Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Academically Adrift: Chapter 4

Haley Scholars Fall 2012 Reading Groups 

By Chandra Alford

In Chapter 4, the authors begin to highlight the academic and social climates, the investment in learning, the fields of study, and the financing of an higher education that are being experienced by many students.

The expectations placed on students by faculty members vary depending on the teaching philosophy of each faculty member. Often, faculty members are expected to create a learning environment that requires, or even demands, students to think in a critical manner, to use complex reasoning, and to express all of this through their writing skills. One of the key areas the authors focused on in this chapter was the time students are investing with their learning. The authors argue that academic demands have to compete with many other appealing alternatives.


Based on the reading, what’s one specific way that the authors swayed or solidified your understanding of the tough choices that students make (or do not make) concerning serious investments in formal learning activities, especially when other interests compete for their time and energies?

4 comments:

Kizzy Hopkins said...

Students make challenging decisions every day, such as; how many hours to work, how much time to spend with significant others (spouse, children, etc..) and how to juggle academic demands while maintaining a satisfiying life style.
Most colleges encourage student's extracurricular activities with efforts to promote diversity, group cooperation, and peer-to-peer academic support.
Although college is perceived as a social experience, many students gain academic success through academic preparation, time management, and overall the student determination to succeed, not outside activities.

Hilary Conrad said...

I still believe that many students are going to choose a more appealing activity to engage in other than school. I just passed an old friend on my way to class and she told me that she was skipping her next class to go home and sleep. Unless something significant is going on in class, many students feel like they aren't obligated to attend. I think that we as students need to be more intrinsically motivated in our school work so that we can actually learn instead of simply just completing assignments.

Monique Williams said...

So often, university faculty encourage "busyness." Join as many extracurricular activities to boost up ones GPA. While joining clubs and other activities can be very useful and rewarding, they sometimes come at a sacrifice.
For myself personally, my academics is almost a full time job. I have very high expectations for myself which requires work.Nothing in life worth having comes easy. Not only do I devote countless hours to academia, but also work and do a field study. Many other students are like me and take on this heavy load.
I sat in on an advising appointment and one student, who was of the age of 20, was working 40 hours a week and his grades were being sacrificed because of work. I think while it is great that students stay busy and active, I also believe that students and faculty should remember that our academics is a priority and that putting too much resume builders can sacrifice ones academics.

Jasmine said...

I think that similar to how professor expectations differ depending on the philosophy of the professor so do student expectations. It all depends on one's drive, mindset, and what is most important to them. For some students academics is key while for others they care more about the social life. I believe that social life comes second to academics because all are here first and foremost to get our degrees.

That being said I must also say that it is sometimes difficult to remind myself not to put everything I have into my extra curricular activities because they interest me and mean as much to me as my grades do. Especially since my extra curricular activities do go hand in hand with my major.

Although I do believe academics is number one, I also believe one can run themselves completely dry if they don't have something outside of class and/or work, that they enjoy, to devote some of their time to.