"One problem is that students just aren't asked to do much, according to findings in a new book, "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses." Half of students did not take a single course requiring 20 pages of writing during their prior semester, and one-third did not take a single course requiring even 40 pages of reading per week."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/45-of-students-dont-learn_n_810224.html
How does this relate to what we are trying to accomplish with the hybrid class?
I am not suprised by this article at all. I've heard similar things before, and even that students learn basically NOTHING in the first two years (probably because they're taking gen-eds, which they aren't interested in because they're not their major, and it's basically just a review of everything they learned in high school).
I feel like a lot of professors do rely heavily on just getting through the material, rather than student learning. Thats why I really enjoy the way this hybrid class is set up, because I feel like I actually LEARN things by writing about what I've just read. I feel like if more classes had a similar structure, students would retain more of their college education.
I definitely understand this to be true. I've experienced it. I went to a community college my first 2 years and my classes seemed very simple, basically like high school only faster paced. I was being taught things I had already learned in high school. I know that you need some review on things but this was far beyond just a review. To me the first two years of college are suppose to prepare you for the next to years or however long you go to school, because those are the classes that matter and will be harder. Most teachers in those upper level classes don't care if you've been prepared or not. All they know is that you are in the class and they are going to teach you what they are suppose to teach you and if you come across something you're unfamiliar with, tough cookies! Sometimes going in and talking with them makes a difference but sometimes, it doesn't.
I have experienced this as well. I felt my first 2 years at community college were almost worthless- when I came to UNI and was asked to write a paper in APA form I had no idea what that was or what I was doing.
I probably shouldn't be complaining that we're being asked to do less work, but as someone who is trying to get into graduate school I feel extremely unprepared to write a thesis.
I think our hybrid is class is trying to go against this article- we are doing a lot of the reading and learning on our time (which is what a lot of people know college to be). We are being asked to do a fair amount of work and think about it in a new way which should help us actually learn it, not just regurgitate it.
This article demonstrates just how jacked up our current education system really is. Our cultures definition of learning and attaining knowledge is so off base. True learning and knowledge means actually doing the work yourself. Our current system involves people sitting down, being talked at, and then asked to regurgitate what they heard in class or read in the textbook. In what possible world is this even to be considered knowledge. This just proves that you can listen and write. It does nothing to show how critically or abstractly you can think.
I was honestly a little skeptical of the hybrid class upon first hearing it described to me. I honestly thought it would be easier to do than any of my regular classes. It remained this way until I had to write my blog for this Friday. I wrote it on John Locke and some of his work and I learned so much more than I ever could have simply by sitting in a lecture hall or reading the textbook. I looked into his beliefs on God because that is an interesting topic for me. Now what I researched on my own holds a great deal of value in my mind. I am now sold on the kind of teaching that our hybrid class is hoping to accomplish. It is not for the slacker, it is not necessarily easy, however, when you put in the time and research you will come out with REAL knowledge.
Throughout my college experience, I haven't had many of the rough courses I hear so many horror stories about. There are a few professors I wish I had met sooner in my college education because I would have developed the study skills I need to survive and grow faster, but that is neither here nor there.
The biggest problem I see with our education system isn't only the lack of student ambition, but the lack of drive from professors as well. While it's important for students to want to better themselves as individuals, it's also important for professors to help them develop the tools to do so. Students don't really need to know what year one country went to war with another, students don't really need to know what the title and author of their literature books are. That information is nice to have, but learning how to apply and USE that knowledge within the books is what students should be learning.
Time and time again, I see professors either reading straight from power points or their text books and it kills all of my drive to listen to that person speak. If I wanted somebody to read a book to me, I would have gotten it on tape and saved myself the money.
The build of a hybrid course is taking some of the control out of the professors' hands and having the students take ownership of their own education, they get to learn about what they think is interesting happening in the real world and relate it to what we deal with every day.
I am also not surprised by this article. I remember thinking when I was graduating high school how unprepared I felt for college in terms of study skills. Upon, arriving at college I found that things seemed to be no more difficult than in high school. I do not usually feel challenged or that I have to work really hard at something to earn a good grade. I feel that not only do students not have the ambition but also, that they are also not expected to have a huge drive, or thirst for knowledge. Professor's also seem to not care about the education they are or are not providing.
I think by being in a hybrid class I am actually learning. I am forced, as well as rewarded, to read the material I am expected to learn. Also, it feels that the instructor actually gives a damn whether I am learning or not. In this class I do not feel like just a face in the crowd and by challenging us to do what I feel we are supposed to be doing by learning, I have actually walked away with a lot more knowledge than in a majority of my other classes.
I completely understand where this article is coming from. I was told in high school that I would be writing twenty-page papers all the time and I have been in college for three years and have yet to write a paper that length.I also find that I can get away with do no reading at all for most of my classes because most teachers only test you on their lectures. I do not think college is much harder than my high school experience. I also spent my freshman year at the University of Iowa. I thought I was challenged much more there than here at UNI. While there I was my writing skills were really challenged and my papers were graded pretty hard. At UNI I feel like I can write like I did in high school and teachers will still give me an A on my paper.I do not think professors expect as much out of us as they should.
I was actually a little worried when the idea of a hybrid class was being explained to us. I was thinking, "Wow, I might actually have to do some work in this class." In order to do the blogs you have to read the texts. And I have to admit, I have a good memory, so I do well in classes where I am tested over the last section of material the professor went over. The fact that we won't be doing that in this class is going to challenge me more, but hopefully I will be able to retain more information from it.
I can completely agree with this article, as a student I can see it in the same perspective. I went from having homework everyday in high school to maybe having 2-3 homework assignments a week in college. Tests are fewer, and usually easier. I didn't study much in high school, but I rarely study more than half an hour for a test unless I KNOW it will be very difficult. I don't even buy books for classes anymore. Freshmen year I bought books for every class, found out we don't use half of them. Sophomore year I bought about half the books I needed and was fine. This year, I have bought 2 books, 1 each semester. Unless I know for a fact that we will have to use them for homework there is no point in wasting money when I can get all the content on a powerpoint in class. I can honestly say that after a test, I forget 80% of what was on it unless it was super interesting or the professor hammered a certain concept into our head.
Similarly, the way we learn isn't really learning anymore. We earn grades now, we don't learn. I feel college has been reduced to job training. You go, major in a specific field, and then do well enough so you know you can get a job when you graduate. Obviously some majors are harder than others, I am not going say pre-med is an easy career to pursue, but the end is the same, becoming a doctor and landing that job. In the past, students went to universities to enlighten themselves and to become scholars. Their sole purpose was to pursue knowledge. Instead of taking classes that interest them, students nowdays will talk to their friends and find the "easy A" classes.
Overall college itself has become more of a social aspect that anything else. The number 1 thing people talk about when they go to college is, getting away from home and being able to party every weekend. Not to say that going out on occasion isn't fun, but the sole reason of being in school is the social aspect and putting your education on the backburner is just.....dumb.
Until we restructure our education system to teach instead of rewarding instant gratification grades, I can see our education to increasingly decline. There is a reason Eastern countries are so sought after for jobs, simply because their education system is better. I have friends from other countries where if you were not studying 24/7, you were looked down upon. Education is huge over there. I agree that simply pursuing education with nothing but the goal of getting a job or making money is a stupid, selfish act. The best people make a difference with their education, a POSITIVE difference. Amassing wealth isn't a good reason in my opinion.
So far, in the last 2 years, this hybrid class is probably the most work I have done for a single class. We have to show up, and we have 2-3 assignments a week. For once, I am actually learning something (much to my dismay hahaha). But no, classes like this may be a lot more work, but they force you to learn something whether you like it or not.
We discussed this article in my Research Methods class also. The thing that I heard the most was that the amount of critical thinking that was done really depended on the teacher and what they asked from you. The few people in there that had taken a class like this all said that the most critical thinking, reading, and writing that they did was in their hybrid class. I would agree. I think that through a hybrid class it makes you take more responsibility over what kind of information you're going to get out of it. It's easy to show up to class and take notes and never think about the information again. In this hybrid class you have to really examine what you're reading in the book to develop your own interests. Everybody has really different responses in their blog posts and you can tell their they are each getting their own experience out of this class, rather than a couple of vocab definitions.
It isn’t hard for me to see why this article is true. I personally feel many of the classes I have taken in college have been a complete waste of my time because I didn’t learn anything that I didn’t already know. Just from talking to my peers, I see this is the case for many of them as well. In my opinion, the first few years of college should be the most challenging for students, not the easiest and most worthless. A lot of professors are focused on getting students to complete assignments rather than getting them to complete assignments with critical thinking skills as well as other skills like writing. I completely understand why the first few years involve many basic classes because most students don’t know exactly what they want to do yet. However, what I do not understand is why professors don’t focus on getting students ready for junior and senior or graduate years by making the classes more challenging. I mean this in a way to get students involved, get them to actually think, include in class discussions, do things that will prepare them for the real world.
I feel like I have already gotten a good grasp on at least some of the topics we have covered in the hybrid class so far. I really enjoy writing about the things I am interested in. This allows me to get a better understanding of the material. In other classes it is difficult to remember material because we are supposed to learn EVERYTHING, which is nearly impossible for a busy college student to do. I know already that I will take more information away from this class than others simply because I write about what I find exciting. I also like the fact that we get to express our opinions along with the material. This class involves a lot of thinking and writing and so far it has made both of these things easier for me to do.
I was also in the the Research methods class that discussed this article today. What points i found that were interesting were that none of the facts of the study or the source information were given. They could have interviewed the dumbest person on campus for all we know. And the numbers of pages/books is irrelevant. Of coarse we are not thinking critically when people (even the ones writing this article) assume that a "good" student reads 18 books or write 20 page papers. This is completely false. If they wanted to focus critically they would not have set limits of 20 page paper to write. Like this class if you can synthesize your ideas into a thorough paper then it shouldn't NEED to be 20 pages. Depending on the class, class size, subject, teacher, etc. then yes the need or availability for critical thinking is varied.
I can understand this at bigger schools, but this is why I like UNI so much. Our class sizes are smaller and we can better engage in discussion over classroom materials. I graduated from UNI previously with a Bachelors in Criminology and we didn't have the paper problem. One semseter my finals comprised of over 225 pages cummulative between five of my classes, this was after midterms totaling 150 pages. It will be interesting comparing what I feel I come away with in a hybrid course as this is my first one.
I feel that at a larger school this is more true than at smaller schools. Like at a larger school you are just a number, but at a smaller one you are actually known by your professors. Also, I feel like with a hybrid class we have to make sure we understand things more deeply than we do in a typical class. With many classes you don't actually have to do your readings because you aren't always tested over them, but when you have to post about readings every chapter it is a lot harder to get by without reading them. Having a hybrid class almost makes it so you HAVE to do more to prove you are actually getting your assignments completed.
I found this article really interesting, but a little sad too. I am not terribly surprised by the findings saying that the majority of students aren't asked to do a lot of reading or writing for class. I don't know if I can blame poor writing skills on colleges alone, because I think that is something that should be nearly cemented in high school. That was one of the biggest wake-up calls coming into school. People were upset about writing a 3-page paper double-spaced, and when they finally got it done it was not very well written. However, every year of high school we had a major research paper due, so I knew how to write a formal paper, and 3 pages was by no means a daunting task. Of course some people just have a knack for writing, but I feel like my high school did an amazing job preparing us for formal writing.
I also would like to say that I think that the classes I have taken at UNI have done a good job of emphasizing writing tasks and reading in textbooks. I would say the minority of my classes required less than 20 total pages of written assignments, while still not assigning an overwhelming amount of work.
To relate this article to our hybrid class, I think that the structure of our class is working towards eliminating the problems talked about in this article. We are required to write every week, and we actually have to read our book to do well on these assignments. By the end of the semester we will have easily written 20 pages on this blog. The reason I think this structure is so important is because it forces the student to remain involved in what is going on in class, which leads to a better understanding of the subject matter.
Overall, I thought this article was really interesting. I would hesitate to take it to heart to much because I do think there is a lot of work to be done in truly evaluating learning and knowledge. Nonetheless, the problems that this article addresses are real issues in our education system.
We talked about this article in one of my other classes too. I actually thought right away of how this Hybrid class solves all the dilemmas (reading, writing, and critical thinking) that this article touches on. In this Hybrid class we are required to READ the book, okay most teachers WANT you to read and assign reading but face it sometimes it just doesn't get done. But in this class we have to take the reading and WRITE about what we found interesting and what we didn't, which is really really hard to do if you didn't READ the book. Then we have to take that and find something we want to know more about. We research it ourselves and think CRITICALLY about it and WRITE again. Hybrid classes do force you to do all these things and it really MAKES you learn the material. Some classes you can just kinda scoot by without ever really really learning the material, but hybrids do a good job of actually making you learn it.
The Hybrid style of teaching not only covers the constant reading to keep our brains active, it allows us to use what WE have learned and apply it into a blog in a way in which we interpreted it. With that method being used, it makes CERTAIN that we LEARN what we are reading instead of just going through the motions. If we don't read and write we simply don't get points and hurt ourselves. I've had a lot of classes that had us read, but the reading didn't mean much because there wasn't any assignments following it. So long story short… we read whatever we FELT like reading. if we didn't read it didn't hurt our grade any…. which leads to "limited learning"