's work ethic, and how much time they are willing to devote to their work. A college diploma seems to be as important to have as a high school diploma was, say 20 years ago. In today's world, it seems that you are expected to go to college, and I feel that alot of people will treat college like it is just form of high school, except with outrageous tuition costs. It is true that some colleges could potentially host no very intellectually challenging classes, but the majority of intellectual growth has to come from the individuals drive to learn. The article discusses the “No Child Left Behind Act” and how it effects learning in High School, and I really hope it doesn’t happen in college. The ACTs and the SATs became the topic of learning, and it seemed like that was all we were taught; how to get a good grade on just those two tests. I have even learned how you can get away with little to know work in college. It is very easy to go throughout college and "b.s." your way through assignments. I happen to live in a house full of procrastinators, and generally lazy people. In the article he states that social engagement does not help learning, and I feel that the idea is true. If you surround yourself with the wrong group of people, people who seek to just slowly trudge through college, you can get stuck at their level. Learning is all about what you put in. I feel that my fellow students need to put more time and though into their assignments. I'm not generalizing this class, but the other classes I have taken. It becomes very apparent to you that you are going to college to learn for yourself, and you are cheating yourself and wasting your time and money if you do not do everything in your power to do all of your assignments, reading, homework, and transcend all of it and become the most educated person you can possibly be.
ReplyDelete-Matt Labyk
The issue of what we are actually learning in college is a good one that should be looked at. We pay thousands and thousands of dollars over the course of our years, but for what? I think it is more about the effort you put into learning than anything else. Obviously if a student takes their learning seriously, they are able to learn more than a student who never goes to class and only focuses on passing tests and doing the required assigments. But for those we do value their education (as well as their money) there is much to get out of college. Most teachers are in their profession because they're interested in the topic and want to expand the minds of others. These teachers do not "teach for tests" as some others who are less interest, but they provide interesting points and invoke critical thinking. What you get out of college correlates to what you put into college.
ReplyDeleteAnother point which is not mentioned in the article, is the life experiences people get out of college. College is the only four years (or 4 and a half or five for most students) of a persons life where you have the opportunity to do anything: clubs, sports, plays, jobs. Just about anything a person would be into is offered at a university. College makes people more well-read. It gives people the opportunity to broaden your mind outside of classes. There are an infinite amount of different kinds of people to meet, different subjects you've never heard of, even sports unknown to you. It's amazing what's out there if you really look, but college is an amazing investment for life in general. Not only does it help you to get jobs, but it also helps you to be a more interesting human being
Although it is a different situation for everyone, I generally agree with the article ,based on my own experiances. Since I have been in college I don't feel that I have learned that much more academic knowledge then I aleady had. For me, and many others I know, college was not what it was cut out to be. For the past three years I wander around through crowds of students bustling to classes, getting wasted on the weekends, rushing to get the next project done, or pulling all nighters until its back to midterms or finals and starting over again. Sometimes the information in the classes seems to be just something to get done and move on from so I can get out with a degree, and that's exactly what it is. College now is no longer looked at as a place to learn a trade and become a professional, its looked at as the norm if you want to find a job. This means people are coming to college just to get the paper that says they did it. Half of them aren't passionate about what they are doing,some of them don't even know what they want to do and take general or exploratory degrees, and the portion of people who actually are interested and trying hard to learn are usually so bogged down by having no personal time, and stressed by their amount of work that they can't focus anyway. It's no wonder what the percentages are showing, when the average college student like me, who goes to a state university like this, is only thinking about one thing-getting out.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on the person and their desire to learn. I know plenty of people that live by themselves, yet they are not getting the best grades. I also know of students that live with other people and excel in their studies. I find that once you find what you really want to do with the rest of your life, career wise, you will generally enjoy your classes. I think that is one of the most important things to figure out before you head to college. Everyone has an idea of what they would like to do, and I am sure there is a career to match that dream. I think the hardest thing for students is just attending class because they are left to make their own decisions. They do not have mom or dad telling them to wake up and to go to class. If they do not go, does the teacher really notice? Or how about all the notes are online, so whats the point of attending if I can still get all the same information. There are many factors that are included when deciding who is a better student and how they learn, but how much of the information that we are learning displayed in real life situations?
ReplyDeleteThe article by Eric Gorski is about how in after doing research it’s found out that college students don’t learn much more then what they knew right out of high school. The article states that they students only increased there scored by an average of seven percent. But the article stated that in terms of race blacks seemed to overall increase their score more than whites. The article also stated how these results have caused college to upgrade their criteria to make sure the students to learn and gain skills that are fundamental to after they finish all four years of college. I personally believe that I’m am getting a lot out of college I don’t agree with this guy at all, I think that It depends on the student. Some student study and get work done with no problem but there are a majority of students that have trouble just sitting down and studying or doing homework. I bet that if they did another research project except this time they did a survey on how often the student studies and they compare the hours of study to their score, the student who study more will have better grades. So to sum it up you get out of college what you put into it if you put in hard work and study and know your stuff you’re going to leave college knowing some good skills. But if you just try to barley get buy and try to do as least work as possible you going to miss out on valuable lifelong information. Last I also believe it depends on the students major I know that some majors are more relaxed than other, and with some majors being relaxed maybe those students with the easy major they aren’t gaining the skill that some with a harder major is gaining.
ReplyDelete-Stephen Streets
I agree with the article that we aren’t learning as much as we should be in college. With the rise of technology it is much easier to get by in college by doing less work. Finishing up my first year of college I’m realizing it was not at all like I expected. In a lot of my classes, my schedule being LER heavy, we really aren’t challenged to think any more critically past what’s going to be on the midterm and final. I think it really depends on the individual. Not everyone who attends college has any desire to, some see as it as a requirement for a career, some as family tradition, and a lot of people my age have no idea what they even want to do with their lives. With the unpredictable economy and unsecure job market it is much more difficult to decide what career you want to pursue. It’s possible for someone to get through college and not learn anything, it depends on the individual to challenge themselves to learn and become familiar with the material. Out of most of the required LER classes I’ve taken at Kent, I can say I really haven’t learned much. A lot of the information we learn and are tested on have nothing to do with anything I’ll do in the future. Once I’m through with my core classes I feel I’ll get a lot more out of my college education from major specific courses.
ReplyDelete-DylanPalchesko
When it comes to deciding if you got anything out of your four year degree and college experience, I agree with Brittany. I think it really just depends on the person. From my own experience, I feel that I am learning something new every day. After my four years is up I will be glad to say that I gained an abundance of knowledge by going to college. (Like most of the people in this class, I just hope that the loans I have taken out and the thousands of dollars I am putting into college weighs out the benefits in the end.) This also doesn’t just mean I learned about things taught to me in class. It means that I am budding into the person I want to be one day and I am discovering new things about myself and life in general too. That is probably just a part of growing up but I feel that my college experience has helped. I am truly gaining skills subconsciously as well. I find myself becoming more responsible in multiple ways. For example I am making it to class on time (even if I am dressed in sweats), organizing my school work, maintaining a job and an apartment, taking care of a dog, and using new words daily without anyone pushing me. Going to college and being “kicked out of the nest” really does help, at least in my case.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand maybe I’m not learning enough in my college courses. I say that because I come from a high school where teachers weren’t very strict and you could pass just by showing up to class. I guess this means I wouldn’t know if the professors at Kent State are lenient or easy going. They seem to be doing a good job so far.