Four years ago, two sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa published a ground-breaking book called “Academically Adrift”. This book revealed that today in college, many students experience “limited or no learning”. This book was based on their study of a sample of students at four-year colleges and universities in 2005. The sample students took a test during their freshman year that evaluated their critical thinking, communications skills, and analytic reasoning, all skills that colleges are expected to teach. The students then took the same test at the end of their senior year. On average, students were found to have improved by less than one half of a standard deviation on the test. Even worse, one-third of students only improved by less …show more content…
The authors of “Academically Adrift” believe that colleges are expecting less of their students, and as a result, leaving their graduates less prepared for the demands of the workplace. After the publication of their book, the authors conducted a follow-up study, following the sample students for two years after they graduated. These results have just recently been published. Their follow-up study found that 7 percent were unemployed, and 16 percent were underemployed. Arum and Roksa hypothesize that because recent college graduates did not gain valuable critical thinking skills in college, they are less likely to be hired and they are more likely to lose their job than those students that did gain these skills in …show more content…
These researchers defined critical thinking as the ability to apply knowledge in complex ways. In order to develop critical thinking, one must enhance their higher order thinking skills. Higher order thinking is thinking in a way that generates multiple solutions. In a classroom, teachers can encourage higher order thinking by facilitating open ended discussions, inquiry-based experiments, and using real world issues for example cases. This requires their students to combine knowledge of class content with real world problems. Because college graduates are lacking critical thinking skills, it can be inferred from this study that university classrooms are lacking these real world, open-ended problem solving lessons. These critical thinking skills that are not being developed are found to be necessary in today’s work force. As a part of this study, 400 US companies were asked what skills are most valuable for potential employees to have. 92% of companies listed critical thinking as “very important”. In today’s international, quickly changing environment, employees need to effective and adaptive in a fast-paced world. If college graduates are unable to keep up with the demands of the company, they will quickly find themselves out of
The article, “Critical Thinking? You Need Knowledge” by Diane Ravitch, discusses how in the past people have been deprived from the thinking process and abstract thinking skills. Students need to be given more retainable knowledge by their teachers to improve their critical thinking skills. (Ravitch).
In Frank Bruni’s New York Time’s article, “The Imperiled Promise of College,” he argues that college is no longer a guarantee of success because students are not being properly motivated and guided into the programs that will provide them with jobs.
In David Brook’s essay, “It’s Not About You,” Brooks mentions and describes the challenges college graduates face when looking for a job. He goes on and describes how this generation is different than any other generation. He explains how college graduates don’t go on and get married, buy houses, and have kids like previous generations. He also states how college prepares you with a set of skills that are much different to the ones you encounter when you graduate. Those skills you have to learn on your own.
College is the place where people go to retain the necessary training for a job that requires specific skills, which results in earning a higher pay check. In today’s world, employers are scouting out for individuals with the proper dexterities to fill the shoes for that specific job. Blanche D. Blank, the author of “A Question of Degree," argues that possessing a degree of higher education isn’t the only way to have a very successful life. This statement is highly argumentative, due to the fact that college graduates still out-earn people without degrees. Obtaining a college degree is one of the best things someone can do for themselves, when it comes to looking for a stable job. There is also so much more to college than just receiving a
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
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”( ...
In Caroline Bird’s “College is A Waste of Time and Money”, it’s argued that there are many college students who would be better off if they were to begin working after high school graduation. Colleges and universities can no longer ensure that one will go on to get a better job, getting paid more than they would have without a higher education. However, high school seniors still stress about where they will be attending college, how they’re going to pay for it and what they’re going to study for the next four years. Bird points out how college has changed over the past few decades and how, in turn, it has set many young adults up for disappointment, if nothing else.
Questions are something that must be asked and can be very important when reading a literary work, watching a movie, or just simply trying to understand the habits of people today. Asking questions opens up the human brain to dig farther and deeper into the meaning of why someone did something in a specific way and what purpose it has that something must be done in that way. Critical thinking is asking question and trying to hypothesize on what the answer to that question might be. Critically thinking is a healthy aspect of opening up the brain and will improve one’s thought process on how to apply critical thinking in situations where it is dependent, like a future
People continue to wonder if college is worth the time and money spent with numerous individuals still unemployed, a valid concern of young students. Despite the information the majority have heard about unemployment rates, this is not a valid argument. (Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney) notes, “In Apr. 2013 the unemployment rate for college graduates aged 25 and over with a bachelor’s degree was 3.6%, compared to 5.0% for associate’s degree holders, 7.5% for high school graduates, and 11.4% for high school drop-outs.” These statistics alone should put your mind at ease relieving concerns an individual may have in respects to finding a job in their field. Moreover, employers that can see someone’s passion toward the carrier they’re seeking will increases one’s chance of successfully finding
“Critical Thinking Skills Key to Raising SAT Scores.” Business Wire. Lexis-Nexis Online. 30 August 1991. Keywords: Critical Thinking.
Paul R. (1995). Critical thinking: How to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Santa Rosa, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking.
What is not easily recognized is the fact that the very fabric of life is dependent on the ability to think properly and make good decisions. Improper thinking is costly in the quality of life and monetarily. The result of a critical thinker that has worked to cultivate proper thinking skills includes: the ability to ask vital questions and to identify problems with clarity. A critical thinker also collects relevant information while effectively interpreting it, thinks with an open mind, uses alternative systems of thought, and understands how to communicate while working to formulate a strong solution. In summary, critical thinking is self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. Above all else, the standards of excellence are rigorous, and it entails the prospect of overcoming the challenge of sociocentrism and
Rudd, R. (2007). Defining critical thinking. Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 82(7) 46-49. Retrieved December 9, 2007, from EBSCOhost database.
Higher-order thinking, known as higher order thinking skills (HOTS), is a concept of education reform based on learning taxonomies (such as Bloom's Taxonomy). The idea is that some types of learning require more cognitive processing than others, but also have more generalized benefits. In Bloom's taxonomy, for example, skills involving analysis, evaluation and synthesis (creation of new knowledge) are thought to be of a higher order, requiring different learning and teaching methods than the learning of facts and concepts. Higher order thinking involves the learning of complex judgmental skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Higher order thinking is more difficult to learn or teach but also
Critical thinking is a significant and essential topic in recent education. The strategy of critical thinking skills helps identify areas in one's courses as the suitable place to highlight, expand and use some problems in exams that test students' critical thinking skills.