What do you really learn in college?

What do you really learn in college?

So, the author seeks out students through interviews and through surveys and asks them “what percentage of their college learning comes from classes, from readings, films, group work, and papers related to classes, versus what percentage is from outside of classes?”  What she found out through her polling was the median response of students that 65 percent of their learning occurred outside of the class and class-related activities while only 35 percent occurs from within.  For some students, they reported up to 90 percent of their learning came from non-class-related learning.  Most students reported that their elective social activities and interpersonal relationships was the main context for learning.  The author thinks, “If college is not primarily about intellectual ideas and issues or classes, then what is it for?” Isn’t that what students come to school for—to learn?  So, she asks the question, “If given the chance, would you take the degree and run?”  She was asking if the university would GIVE them a bachelor’s degree (without them working for it), would they take the degree and move on?  Of the students who responded, thirty-eight women responded anonymously—eight of them said they would take the degree and run.   The reasons they gave ranged from “I want to start my life”, I miss my boyfriend, and “I’m ready to start teaching now”.  Imagine that—ready to start teaching now—be for real!  Two-thirds said they would choose to stay in college and finish their degrees.  These individuals had reasons such as, “they wanted to make sure they learned enough to get a good job; only if the degree came with all of the knowledge they’d need for their career, and discomfort in the fact that if it was handed to them, it would not be the same as if they knew they had worked hard to get what they deserved.  Five percent of the students said a flat out NO—they would not take the degree because it would devalue the degree.  Is this what you would have though the responses would be?

Participation or Lack of...

Class Participation

Hey everyone—it has been a very busy summer-whew!  In this blog, I want to talk about academic and class participation.  In the book I’m blogging, My Freshman Year, as a student, the author realizes much that she had not thought about as an instructor.  For instance, she remembered one of her (seemingly sensitive) professors saying that he/she would never use professional jargon in his/her classes because if the students didn’t understand, then they would not ever admit that they didn’t understand.  Once she became a student, she completely understood what that professor meant.  As a younger student, I know that there was no way I felt comfortable asking an instructor what they meant, especially in a room full of other students.  Who wants to be the one to look stupid?  I still have times when I feel that way—right now!

The author decides to interview the students to reflect on their lack of class participation, and of course, the answers varied.  Some students spoke about being alienated by peers if they participated, the power of the instructor, and lack of interest in the subject being presented.  Think back to your freshman year—did you have the confidence to be THE one to speak up when you didn’t understand something?  Do you think now at this time in your academic career—yes, I said career (in my opinion, learning is limitless), do you speak up enough when you don’t quite understand something?

Outsiders

Outsiders

The author likens herself as that of an outsider, partially because of being in college at her age, so she finds herself drawn to other partial outsiders and them to her.  As mentioned in my previous blog post, students were drawn to others like them.  Students the author found herself drawn to included the transfer student on her hall, the lone African American student in her freshman seminar, and international students in her dorm and classes.  Thus, according to the world of anthropology, as stated by the author, they have come to know that culture is often invisible to its natives, so much so, that it is often not worthy of comment.  Statements taken from interviews with students from other countries included, “nobody even responded or asked us to be in their groups, so the international students had to make their own group.”  Again, where is the sense of community?  The author states that the international students learned quickly that being a student, being a dorm mate, being a classmate—none of it automatically qualified one as a “member of the community (Nathan, 2005, pg. 69).  From her interviews and observations, some of the international students felt like the American students didn’t care about them—they didn’t ask them about their lives in their countries.  The American students who did ask them usually were well traveled or had been exchange students.  One international student explained that her boyfriend (another international student) had no trouble making friends with the American students.  He liked playing the drums and other students would come into his room (the students usually kept their dorm room doors open when they were awake).  The student said that it was her boyfriend’s interests that allowed him to make friends easier than some of the other international students. Isn’t this true to most anyone?  Aren’t people drawn to each other with similar interests?

Back to Diversity

Let's get started on how the author viewed diversity once she returned to college as a freshman.  As the author continues to interview students about their social networks, she is now interested in the diversity among those students.  Many of the students she interviewed could name someone from a different ethnic group among their close circle of friends.  However, this information did not match her observations, so she probe a little deeper and upon further questioning, she found out that these people were not in fact close friends, but someone they knew from a class or extracurricular activity.  Here are some of her other findings on diversity:

1.  Five of six white students had no members of another racial or ethnic group in their close social circles.
2.  Five of the six minority networks contained one or more minorities in the group.
3.  Some relationships were developed by built-in biases through special interest clubs (international student outings, sports teams, sororities, fraternities.
4. Minorities (people of color) ate alone a little more often than non-minorities. 
5. People of color were ten times more likely than whites to eat in a group in which they were the only person of a different race/ethnicity at the table.
6.  The networks of Caucasian students included more whites, and those that included people of color were primarily "mixed", comprised of people of various ethnicities. 
7.  Of the white students, white males often did not eat with those students of different ethnicities. 

I wonder if she had seen these trends in the classroom as an instructor, or did she not think about such things.  Were her classes ethnically mixed?   If not, then perhaps she would not have seen these trends until she was forced to see them because she was looking for them.  What do you think?

Community and Diversity

What does community mean?  Merriam-Webster defines community as a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society.  When the author of My Freshman Year interviewed students about their feelings on being a community, most said they felt like they had a community within the university.  The author defined their communities as a network of personal friends.  To me, that is one kind of community.  Communities can be defined differently by different people.  The author was then intrigued and wanted to know who these networks of friends were formed and how activities within these groups were coordinated.  According to the author, the student networks, like family relations, are ego based (Nathan, 2005, pg. 56).  What do you think she means by that--ego based?  She goes on to mention that no two people share the exact same group of friends and that is what she means by ego based.  I don't get it.  I understand that communities are built by people and who they interact with.  She mentions that two people are part of the same network, but they separately have their own friends and usually the names are not identical.  Isn't that usually the way it works.  My son has a particular group of friends that have been together since they were about 10 and 11 years old--they are now 24 and 25 years old.  They are a very tight knit group, but they each have other friends that they may hang out with individually or separate from this group.  That's just how it is.  The author stated that she was very surprised that eight of the fourteen students she interviewed had one or more people within their personal networks that they had known previously from their high school or their hometown.  I don't find this surprising.  I went to college with several people from my high school--we decided on the school together and paired up as roommates.  My son and his friends did the same thing.  Isn't this normal?  Most likely, students from the same geographic location will attend some of the same colleges in that area or region.  Another surprise element for her was that classroom contacts did not figure much into the social networks of students. Of the students interviewed, less than one fourth of them had met a member of their social network in an academic class or other activity.  The author states that once the networks were formed, usually by the end of their freshman year, the students tended to stay with their groups and sparse contact with others.  She further states that the way the social life is formed affects issues of diversity.  No kidding...are you surprised by these results?

Confused by the next chapter...

I'm kind of confused by the last chapter I just read in my book My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan.  She seems surprised by her findings about the community or lack of community among the students in the dorms, or I'm interpreting it all wrong.

At the first mandatory dorm meeting, the dorm residents are asked to share something about themselves.  The author announced that she had lived overseas before.  She was surprised that none of the other students asked her anything about the experience.  As classes began, she hoped to get a "sense of the rhythm" of the students' lives.  In the early days of the semester, it proved hard for her to devote time to her study because of the necessary demands of being a student--getting books, getting classes straight, finding the right class buildings, etc.  The author started a daily journal so she could record her findings.  She found out very early on that students had numerous responsibilities that required their attention and these responsibilities took up a lot of time.  Once settled into a daily routine, the author began conducting interviews with selected students for her research. 

After interviewing students on their routines, responsibilities, and usage of time, she found that (compared to another study conducted by Michael Moffat http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/30/books/paperbacks-no-orgies-please-we-re-studying.html) students were spending approximately 1.45 hours per week of prep time for academics.  Moffat's study in the 70s showed that students were spending approximately 2 hours per week of prep time for academics. Compared to Moffat's study, her data showed that students were studying a little less and socializing less, so what were the students spending their time doing? 

Data showed that some students worked, some were involved in extracurricular activities (which also could involve volunteer/community service requirements) in sororities/fraternities, and some having to both work and involved in extracurricular activities.   Her findings showed that on a typical weeknight, half of the students were in bed by 11:30 pm and up by 9:00 am the next morning.  The author followed ten students and these students all led very distinctly different lives.  A sampling of the students she followed included an athlete who could not stay out late, a sorority pledge who had late night commitments and slept past noon, an ROTC student who had to be up very early for training, and another student who professed to being a procrastinator who changed her major seven times and socialized at least three times per week, and another student who worked 25 hours a week and used the funds for food and socializing.  These students' paths would cross only with great effort on their parts to do so--they were like ships passing in the night.

The author seemed surprised that although these students all attend the same university and some of the same classes, their circles didn't always come together without great effort.  Once she realized their differences, she understood why it took effort on their parts to come together.  Even those students, who were roommates, friends, in the same clubs, etc., had to have some forethought and planning with each other to build a social circle.  The author thought that there was no real sense of community among the students.  When visiting the dorm after the freshman year experience, she was surprised that she did not recognize anyone on her old dorm floor.  The RA explained that students were always shifting--rooms, majors, activies, etc.


More to come...