At 09:46 AM 1/26/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Practical Goal Orientation: 94
>Cognitive/Self Orientation: 55 (32 of these also picked the first category)
>Other: 1
Actually, I'm pleasantly surprised at these numbers. It seems that a significant
number of students at your school go to college for the "right" reasons, though I
wonder if some degree of social desirability/demand characteristics are entering into
your data. My sense is that if I were to carry out the survey at my campus I would
get a more lopsided view of college overwhelmingly favoring a credentialling approach
to college.
In any event, I assume that the credentialling view is the predominant view with the
average college student. After all, many of our institutions do a pretty good job of
promoting this view. Consider St. John's current motto: "Real learning for real
life". As I interpret it I read: real learning for the "real" world; the world of
work, etc.
The question for me is: What should we be doing to change this view? One of the
things I started doing since last year is to have students react to a couple of quotes
I have posted in my webpage (one of which I borrowed from Annette Taylor: "Education
is one of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get.") and to have a
brief discussion on these issues (i.e., the "real" purpose of going to college) the
first or second day of class with an occasional reminder throughout the semester.
Unfortunately, I am afraid that my little lectures are not really reaching most
students and are quickly forgotten.
Mis 2 centavos.
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Miguel Roig, Ph.D. Voice: (718) 390-4513
Assoc. Prof. of Psychology Fax: (718) 442-3612
Division of Social Sciences [EMAIL PROTECTED]
St. John's University [EMAIL PROTECTED]
300 Howard Avenue http://rdz.stjohns.edu/~roig
Staten Island, NY 10301
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