Students » Carol J. Carter

Colleges Seek New Ways to Give Students a General Education

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

What do college graduates today need to know? In the article below, colleges are carefully reviewing a long standing guideline developed in 1945 by professors at Harvard. The call at that time was for: honest thinking,
clearness of expression and the habit of gathering and weighing evidence before concluding. In a nutshell, this is the heart of critical thinking.

But colleges today are looking at those learning components in a larger context. Grads are entering a global world, and they need knowledge as well as these skills which employers require:
Â *teamwork skills with diverse groups
Â *strong written and oral communication
Â *general success skills not tied to majors.

Employers want skills and experience, not merely knowledge and inert critical thinking skills. So today’s colleges must come up with learning outcomes whereby students can measure their progress in class and out in effort to become world-class ready.

ARTICLE:
Chronicle of Higher Education
By David Glenn

A balanced diet of course workâ€”a mathematics class here, a few history and literature courses thereâ€”may be a fine and healthy thing. But course-distribution requirements probably are not enough to guarantee that undergraduates acquire a broad range of knowledge and skills.

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Not Enough Time in the Library

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

In the article below, the case is made that many of today’s students are tech-savvy and research-stupid. Faculty assume that because students know how to use technology that they also know how to make good judgments,
evaluate sources, acquire information on-line as well as from the library, etc. Indeed, many college students don’t know how to use the library.

The bigger issue here goes beyond research skills to the general ability to have solid critical and creative thinking skills. If high schools begin to work with their freshmen on these skills they will not only have better research abilities, they will also make more informed life decisions, be able
to weigh pros and cons in decisions they make and be much more mature in their overall outlook on college, career and life. If these skills are developed, they will be better students, get better jobs and lead better lives.

LifeBound is publishing Critical and Creative Thinking for Teenagers next month.

ARTICLE:
Chronicle of Higher Education

Just because your students are computer-literate doesn’t mean they are research-literate.

By TODD GILMAN

As an academic librarian, I hear an awful lot of hype about using technology to enhance instruction in colleges and universities. While the very word “technology” â€” not to mention the jargon that crops up around it, like “interactive whiteboards” and “smart classrooms” â€” sounds exciting and impressive, what it boils down to is really just a set of tools. They’re useful tools, but they don’t offer content beyond what the users put into them

To view the entire article visit
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Top 10 Strategies for Bolstering Students’ Mental Resilience

In the article below by Sally Spencer-Thomas, there are many good tips to
help students weather the current economic climate. Chief among them is
managing mental, physical and emotional health. When stress is high, many
students forget to get centered and often issues of emotional and mental
health are the last things students or families might consider. During this
time, parents and teachers can model perspective, resilience and
perseverance so that students have patterns around them of courage in the
face of challenge.

If you are working with students who have suffered disappointment, ask them
what other options they have and what they might learn from this setback. If
you are working with students who feel hopeless, ask them to document the
things in their life for which they feel grateful so that they can focus
more closely on what they do have, not what they don’t have. If you are
working with a student who doesn’t know who they are or what they want out
of life, refer them to a campus advisor or the career center where someone
skilled can walk them through questions which will allow them to see their
gifts and talents. If you are working with a student who has suffered a
family loss to death, encourage them to get help from a mental health
professional. The ability to get help–from friends or professionals– in
times of great challenge is the mark of a very mature and thoughtful person.

If we can all work together to show students how to cope, they will come
through this time with a creative, indomitable and strong spirit on which
they can draw for their rest of their lives.

ARTICLE:
By SALLY SPENCER-THOMAS
May 15, 2009

As a faculty adviser at Regis University, I have seen countless students who feel under stress and wonder if they are up for the challenge of college life. That stress has only been compounded by the financial difficulties that many more students and their families are now facing. But the good news is that those of us who work on campuses can encourage mental resilience among students, even â€” perhaps especially â€” during these tough economic times, if we:

Scan the environment. We should open our minds as if we were anthropologists 50 years from now, returning to our campuses to understand students’ stress in 2009. What are the messages in the campus media? How does the institution’s ebb and flow during the year contribute positively or negatively to a thriving community? Who are the heroes? What are the rituals? How do professors and administrators talk about coping? What are other cultural cues that might be sending explicit or implicit messages?

Serve as models of emotional intelligence and mental wellness. We can forget that, at times, we feel as overwhelmed as our students do. I recently attended a conference where the presenter asked a room full of student-life professionals if within the past year they had ever felt so overwhelmed that it was difficult to function. Every person’s hand went up.

I certainly struggle with that every day. As a parent balancing family responsibilities with a full-time job and part-time nonprofit work, I am committed to making mental wellness a priority. While I am far from perfect, working at Regis reminds me to strive for the Jesuit ideal of cura personals, or care for the whole person.

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Gen Y Gets Working

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Gen Yâ€™ers are fast realizing that the days of acting like your boss works for you are over. In this new economic climate, as the article below implies, Gen Yâ€™ers are learning to be both effective and humble in their business approach. They are realizing that coming to work early, staying late, taking on greater responsibility and looking for specific and measurable ways to solve problems contribute directly to their employability and promotability. Impacting the companyâ€™s bottom line is the measure of their contributions and often the deciding factor in whether or not someone is retained during tough times. They are also realizing that strong work exposureâ€”the ability to really contribute on the jobâ€”trumps a non-thinking, non-active job where there is little productivity output or long term results to show.

Additionally, Gen Yâ€™ers are learning to look at their job as an opportunity to contribute and to build valuable personal and professional skills which can help them catapult to a positions of greater responsibility and pay once the economy turns around. Those who can deliver these kinds of results will be the fuel of the new economy and the drivers of their own unlimited potential.

If you are an out of work Gen Yer because you took some liberties with a former employer or job, make amends. Admit your faults. Donâ€™t let your pride keep you from learning your lessons, mending fences and building rapport which can help you the rest of your career. Being stubborn is a career stopper. Learning to be flexible is a career builder.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By ALEXANDRA LEVIT
When the oldest members of Generation Y (born roughly 1978 to 1993) began graduating from college several years ago, a collective groan was heard in offices throughout Corporate America.

People said many Gen Y-ers, also called Millennials, had an excess sense of entitlement and were arrogant and lazy. They wanted to do work on their terms and it seemed they wanted feedback on that work every five minutes.

But then the economy tanked. Now, millions of Gen Y-ers are reinventing themselves to show how much, and how quickly, they can add value to their organizations.

To view the entire article visit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124131312939880579.html

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East Carolina U. Uses Simple Technology to Link Its Students With Peers Overseas

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
East Carolina University is developing innovative new ways for students in the U.S. to collaborate with their counterparts in foreign countries. What started as a modest pilot in 2003 between East Carolina U. and Soochow in China, has become a successful model for 23 universities world-wide in seventeen countries from five continents. East Carolina University has made it a point to partner with institutions world-wide who are willing and
interested in new learning models in the age of technology. But they didn’t stop there. They also enlisted the support of the U.S. State Department to help the broker relations with schools in countries they knew little about. With a fairly simple platform, these students are participating in classes for freshmen on global learning. What a way to motivate and inspire freshmen students to succeed in college, career and life!

This will, no doubt, become a new standard for learning as collaboration continues to flourish in the age of technology and global exposure becomes one of the most valued skills.

ARTICLE:
Chronicle of Higher Education
By KARIN FISCHER

Just 1 percent of East Carolina University undergraduates study overseas.

But thanks to a pair of enterprising faculty members, a growing number of students are having international experiences without ever leaving the Greenville, N.C., campus. The university’s Global Understanding program uses inexpensive and relatively unsophisticated technology â€” a low-bandwidth video link and e-mail chat â€” to connect East Carolina students with counterparts at 23 institutions in 17 countries and five continents.

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Giving Internships a Post-College Try

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Internships, as the WSJ article below indicates, are one of the best ways to gain real-world experience. Even if you have already graduated, think of a way you can intern with or without pay to determine:

1) Is the career you are interested in right for you?

2) Are your skills and knowledge suited to excel in this field?

3) Do your fellow co-workers have confidence in your abilities?

4) Do you have solid â€œtakeawaysâ€– goals and deliverables you can call your own by the end of the internship?

5) At the end of the internship, do you feel passionate and inspired, or simply that this is a job?

If you are still in school, make sure you are able to get at least two internships. These experiences are an invaluable way to show a future employer the contributions you are capable of making in the world of work.

ARTICLE
Wall Street Journal
By TODDI GUTNER
Nora Cook has her dream job. As a member of the “recycling police” for the Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority in Walnut Creek, Calif., Ms. Cook, who graduated with a business economics degree from California State University East Bay in June, finds businesses that don’t recycle, educates them on the process and keeps track of their progress.

But Ms. Cook’s job isn’t the sort of full-time gig a recent college grad would be lucky to find in this economy. Rather, it’s a nine-month, 20-hour-a-week internship that she hopes will help her land a full-time position.

To view entire article visit
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Lumina’s Leader Sets Lofty Goals for Fund’s Role in Policy Debates

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Jamie Merisotis, the 45-year-old President of the Lumina Foundation, has a lot to teach college presidents and K-12 principals through the actions in his first year in this position. First, he has set ambitious goals, the primary one being 60% of the U.S. population earning degrees or credentials by 2025. Second, Merisotis has asked key questions like, why are other developing countries outpacing the U.S. in education and why have we been satisfied with academic performance which is at a 40-year-old standard from which all other countries have moved ambitiously beyond?

Third, he has broadened Lumina’s scope and mission to be a policy-driven change agent in addition to a grant-funding organization. Fourth, he has taken specific steps to model progressive and successful European models in Indiana, Minnesota and Utah so that those models can be improved and expanded in other areas in the U.S. Fifth, Merisotis is forging necessary partnerships with businesses and business leaders who can support, buttress and take action on behalf of this mission. Finally, Merisotis gets that more Americans students need access and student success preparation for continued life success. If we are going to have 16 million more graduates by 2025, we all need to have this same vision, standards, commitment and collaboration.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By SARA HEBEL

Soon after Jamie P. Merisotis took over the Lumina Foundation for Education last year, he began talking about a “big goal.” America must increase the proportion of its population with degrees or credentials to 60 percent by 2025, in order to remain globally competitive and meet the nation’s growing demand for college-educated workers, he said. The United States, he warned, is falling behind, and the foundation would make reversing the trend the core of its work.

To view the entire article please visit
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CAROL’S SUMMARY:

According to a new survey by the Fordham Institute, the number of students enrolled in AP exams has increased by 50%. Teachers surveyed believe that the reasons most students are pursuing these courses is to enhance college essay applications, instead of seeking the challenge and intellectual rigor that such courses provide. Teachers surveyed said that 56% of students overestimate their abilities in class and are â€œin over their heads.â€ In addition, 60% of teachers said that parents push their children into these classes when they often donâ€™t have the basic foundation required to well.

Interestingly, this survey comes at a time of great debate about raising the lowest performing students while challenging those who are able to perform best scholastically. According to Dr. Robert Sternberg, for students to do well in the world they need analytical, creative and practical intelligence. Right now, the push for the AP courses emphasize analytical intelligence, but if we donâ€™t ask those same students to develop their practical knowledge and their creative framework they will be marching through assignments and tests without mastering deeper learning. This creates students who care more about college applications than knowledge, students who care more about beating the system than truly learning from it and graduates who eventually cut quality corners in the world of work, adding no extra value and often draining an organizationâ€™s profitability.

ARTICLE
New York Times
by Jacques Steinberg
A survey of more than 1,000 teachers of Advanced Placement courses in American high schools has found that more than half are concerned that the programâ€™s effectiveness is being threatened as districts loosen restrictions on who can take such rigorous courses and as students flock to them to polish their rÃ©sumÃ©s.

To view the entire article visit

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/education/29class.html?ref=education

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Invoking the Sputnik Era, Obama Vows Record Outlays for Research

CAROL’S SUMMARY:Â Obama made a huge commitment to science funding from grade school through corporate American, as stated in the article below.Â Innovation, Â strides in science, health and industry will not only help solve some of the worldâ€™s leading problems, it will also help us to create jobs and industries which can sustain our economy and the global economy for years to come.Â Â Â Currently, at the high school level America is number 27 in science compared to other developed nations.Â This focus and funding will help to turn around waning scores in science and math as we prepare students for the suite of competitive skills they will need as adults.

ARTICLE

New York Times

By Andrew C. Revkin

In a speech on Monday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, President Obama presented a vision of a new era in research financing comparable to the Sputnik-period space race, in which intensified scientific inquiry, and development of the intellectual capacity to pursue it, are a top national priority.

To view the entire article visit

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/science/earth/28speech.html?_r=1&ref=education

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Large Urban-Suburban Gap Seen in Graduation Rates

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

A report by America’s Promise finds that one in four students in the U.S. drop out of high school, but some large cities are bucking the trend and improving their dropout rates. The report also found that some districts such as Philadelphia’s have graduated more students by focusing on ninth-grade achievement, creating smaller freshman classes and easing teens’ transition into high school. These schools show what is possible for all schools in the U.Sâ€”urban or ruralâ€”when clear programs are set forth and measured in the areas of academic, emotional and social intelligence, teachers are mission-driven to make this happen, and parents and community members participate with schools to buttress these efforts around smaller, focused communities of learning.

LifeBound offers books, trainings and services which can coalesce a school and schools within a district to set new standards for student learning, awareness, ambitions, achievement and readiness for the rigors of college and the world of work. Working with ninth graders is just the beginning and it is crucial, but the real opportunity is in better preparing students starting in elementary school and working with them in each of these areas as they progress to graduate from high school.

ARTICLE
New York Times
By SAM DILLON

It is no surprise that more students drop out of high school in big cities than elsewhere. Now, however, a nationwide study shows the magnitude of the gap: the average high school graduation rate in the nationâ€™s 50 largest cities was 53 percent, compared with 71 percent in the suburbs.

To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/education/22dropout.html

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