The Goal of a College Education - Learning to Learn
The fundamental goal of college is to help students learn how to learn. Too much information has been produced in psychology to expect students to even cover the various topics of interest to psychologists. In Teaching Introductory Psychology (1997) which is edited by Sternberg and written by ten introductory psychology textbook authors, several authors specifically mention that recall of isolated definitions and facts will be quickly forgotten and that emphasis in General Psychology should be on ideas, issues, applications, and critical thinking skills.
Computers, technology, and the Internet are increasingly putting information at our fingertips. Finding, understanding, and applying what is learned is becoming more important. Learning for many adults has become a life long challenge. “It is strange that we expect students to learn yet seldom teach them about learning. We expect students to solve problems yet seldom teach them about problem solving. And, similarly, we sometimes require students to remember a considerable body of material yet seldom teach them the art of memory.” (Norman, D., 1980, Teaching Learning Strategies, San Diego, CA: University of California.)
One Major Goal of a College Education - Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is an important component of learning to learn and a major goal of a college education. “A college catalog that failed to praise critical thinking or to pledge that graduates will think more critically when they leave than when they arrive would be an anomaly.” (Brown, M. 1986, Preconditions for encouraging critical thinking on the campus. International Journal of Social Education, 3, 18-27.)
There is considerable evidence and discussion on the necessity to develop critical thinking in our college students. “We insist that the most essential goal of the undergraduate experience is to help all students think critically and become proficient in the written and the spoken word.” (Boyer, E. 1989, Keynote address delivered at the 2nd National Conference on the Training and Employment of Teaching Assistants entitled Preparing the Professoriate of Tomorrow for Teaching: Enhancing the TA Experience. University of Washington, Seattle, November 16, 1989)
“A major objective of social studies education is the development of critical thinking. Critical thinking is essential in refining and interpreting the vast scope of the social studies content base.” (Firth, G., 1983, May. A major objective of social studies. The Clearing House, 408-410)
“Almost all college and university teachers advocate critical thinking as a fundamental goal of education . . . However, evidence is sparse that many teachers are successfully implementing critical thinking in their classrooms or that large numbers of students are developing critical thinking skills. In fact, the literature suggests that most classrooms are greatly lacking in critical thinking activity (Ellner and Barnes, 1983, Perkins, 1985).”
“While America’s colleges and universities have as a primary part of their mission the transmission of subject matter knowledge in a variety of areas and the development of certain academic skills (typically verbal and quantitative), there appears to be widespread agreement that students’ critical thinking ability is among the most important cognitive skills for college students to develop. Nowhere are the centrality and importance of developing students’ critical thinking skills more apparent than in Goal 5.5 of the National Education Goals, agreed to in 1989 by President George Bush and the nation’s governors at the Charlottesville, VA Education Summit. Those goals have since been made a matter of statuary law by the Clinton administration in the form of ‘Goals 2000: The Educate America Act.’ Specifically, Goal 5.5 states that ‘The proportion of college graduates who demonstrate an advanced ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and solve problems will increase substantially’ (National Education Goals Panel, 1991, p. 5). (Keeley, S., Shemberg, K., Cowell, B., & Zinnbauer, 1995, Fall???)
“Critical thinking has been defined and measured in a variety of ways, but Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) have noted that it ‘typically involves the individual’s ability to do some or all of the following: identify central issues, make correct inferences from data, deduce conclusions from the information or data provided, interpret whether conclusions are warranted on the basis of the data given, and evaluate evidence or authority’ (p. 118).
“However defined, critical thinking ability is probably also the most extensively studied of the higher-order thinking abilities.” (Terenzini, T., Springer, L., Pascarella, E., & Nora, A. 1994. The Multiple Influences of College on Students’ Critical Thinking Skills. Paper presented at the meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Tucson, AZ, November 1994)
“Goals, stated on the opening pages of a community college catalog, vary little from one community college to the next . . . Goals of the community college are to assist the student in
• Becoming a contributing member of society,
• Developing a sense of self-worth
• Developing critical thinking skills,
• Developing values consistent with those of our democratic society.” (Kellough, R., 1990, A Resource Guide for Effective Teaching in Postsecondary Education, NY: University Press of America)
“A major paradigm shift has occurred in higher education around the country. Over the last several decades the focus of education has changed from curriculum content to curricular outcomes, with a major emphasis on helping students learn to think critically.” (Rane-Szostak, D., and Robertson, J. 1996, Jan. Issues in measuring critical thinking. Journal of Nursing Education, 35(1), 5).
“Literature within our disciplines and in education in general continues to admonish us to teach our students how to think. As worthy a goal and strongly endorsed as critical thinking is, many of us struggle at the level of implementation--How?” (Teach your students to think. 1991, February. The Teaching Professor, 5, 1).
“In talking to teachers about thinking, we have found that one truism seems always to hold, no matter who the audience is, where it is addressed, or when the address is presented: Virtually all teachers believe that they teach for thinking. When we have asked them whether they believe that their students are learning to think, however, most of them shrug their shoulders or otherwise convey an indefinite response.” (Sternberg, R., and Martin, M. 1988, Summer. When teaching thinking does not work, what goes wrong? Teachers College Record, 89(4), 557)
“It is imperative that citizens of the 20th and 21st centuries think critically, yet recent tests have shown that only 25% of first-year college students have the skills needed for logical thought. The need for critical thinking skills has been identified as a national and international priority.” (Halpern, D. 1996, Thought and Knowledge. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, p. 32)
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