Annette, I think Gary is on target by saying that "Motivation to do well is central". I would go beyond that and say that genuine motivation to learn is what is truly lacking. But, I've learned to be a realist and would gladly settle for some degree of recognition of the importance of acquiring good reading, writing, and critical thinking skills as well as a broad knowledge about themselves and the world they live in. I really wonder about how these young men and women end up functioning in our increasingly complex economy without having acquired such basic skills.
Miguel -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 9:56 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] From the NY Times Education Life Hi Miguel and others: And this dovetails back to my post late yesterday and why I think it's important that we do pre and posttesting in our intro classes. I think we will learn that very many students are NOT learning much in our intro psych classes. They are learning a little, but not "much." Sigh. It seems that students do what they need to, to "Pass" the class at some level, but that's about it. Sigh. That's one reason why I have been intrigued with the pre and posttesting and thinking about what students are leaving me with. It's also one reason why I now spend far more time in critical thinking about concepts and misconcepts in each chapter rather than teaching the correct "facts". But I'm not sure if that's doing much either. I've started on a program of longitudinal follow up but it's been hard because students are not much interested.....Sigh. Anyway, one of the key sentences in this short piece, to me, is, "Mr. Miller believes that success is less about native intelligence than good study habits." And for this reason, I'm proposing a "Learning to Learn" course modeled after the one recently described in Teaching of Psychology. Students just don't have the proper skills, and if they do, they don't seem to know when to use which ones appropriately. Sigh. In preparing to do assessments I've been reading APA's educational guidelines for what ideally students should be learning in intro psych classes. Now the great task is how to make even a fraction of that happen. More sighs :( Annette ---- Original message ---- >Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 08:37:09 -0500 >From: "Miguel Roig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From the NYT's article: > >http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/education/edlife/strategy.html?em&ex= 1199854800&en=40a4ddcd6163d3e7&ei=5087%0A > >"About 15 percent who take 100-level courses at large public >universities get D's or F's or withdraw from them, says Carol A. Twigg, >president of the nonprofit National Center for Academic Transformation. >She works with colleges to make the lecture format more engaging. "We >lose so many students between the first and second years," she says, >"because they are not passing these courses." > >I think that those percentages are a bit higher in my introductory >classes. :-( > >Miguel > Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
