In today's society, the higher education system has been a very controversial topic for many years. There are many problems that people have with the higher education system in America. People have questioned its tactics and debated the pros and cons of the higher education system. One of the many problems that higher education presents is that learning is linear. Many educators do not go into further detail with their lesson. "Most teachers and professors in colleges have a set plan, and this is what makes higher education rigid"(Ruytenbeek, 2013). This is why most students find higher education tedious and difficult to grasp. This linear learning is a significant problem in our higher education system because it does not educate every student equally. Every student learns differently, and this linear model forces students to learn a certain way that they are not accustom to. If this linear learning continues, then those who graduate from this education will continue to be inexperienced and struggle. The higher education system has not made a significant change and has remained rigid over the years.
One example that shows why linear learning is a problem is because it is teacher focused, not student focused. Higher education requires a teacher to teach hundreds of students, who learn differently. Students have to learn the way a teacher teaches and must adapt to their learning style. Teachers follow the linear method of teaching, and this does not always work with everyone. Most professors in college and universities plan out lessons and learning's according to their own needs and not the students. "The process of learning is controlled by the teacher, just as the process of getting a degree is controlled by the university"(Fad...
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...ility to learn. This is a problem because we are paying so much for so little. With this rigid education, it takes up a lot of time and it students do not get much out of the rigid lesson. If this continues to happen in the higher education system, then most students will continue to fail and unable to proceed in college. A solution to this problem can be applied through self-directed learning. "Students learn better when they control their experience. We can empower students by giving them choice in the classes they choose and in how they wish to learn"(Ruytenbeek, 2013). This is why our education system should remove this one-dimensional learning and improve it into a better teaching system, that satisfies most students needs. Hopefully most people are now aware our need to improve the education system, with this suggestion of change to the linear learning style.
College can be a stressful time for students. They go to college to work on creating a better future for themselves. But sometimes everything gets so overwhelming, that they can’t do it anymore. In the article “What is College For?” I found the author Gary Gutting’s thesis to be “Nonetheless, there is incessant talk about the ‘failure’ of education” (412). Gutting proves his thesis to be true throughout the article. He makes different points as to why he thinks this epidemic of failure is happening in college. Access, dropouts, students becoming disengaged in learning, and focused mainly on studying for their jobs and careers. All of these things acting as the building blocks to one another in the epidemic of failure that is happening among
During my first few days of sophomore year at Stuyvesant High School, I saw how the ways of thinking were diverse in each of my classes. In my European Literature class, where, in our first reading assignment, we questioned the purpose of education itself. I always went with the flow in my learning, and never stopped to say to myself, “Why am I doing this to myself?”. However, once I read Live and Learn by Louis Menand, I started to think about Menand’s three theories of college and juxtapose each of them to my experience so far in high school. In the end, I concluded that many of my classes followed the main points of Theory 2, which was the theory that I mostly agreed with when I read the article for the first time.
Loh explains that not every college professor is properly taught how to give a lecture, making it difficult for students to get the correct education from a professor who isn’t trained to explain the material. Various colleges and universities are starting to stray away from the traditional lecture and begin a more hands on approach to teaching a college course, while professors are looking to get rid of the college lecture completely. A research study showed classes that had an interactive approach as opposed to the traditional style resulted in better academic grades and a “36 percent drop in class failures.” Many educators prefer
In this article Nemko is illuminating the issues that our modern society is facing involving higher education. Students are starting off college with bare minimum requirements for next level learning and feeling disappointed when they are not succeeding in their courses. The author acknowledges that the courses being taken by students are sometimes not beneficial to life after college. Nemko states, “A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below ‘proficient’ levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks…”(525). Students are specializing in areas of learning to in turn be denied to working in that field and stuck with unnecessary skills. “Many college graduates are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions, such as driving a truck or tending bar”( ...
Due to the effects of higher enrolment, teaching methods are now directed towards suiting the masses, thus everything has become less personal, as well as, less educationally in depth. Teaching techniques consist of multiple choice tests, rather than written answer questions which require critical analysis, as Jacobs states “So many papers to mark, relative to numbers and qualities of mentors to mark them, changed the nature of test papers. Some came to consist of “True or False?” and “Which of the following is correct?” types of questions” (Jacobs 49). While teachers also no longer engage in one on one conversations with students, but merely in a lecture hall among masses and everyone is seen as just a student number. Jacobs states a complaint from a student “who claimed they were shortchanged in education. They had expected more personal rapport with teachers” (Jacobs 47). Universities are too much focused on the cost benefit analysis, of the problem of increased enrolment, with the mind set of “quantity trumps quality” (Jacobs 49). The benefit of student education and learning is not being put first, but rather the expansion of the university to benefit financial issues. Taylor states “individualism and the expansion of instrumental reason, have often been accounted for as by-products
Let me take you back to being a sophomore in high school: fifteen-about-to-turn-sixteen-year-olds, beginning thoughts of college just blooming in their minds, and they are taking more challenging classes than ever before. Every year, classes are changed in schools in order to fulfill new requirements and the difficulty is increased in order to challenge the new students. These new classes and the amount of choices students now have between the different classes available now put new pressures on students that the older generations may not understand. Not only do students have the choice of electives, but now they have the choice of different mathematics, sciences, and English courses on a range of sometimes four different levels. With all these choices, students may have a hard time deciding which is the proper course and level to take. Unfortunately, there is one more pressure in the mix of this decision: the pressure to take advanced placement (AP) courses. More students are taking AP classes every year but the number of students who “bomb the AP exams is growing even more rapidly” (Simon). This leads into the idea that students are not getting more intelligent than the previous classes, but simply that there is too much pressure on them to take these AP courses. Students in high school are being pressured too much to take advanced placement courses whether or not they are academically qualified for them.
Many people believe that college is not for everyone. They believe that knowing and learning about life cannot be gained by reading books. In the meantime, there are many people who believe that college does prepare students for the real world. They believe college offers students valuable tools that will equip them for the real world. For instance, open classrooms where students can engage in stimulating conversations prepare students for professions that pay people who can think fast and come up with creative ideas for their companies. Moreover, professors assign homework, exams, and papers to stimulate thinking and prepare students for deadlines and job assignments. However, college may prepare students for the professional world, but does it really prepare students for the real world. The purpose of this essay is...
Louis Menand, a professor of English and American literature at Harvard University presented three different theories for higher education in an article for The New Yorker named, Live and Learn: Why We Have College. Menand (2011) claims that the reasons for college are meritocratic, democratic, and vocational. These theories are great models for the purpose of higher education in our culture, at different points in our history. As a nation, there are definite intentions behind the way that instruction is conducted in our colleges and universities. The techniques adopted by institutions of higher education are no mistake and they are designed to serve a purpose. These methods evolve with time and shape the way that generations think and reason. In our generation, the purpose of higher education in our culture is to sustain the nation atop of the worldwide economy.
Students go to college in search of knowledge, a new lifestyle, and the hope of a job after graduation. For many young adults, college is a rite of passage into an independent, mature new lifestyle. Not only is higher education a rite of passage, for some, it is also an opportunity to have a better life. Overall, college is a wonderful part of many people’s lives, yet the way the college education system is conducted wastes students time and money. College is basically composed of two parts: general education classes and major specific classes. General education courses are the source of wasted time and money, and should not be required of students. A few of the problems associated with general education classes are that they are basically a repeat of high school, unfortunately they can be the demise of students, they are costly, and they waste time.
The students that are closing their minds to these theories may get lucky and an understanding may fall into the student’s lap, or they may get nowhere and totally lose any kind of grasp on what they are supposed to be picking up on. This difficult type of behavior is typical of students entering college unequipped with the correct tools or walking into an academic conversation for the first time. So why is it that some students cross the threshold into the college experience with little to no skills that could, and most definitely will, be used on a daily basis in college? It appears that the education system is failing some of its students by not teaching them the correct set of models that will employ to be successful at the collegiate level.
Attending public schools as a child, I remember learning the basic skills on how to add and subtract, read, and write. These basic skills are necessary in order to function in our society and work force in the United States. As we all know each child learns differently, some learn faster than others and some slower than others. Our public schools have become overcrowded and we do not have enough teachers to fit the needs of each student. Some students get left behind and are not learning the skills needed to move on to the next level. What these students are not learning they can learn in higher education such as a college or university. In this report, I would like to express the importance of a higher education. I will use the works of John Henry Newman, Jon Spayde and Mike Rose, all three writers believe in having an educated society. Our students’ needs are changing, there are a growing number of immigrants with children coming to the United States from all over the world. They bring with them the language and culture of their country. The age in which they arrive to the United States determines how well they learn English and what skills they will need to acquire to become productive in our society. The task of teaching our children the basic skills is becoming harder and harder each day, making it harder for our education system to achieve their goals. There are a high number of students graduating from high school who does not have the skills needed to meet the needs of the work force in our society. A higher level of learning is needed to make our society literate.
Education plays a very important role in a person’s life. Basic education is attained through primary school and high school. Education may be further perused after graduating from high school by attending university. This decision can make a person’s future brighter because, in most cases it is really hard to get a well-paid job and live a stable life without having a bachelor’s degree. However, people who want to peruse higher education must know that although there are similarities, there are also some differences between high school and university in terms of assignments, teachers, and responsibilities.
Todays’ teaching is tailored to student’s interest and strategies. Teachers are taught that a well-developed lesson plan should be engaging to students in order for the students to learn. This philosophy is the total opposite of what is being taught in education programs. I cannot imagine a classroom that does not teach its students based off a curriculum that meets the student’s needs and interest. It is proven research that everyone learns best when information is tailored to meet the specific learner interest.
of the traditional classroom learning restrictions of time and space and will continue to be far
students to learn and teachers to teach. At first glance, it may seem problematic, but research has