As a doctoral student and former middle school and high school English teacher, I humbly offer to this conversation that whole language instruction might be a culprit in terms of students' reading and writing deficiencies.
Whole language instruction has been used in a few countries (US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand; and is imbued in the Montessori philosophy as practiced in Italy and elsewhere) but has been found by many studies to be highly ineffective when used alone or in the absence of phonics; still, its use is spreading fairly rapidly to all parts of the globe.
A prevailing theory about the overall failure of whole language instruction is that it places too much of a burden on children and adolescents to acquire knowledge for which they need formal, top-down instruction instead, given their age-related cognitive limitations.
As such, a global over-emphasis of whole language instruction could explain why recent generations continue to have trouble with formal use of their own native languages. In short, the current phenomenon of reading and writing deficiencies among students simply could be limitations of student-centered learning.
Respectfully,
Sheri Edwards
Doctoral student
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, US
________________________________
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum on behalf of Karen Weaver
Sent: Tue 11/23/2010 12:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Enrollment in Online Courses Increases at the Highest Rate Ever
That's a very broad & simplistic sounding statement- "Students can't think--and they can't ...write English either." How can you even do a 'casual survey' on something like that...:-)
there are many social and cultural issues, that may not have much to do with the 'corporatization of universities', which seems to have become a catch-all excuse for the problems in education these days.
I'm a first generation American, my mother came off a boat from Ireland in the 1950s and spoke and wrote English, just with a heavy accent. She had an opportunity to attend college when her employer recommended her to attend school but she turned it down to continue working instead before she married and had a family to support. We have recently read about student protests in Britain where students now are being asked to pay for their education. For centuries, Ireland and the UK have had generations of white, English speaking people-men and women-- who just were shut out from education because of their social and economic class. not because of their ability to speak or write English. What are the other factors ?
We have some people who are placed in special education classes in American elementary schools because they had a Hispanic name, even though they were born in Brooklyn or Topeka KS. To say simply that 'students can't read or write English' is just one big can of worms.
We have some faculty in our graduate schools today who tell women students they don't belong in graduate school because they have families or simply because they are women.
It's not about corporatization always but rather, about giving people *real* opportunities to learn.
Some of you may have read recently about the Professors of the Year in the Chronicle who are the best at what they do because they let their students take charge of their learning.
what does that tell us? that they just "can't think" ? I don't think so....that's just a cop out too often used.
Cheers, Karen
Karen Weaver, MLS, Electronic Resources Statistician, Duquesne University, Gumberg Library, Pittsburgh PA email: [log in to unmask] / Gmail: [log in to unmask]
On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 4:22 AM, Sue Myburgh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hurrah, Suzanne and Bernie!!!! I thought that this was a purely Australian phenomenon. It is reassuring (but even more tragic) that this is an international phenomenon. Students can't think - and they can't they write English either. But here's more bad news: I have been a Visiting Professor at the University of Parma (Master's in Digital Libraries) and we have enjoyed the contributions of many international experts in this field, and guess what: students cannot write correctly in Slovenian, Czech, French, Norwegian,German, Swedish or Italian either (where these are their home languages). My casual survey continues...
When will 'they' stop the corporatisation of universities and concentrate on academic matters - like knowledge, for example.
Yours in despair
Sue
Dr Susan Myburgh
School of Communication
University of South Australia
St Bernard's Road
Magill SA 5076
ADELAIDE
P: 618 8302 4421
F: 618 8302 4745
E: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Except in the case of a few very vocational degrees, university isn't about what you learn on the course, it's about how that learning, how living and studying somewhere new, changes the way you think and who you are. Instead of forcing kids to make binding career choices at 17, higher education is supposed to give students who would benefit from further academic development a bit of space in which to find themselves... But when residential non-vocational degrees for a minority are replaced by hurried part-time vocational ones for the majority, going to university is likely to lose its career-enhancing effect. The academic currency is both debased and over-issued.
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From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan
Sent: Sunday, 21 November 2010 4:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Enrollment in Online Courses Increases at the Highest Rate Ever
I was lucky enough to have been born into a family that valued higher education, even though only one of my four grandparents graduated high school. My paternal grandmother didn't even finish grammar school, but all three of her kids (two sons and a daughter) were college grads, and they grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere.
My mother's siblings also mostly attended college, even though they were first generation immigrants. My mother retired as a newspaper editor. She taught me all the rules of writing/editing that I ignore/forget today. :-)
I agree with Suzanne Stauffer. My mother attended college for just two years. Even now, in her late 80s, I'm sure she knows more than many graduate students.
Bernie Sloan
--- On Sat, 11/20/10, Suzanne Stauffer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Suzanne Stauffer <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Enrollment in Online Courses Increases at the Highest Rate Ever
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 8:40 AM
Thank you, Karen! It's sad when even we accept the too-common equivalence of higher education with vocational training.
At the same time, many employers are looking to college graduates because a high school diploma no longer guarantees a minimal level of ability and cultural knowledge. My mother did not attend college, and in high school she concentrated on "secretarial" courses. She knew more about grammar than I do to this day. She also knew more basic facts about history and literature than many of my MLIS students. She could do basic math -- add, subtract, multiply and divide -- in her head, and could convert weights and measurements, as well.
Even an undergraduate degree no longer guarantees that. I have too many students in cataloging who do not recognize Greek tragedians such as Euripides, presidents other than the two or three they remember from their own life time, and basic works of Western culture. I shudder (not "shutter," as so many of them would have it) to think what their math skills are like.
Suzanne M. Stauffer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science
Louisiana State University
275 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
(225)578-1461
Fax: (225)578-4581
[log in to unmask]
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
--T.S. Eliot, "Choruses from The Rock"
________________________________
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum on behalf of Karen Weaver
Sent: Thu 11/18/2010 5:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Enrollment in Online Courses Increases at the Highest Rate Ever
So....uh, should people stop bothering to apply to college next year or drop out now ?
What matters most is that they pursued their education and hopefully were successful at it. What they choose to do with it after the fact is not necessarily the same issue or point.
For many people today, as in the past, they are the first in their families to even go to college, and for many too, to have completed high school.
Guess it would depend on one's perspective. Does everyone think about "job" when they are going to college? I remember years ago working at Columbia University libraries where some of my co-workers had their day/night job at the library - not as "professional" staff either, but had 2-3 other careers going at the same time.
Maybe some people just are not used to doing both, i.e. work / education, for some it is the norm, it just takes much longer to get there.
cheers, KarenW
Karen Weaver, MLS, Electronic Resources Statistician, Duquesne University, Gumberg Library, Pittsburgh PA email: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]> / Gmail [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
---Eleanor Roosevelt
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Irene Lopatovska <[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]> > wrote:
On a similar(?) note:
17 Million Kids Went To College And Became Waitresses Or Flight Attendants
As more students obtain bachelor's degrees, the importance of higher education is getting watered down. In fact, millions of graduates <http://www.businessinsider.com/17-million-kids-went-to-college-and-became-waitresses-or-flight-attendants-2010-11> are settling for underemployment.
Richard Vedder of The Chronicles of Higher Education <http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/why-did-17-million-students-go-to-college/27634> writes, "Some 17,000,000 Americans with college degrees <http://www.businessinsider.com/17-million-kids-went-to-college-and-became-waitresses-or-flight-attendants-2010-11> are doing jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says require less than the skill levels associated with a bachelor's degree." These alumns are becoming flight attendants, retail sales people, and even shampooers at hair salons.
Read more at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/17-million-kids-went-to-college-and-became-waitresses-or-flight-attendants-2010-11
Irene Lopatovska, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor, Pratt SILS
144 w. 14th street, 6th floor
New York, NY 10011-7301
http://mysite.pratt.edu/~ilopatov/index.htm
[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
________________________________
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]> ] On Behalf Of Karen Weaver
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 8:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Enrollment in Online Courses Increases at the Highest Rate Ever
Please excuse any duplication - from the Chronicle / kw
"Enrollment in Online Courses Increases at the Highest Rate Ever"
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/enrollment-in-online-courses-increases-at\
-the-highest-rate-ever/28204 <http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/enrollment-in-online-courses-increases-at-the-highest-rate-ever/28204>
November 16, 2010, 12:01 am
By Travis Kaya
EXCERPTS BELOW:
"Despite predictions that the growth of online education would begin to level
off, colleges reported the highest-ever annual increase in online
enrollment-more than 21 percent-last year, according to a report on an annual
survey of 2,600 higher-education institutions from the Sloan Consortium and the
Babson Survey Research Group."
"In fall 2009, colleges-including public, nonprofit private, and for-profit
private institutions-reported that one million more students were enrolled in at
least one Web-based course, bringing the total number of online students to 5.6
million. That unexpected increase-which topped the previous year's 17-percent
rise-may have been helped by higher demand for education in a rocky economy and
an uptick in the number of colleges adopting online courses."
"Although the survey found sustained interest in online courses across all
sectors, there was a spike in the number of for-profit institutions-a 20-percent
increase over last year-that said online education is critical to their
long-term strategies. However, more public colleges than private
for-profits-74.9 percent versus 60.5 percent-say it's part of their long-term
plans." ...
EXCERPTS:
..."Administrators also continue to wrestle with the question of quality in
online education. According to the survey report, "Class Differences: Online
Education in the United States, 2010," 66 percent of college administrators say
that online education is the same as or better than face-to-face classes-a
slight decline from last year. Still, Ms. Allen said it appears that more
faculty members are warming up to online education as a quality alternative to
face-to-face learning and are finding new ways to use the technology." ...
Excerpts from the article
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karen Weaver, MLS Electronic Resources Statistician, Duquesne University, Gumberg Library, Pittsburgh PA email: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]> / Gmail: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
"No artist is ahead of his time. He is the time. It is just that others are behind the time."--Martha Graham
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