Learning from Students
I am a
statistician, but I am impressed by the power of individuals' heartfelt
stories. Throughout my book (Making the Most of College: Students Speak
Their Minds), I use quotations from students' interviews to illustrate each
point. Students who agreed to be interviewed were told that they might be
quoted. Several actively urged me to include specific stories they thought
would be helpful to future students.
Many of those stories are here. I have edited the quotations a bit,
omitting "ums" and "ahs," reducing repetition, and, with
each student's permission, occasionally tightening the prose to make a point
clear.
Where did
all these stories come from? All findings in this book come from in-depth
interviews. Early on, my colleagues and I decided that to learn what works best
for students, we should ask them. So we did. More than sixteen hundred
undergraduates have been interviewed during this effort, many of them more than
once. Some were interviewed by faculty members: I myself interviewed four
hundred. Other interviews were conducted by undergraduates, who were carefully
trained and supervised by faculty members. Interviews ranged from one to three
hours.
These
personal interviews paint an entirely different picture from the kind of
information that comes from a large-scale, check-box style of survey
questionnaire. As a statistician, I know there are many circumstances in which
questionnaires with check-box categories are a superb format for gathering
evidence. In fact, I teach a course on this topic. Yet for this particular
research, personal interviews offer a special depth and richness that no
check-box questionnaire, however well designed, could easily tap.
One
reason is that the personal interviews are loaded with details. It is one thing
for a student to say that a particular class had a powerful impact on her
thinking. It is far more useful to understand why this class had such power,
how it was organized, and whether other faculty members and students can
benefit in their own work from this success story. The more illustrations a
student can offer to buttress a point, the better and more helpful that point
is for other students.
For me,
interviewing four hundred undergraduates was a special pleasure. Harvard
undergraduates have strong views. They come here expecting a lot. Nearly all
are enthusiastic and productive, and nearly all students also have suggestions
for improving both academic and nonacademic aspects of college. They constantly
question what we do, what they do, how to do it better, what they are getting
and giving in this demanding community. Their convictions are changing the way
I, and many of my colleagues, think about teaching and advising.
I hope
students reading this book will find many of the results useful. Advice from
fellow undergraduates, based on their own experiences both good and bad, should
be helpful as students think about making decisions. What to look for when
choosing classes, and the faculty members who teach them? How to interact most
productively with advisors and mentors? What to consider when deciding about
living arrangements? How to allocate time? The students we interviewed have
suggestions about all these topics.
Some of
what we have learned from students fits what we expected, but certain insights
are surprising, at least to me. Let me preview nine of our findings here. And
these are just the beginning.
First, I assumed that most important and
memorable academic learning goes on inside the classroom, while outside
activities provide a useful but modest supplement. The evidence shows that the
opposite it true: learning outside of classes, especially in residential
settings and extracurricular activities such as the arts, is vital. When we
asked students to think of a specific, critical incident or moment that had
changed them profoundly, four-fifths of them chose a situation or event outside
the classroom.
Second, I expected students to prefer courses
in which they could work at their own pace, courses with relatively few
quizzes, exams, and papers until the end of the term. Wrong again. A large
majority of students say they learn significantly more in courses that are
highly structured, with relatively many quizzes and short assignments. Crucial
to this preference is getting feedback from the professor--ideally with and
opportunity to revise and make changes before receiving a final grade. In
contrast, students are frustrated and disappointed with classes that require only
a final paper. How can we ever improve our work, they ask, when the only
feedback comes after a course is over, and when no revision is invited?
A third surprise has to do with homework. When I
was in college years ago, nearly every professor announced that I should do my
homework alone. Discussing problem sets or essay assignments with other
students, I was told, would be considered cheating. Yet at many campuses today,
professors increasingly are encouraging students to work together on homework
assignments. Some faculty members are even creating small study groups in their
courses, to help students work together outside of class.
A few
students tell of professors who gave homework assignments that are so
challenging or complex that the only way to get the work done is to
collaborate. To complete such assignments, students have to work cooperatively,
dividing up the readings and meeting outside of class to teach one another.
Many undergraduates report that such homework assignments increase both their learning
and their engagement with a class. This alteration in the format of homework is
a genuine cultural change, one that is happening on campuses across the
country.
A fourth finding: student after student brings up
the importance of class size in his or her academic development. Not
surprisingly, small-group tutorials, small seminars, and one-to-one supervision
are, for many, their capstone experience. Yet what I find surprising is that
some undergraduates, when asked to identify a particularly critical or profound
experience at college, identify a mentored internship not done for academic
credit. The word "mentor" is used in many ways, and undergraduates we
interviewed are very clear about what constitutes effective mentoring. A key
idea here is that students get to create their own project and then implement
it under the supervision of a faculty member. Instead of following a
professor's plan, they face the new challenge of developing their own plan and
applying it to a topic they care about.
Fifth, for most students the impact of racial
and ethnic diversity on their college experience is strong. An overwhelming
majority of undergraduates characterize its effects as highly positive.
Students can learn much from others who come from different backgrounds,
whether ethnic, geographic, political, religious, or economic. Yet many point
out that learning from people of different backgrounds does not always happen
naturally. Campus atmosphere and especially residential living arrangements are
crucial.
Ironically,
even the happiest students are sharply critical of platitudes about the virtues
of diversity. Most have experienced unpleasant moments, awkward encounters, and
sometimes worse. They point out that only when certain preconditions are met
does "the good stuff" actually happen. They also note the good news
that those preconditions are factors that campus leaders can do something
about. Campus leaders can do much to shape an environment in which diversity
strengthens learning.
A sixth finding: students who get the most out
of college, who grow the most academically, and who are happiest organize their
time to include activities with faculty members, or with several other
students, focused around accomplishing substantive academic work. For some
students this is difficult. Interacting in depth with faculty members or even
with fellow students around substantive work does not always come naturally.
Yet most students at Harvard learn to do it with great success. Both advisors
and other faculty members can help this process along.
A seventh finding: I was surprised by students'
strong attitude toward writing. I would have guessed that they value good
writing, but I didn't realize how deeply many of them care about it, or how
strongly they hunger for specific suggestions about how to improve it.
Eighth, I would have expected a general feeling
among students that good advising is important. Yet that is a platitude. It is
the specifics that are striking. A large majority of graduates describe
particular activities outside the classroom as profoundly affecting their
academic performance. Some point to study techniques, such as working in small
groups outside of class. Others tell of more personal exercises, such as formal
time-logging.
Ninth, I expected many undergraduates to
characterize work in foreign languages and literatures as merely a requirement
to be gotten out of the way. In fact, hardly any do this. Students talk about
language courses with special enthusiasm. Many rate them among the best of all
their classes. Alumni agree, and strongly. When asked why, both groups point to
the way these courses are organized and taught.
There is
a clear lesson here. Students have thought a lot about what works well for
them. We can learn much from their insights. Often their insights are far more
helpful, and more subtle, than any vague conventional wisdom about what
constitutes a valuable college education.
Do These
Findings Generalize?
This is not
just a Harvard story. My visits to other campuses have convinced me that the
findings in this book apply broadly. At every college I visit, whether highly
selective or not, private or public, large or small, national or regional,
students are eager to share their experiences, to tell what works at their
place. I am struck by how much of what Harvard students say.
Wherever
I go, I ask faculty, students, and administrators whether the ideas and
suggestions I present about teaching, advising, maximizing students'
engagement, and capitalizing on diversity apply on their campus. On more than
ninety campuses the response has been clear: "Yes, most of those ideas
would work well here."
For
example, I recently shared some findings from this book at a large public
university on the West Coast. When I described the positive student reaction to
meeting in small groups outside of classes to go over homework, readings, and
problem sets, the reaction from both faculty and students was, "If it
works at Harvard, it should be even more valuable here, where faculty resources
are less plentiful." Enough other campuses have now implemented enough of
the suggestions in this book that I believe it would be a shame to say,
"Those findings are so Harvard." Maybe a select few won't
generalize-for example, our findings about the importance of undergraduate
residence halls apply only to residential colleges-but it is clear that most
generalize quite well.
I know
that enormous differences exist among American colleges. Yet at nearly all of
them, administrators and faculty members share with students a wish to enhance
learning, improve instruction, and organize their campuses so that racial and
ethnic differences can make a positive contribution to everyone's experience.
If the findings I present here help students and leaders on many campuses take
a few steps toward achieving these outcomes, I will consider this book a great
success.
Downloaded
from Tomorrow’s Professor listserv, August 11, 2001. The excerpt is from:
Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Copyright 2001. All rights
reserved, Printed in the USA.
[Note: Visit
the TLC to borrow a copy of the book]
10/01