I agree with you completely. While I'm sure that many of us on TIPS were first generation college students, I'm confident that most of us had family members who went to college before we did, often parents. Therefore, we had some awareness of what is needed for college success, trusted persons to ask, and support for our goals.
I see many students who show up at college and they think (and their parents think) they are making a transition similar to that from primary school to secondary school, as if freshman year of college is just the 13th grade. They need to be taught how to go to college. They need to be taught that courses will not meet 5 days a week (typically) and that what you will be tested on will be not necessarily be talked about in class. They need to learn that they are expected to do much work on their own. They need to learn how to prioritize their time, including their family. I have been astonished at times the degree of demands that some families put on their children who are away at college. I regularly see students whose parents are actively undermining their success, in some cases with not-so-secret communication that 'becoming educated is not what the family values, so just give up this college fantasy.' They are begged to come home every weekend, skip classes on Friday and Monday, etc. I've seen students whose parents have them come home every weekend to work in the family business all day Friday through Sunday. These parents (and the students) see only 12 credit hours scheduled as a full load and imagine that they have all the free time in the world, not knowing that 12 credits is expected to take up about 36 hours of their life when outside study is taken into account. I can go on and on... but it is clear to me that with the ongoing democratization of college access that a large proportion of our students at all but the elite colleges will be first generation and therefore likely to be poorly prepared to manage the total experience of college. Therefore, it is clear to me that courses which teach basic skills, management of their path through the curriculum, long term planning of their education for later life success, etc. are vital to the ultimate success of the college. If the college admits, but does not graduate, then they don't go on to get jobs that implicitly promote the school and in the most practical sense, that earn money to donate back to the school. It is vital to the ongoing success of the college that the college admit the best qualified it can, and support those it admits as well as it can and create systems that create higher likelihood of success both in college and after college. Successful graduates may enrich the college. Non-graduates will not. Courses that increase the yield of successful graduates from those who admitted should be welcomed by administrators and by faculty who value their careers and the future of the academy. Paul C Bernhardt Frostburg State University Frostburg, MD, USA pcbernhardt[at]frostburg[d0t]edu On Mar 26, 2011, at 4:25 PM, Claudia Stanny wrote: > > For those who are making arguments for intro-to-the-major courses, you have > my best wishes and all my sympathy. > > When the Careers course was proposed by a departmental committee as part of a > big curriculum review and reform about 10 years ago, we had all of these > discussions in the department and again when the course went through the > campus curriculum review process. > > The course was criticized for being too fluffy and not having any "real" > content. I admit, it is almost entirely an academic skills course and this > criticism reflects the deeply held belief that courses are all about content. > Interestingly, some of the criticism came from individuals who argued that > the course was too demanding and had too many learning outcomes for a 1 sh > credit course! Go figure. There were similar discussions on campus about > the Academic Foundations course (an introduction to college life, study > skills, time management, etc. for first year students). The university > advising center (which controls this course) had been tracking student > success and persistence for students who do and do not take this course. It > is an elective course that is strongly advised for students entering with > weaker academic credentials (lower SAT scores, lower HS GPA, other flags for > problems transitioning to college). At the end of the first year, students > who completed this course have higher GPAs (even with lower overall > predictive scores on admission) than the students who don't take this course. > (They now offer a special section of this course for students in the Honors > program, but this is the same course taught to a cohort of Honors students.) > > Yes, many students manage to learn these skills through trial and error and > maybe the intervention of a outstanding academic advisor or mentor (as did > those of us on this list, I would guess). Speaking from my own experience, I > was plenty clueless about what one needed to do to prepare for graduate > school. I just thought I had to be smart and have great grades. (very > clueless!) But I also suspected that I maybe wasn't getting everything I > needed at the first school I attended, even though I couldn't say what I was > looking for. Then, mostly by sheer dumb luck, found what I needed through > the behavioral models of grad students at the school I transfered to. > > Far too often, academic advisors fail to give students appropriate guidance. > I taught research methods for many years and was astonished by the number of > outstanding students who enrolled in that course in the term in which they > planned to graduate. They wanted to go to graduate school but hadn't signed > up for the GRE and certainly had not engaged in any meaningful research > experiences. When I talked to them about why they had waited so long, they > would tell me their advisor and the student grapevine advised letting the > research course wait until they were well into the major because it was such > a demanding course (!) This problem carried a lot of weight in arguing for > the creation of this course. Students just weren't being served with a > system that relied on luck for acquisition of these skills. > > I also disagree with the idea that letting students fend for themselves on > these matters allows the "real cream" to rise to the top. This smacks of the > "talent mindset" that Dweck talks about and identifies as an obstacle to > persistence when students hit difficult spots in their academic work. These > metacognitive skills are learnable (and teachable) skills of academic life. > Many smart, capable kids hit walls they don't even know exist because someone > thinks that if they don't already know the secret handshake, they aren't cut > out for academia. What a waste. > > > Claudia Stanny > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=9608 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-9608-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=9610 or send a blank email to leave-9610-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
