Skills aren't taught at university; we develop them to cope with university

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Skills aren't taught at university; we develop them to cope with university · 6

forwardslash · 4784 days ago

I found this post interesting because one of my teachers is trying just what he recommended: letting the students use whatever tools necessary to solve problems on exams (in his words, "open book, open laptop: if you don't understand the material it won't help anyway"). Haven't yet had an exam with him, so I've yet to see it in action, though.

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mk · 4784 days ago · link ·

An “education,” whether for its own value or to help you get a job, is–at least to me–about developing the skills to find the information you need, assess its value, integrate it into the context at hand, and make a better decision than you otherwise could have. These skills aren’t taught at university; we develop them to cope with university.

IMHO, this author almost understands the point of university, but misses it.

University is difficult in many ways. Sometimes these difficulties seem reasonable, sometimes they do not. There is a reason for that.

Consider professor that puts questions on the test that aren't covered in class or in the book. How will you do well on the test? Maybe you can study everything that might be covered really well. Maybe you can go to the professor's office hours and try to figure out what wildcard material might be on the test. Who knows? Figure it out.

Universities let you in if you are good enough, and once you are there, they will give you opportunities to learn. Treating students as customers does a disservice to those students that are there to learn. And by learn, I don't mean 'understand the material'. You forget the material. The material is secondary.

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b_b · 4784 days ago · link ·

There's been a lot written by a lot of people from academic journal all the way down to blogs like this one claiming that universities are out of touch and perhaps "failing" the students, however defined. My question is what is the students' culpability in all this? It seems anyone can get a great education at a mediocre school if a lot of effort is expended. Its my supposition that effort is the lacking element for a lot of students, not new technologies or teaching methods. Thoughts, anyone?

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forwardslash · 4783 days ago · link ·

I suppose it's hard to tell whether it's a systematic failure of the school or if the students lack motivation; I know I did my first time attempt at university. There's another post from Jeff Atwood [1] that highlights a paper that suggests that - in first year programming courses anyhow - students may not have the ability to even learn how to program. Personally I think that the major factor to these students not developing good skills, or in the case of the paper now learning how to program, is a lack of motivation. It's anecdotal at best, but I had one professor do almost everything to help our class do its best and the bell curve for grades was not all that off the average. He would repeat over and over problems and concepts which would be tested on both of our midterms and our final, things like "Prove the binomial theorem two ways". We were allowed a cheat sheet on one of our midterms which we could put anything on (including the proof of the binomial theorem given from our textbook). Even on our final, he said that if we aced it and had done all of our assignments, we would get an A. Still, people failed and/or dropped.

[1] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/separating-programm...

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mk · 4782 days ago · link ·

IMHO, lack of motivation is behind almost every failing kid. And I don't think it's the university's job to provide it. Things that are worthwhile are difficult, and require determination. IMO failing those kids is doing them a favor. Get them out of university until they are ready to deal with it.

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thundara · 4783 days ago · link ·

Well, a lot of the way universities are structured can hamper enthusiasm and interest, is the issue. You can tell a student it's their fault for falling asleep in class, but giant, impersonal lecture halls and hour and a half long chunks of instruction can crush almost anyone's motivation.

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mk · 4782 days ago · link ·

Well, a lot of the way universities are structured can hamper enthusiasm and interest, is the issue.

Same with basically any large institution, educational or corporate. Learning takes time and can be rote and even boring. Life is full of that stuff. But it's no big deal. You learn to push through it. Personally, I don't think a university that spent a lot of effort on being motivating would end up educating as well. Motivation should come from outside the classroom, IMHO.