New study shows college students lack common skills

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Odin


Elected school boards = schools worrying about angering parents by giving too many kids bad grades = dumbed down K-12

College departments making professors give "how well did you like this class" questionares at the end of the semester does the same thing because students that did poorly will give the Prof bad marks.

Sure, there's always the danger of that, but in my experience it's the other way around.
Over here a professor is appointed and he can't be fired unless he's done some criminal offense or something alike.

However, some people just can't teach no matter their intellect. It just so happens that we have several of those teaching classes that are absolutely useless... I'd say they're absolute crap. If these questionaires would be evaluated properly, and some professors would be replaced, then perhaps we'd get better education. Honestly... I'm going to uni to learn something in class. I could take a good book and read that instead too you see...

[flash9286]

Originally posted by Traianvs



Sure, there's always the danger of that, but in my experience it's the other way around.
Over here a professor is appointed and he can't be fired unless he's done some criminal offense or something alike.

However, some people just can't teach no matter their intellect. It just so happens that we have several of those teaching classes that are absolutely useless... I'd say they're absolute crap. If these questionaires would be evaluated properly, and some professors would be replaced, then perhaps we'd get better education. Honestly... I'm going to uni to learn something in class. I could take a good book and read that instead too you see...

Well its been my experience that the professors that are god awful at teaching are also the ones that are most regarded for their research.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Odin


Elected school boards = schools worrying about angering parents by giving too many kids bad grades = dumbed down K-12

College departments making professors give "how well did you like this class" questionares at the end of the semester does the same thing because students that did poorly will give the Prof bad marks.

I might be wrong, but I think his point was that an HS diploma 50 years ago was good enough to live comfortably and not a negative indicator. Today, its much less likely for someone with just a HS diploma or GED to have a similar lifestyle. Now the BA is becoming close to a minimum level of education.

When you have directional schools and community colleges everywhere, serving tens or hundreds of thousands (millions?) of students a year who decades ago would not have been in college due to aptitude issues, not monetary, then what do you expect?

My wife is a 4th year grad student at Indiana University, and she has taught freshmen. Horror stories. And this is at a top tier US institution. Yikes.

[Urban Ranger]

from understanding credit card offers

Most people don't understand them as well.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
I might be wrong, but I think his point was that an HS diploma 50 years ago was good enough to live comfortably and not a negative indicator. Today, its much less likely for someone with just a HS diploma or GED to have a similar lifestyle. Now the BA is becoming close to a minimum level of education.

When you have directional schools and community colleges everywhere, serving tens or hundreds of thousands (millions?) of students a year who decades ago would not have been in college due to aptitude issues, not monetary, then what do you expect?

My wife is a 4th year grad student at Indiana University, and she has taught freshmen. Horror stories. And this is at a top tier US institution. Yikes.

Bingo.

Thanks asleep . I realize that I was typing so fast in my previous statement, I forgot the 'ago'. Hopefully that wasn't what caused the confusion.

[Bosh]

It seems that its a universal rule that people of ALL countries think that their country's educational system is below par. For example one of the parents of my old students was trying to get her son to stay with her uncle in DC for a while, just so he could get a better education at the public schools there

Same goes for college. Due to immigration tightening after 9/11 its gone down a bit, but you still get a HUGE number of people from all kinds of places trying to get their kids into American schools, which despite articles of this kind are still definately the best in the world over all, definately better than anything you'd get in South Korea or Japan...

[Seeker]

In my opinion Korean culture makes a real American style university all but impossible.

Oh and Bosh about the summer thing, if I get the job I want I'll be full-time and probably won't have time for your reading and writing stuff but if I don't get it I'll consider it as a fall-back position.

[Barinthus]

*yawn* tell me something new. I've seen people like that at my university.

Its sad

btw Aquatic Ape

[Asher]

All you have to do is take a look at how many iBooks and PowerBooks there are in the arts/social sciences departments to understand that they lack common skills, such as making intelligent purchases.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Spelling mistskes are inexcusable...

Right on

[Pekka]

Bosh, I think that wasn't the point. Good schools != good material.

What you have is weak material problem, problem which isn't simple and has many sources (of problem).

Those who want to succeed and study will do so. Those who don't, won't. Seems to me most don't. It doesn't matter what school they go to, except that it's shame for that school won't challenge them enough to drop out.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Arts students This never happens with those who do science/numerate disciplies...

The article doesn't even distinguish between arts students and science students, silly.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Arts students This never happens with those who do science/numerate disciplies...

But the latter are so smelly and unattractive that evolution does not select for them.

[Agathon]

None of this surprises me.

Because of our new right wing overlords, colleges are compelled to treat students as customers instead of students.

Education would be better served if we simply abolished fees and gave the faculty back the power to fail people who don't work or who should really be somewhere else. It would also be better served if students didn't have to work 20+ hours a week to make ends meet instead of studying.

U of T isn't that bad because it tends not to admit the real dunderheads, but smaller colleges have a terrible time of it.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Agathon

Education would be better served if we simply abolished fees and gave the faculty back the power to fail people who don't work or who should really be somewhere else. It would also be better served if students didn't have to work 20+ hours a week to make ends meet instead of studying.