Archive for the ‘Higher Education’ Category
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April 27, 2011
Since the introduction of “No Child Left Behind,” it’s no secret that standardized testing has taken on new life in today’s education world. While many have doubts about the omnipresent hand of Scantron, some people object more vigorously than others. Take, for example, Marion Brady. In yesterday’s “Answer Sheet” blog (Washington Post), Brady argues that standardized tests are an education pig in a poke … “a freak, shaped by naiveté, political ideology, unexamined assumptions, ignorance of history, and myths.”
Strong words.
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April 26, 2011
I’ve said it before, grad school sucks. And if that’s even remotely true, James Franco is a glutton for punishment.
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April 25, 2011
Federal Pell Grants have previously been singled out for accounting for too much of the for-profit education sector’s revenue (PDF), an average of 77% at the top 5 schools. The schools as a whole accounted for roughly 10% of all higher-education enrollments, but got almost 25% of the Pell grants in 2009.
For the last year, as the heat has been turned up on the sector’s leaders, conventional wisdom dictated that the Pell grant spigot will probably be tightened.
As for-profit colleges cry about the funding restrictions and consequently increase tuition, Andrew Gillen, the CCAP research director, came up with an ingenious way to tighten Pell grants today that might even improve the career education industry’s outcomes. For him, it all comes down to incentives for both colleges and students:
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April 22, 2011
” … see in basic skills instruction the rich possibility for developing literacy and numeracy … [that] goes beyond the acquisition of fundamental skills and routine toward an understanding of their meaning and application, the principles underlying them, and the broader habits of mind that incorporate them,” (emphasis added) author Mike Rose writes yesterday in an Inside Higher Ed commentary entitled “Remediation at a Crossroads.”
As his title suggests, he pokes holes in remedial instruction (specifically English) as it’s typically presented in colleges across the country. In fact, he rips existing higher-education policy research pretty thoroughly, noting “intellectual isolation” in academic journals.
He then goes on to talk about failure being an “entry point” to this kind of instruction, a not-unsurprising idea given the current “failure” buzz in the academic and business worlds. In other words, it’s educators’ obligation to find out exactly where and why somebody needs remedial education based on what the individual already knows (the “cognitive history”), not just some outdated standards of what we think they should be doing to catch up.
Read his full piece (linked above) for an impassioned and at times idealistic look at educational philosophy. I tend to agree that the more we can help all levels of our society learn not just simple fundamental skills, but their theoretical foundations and cross-disciplinary significance, the more prosperous we will be.
April 20, 2011
Maybe it’s post-recession blues. Maybe it’s never-ending political budget crises. Maybe it’s the Fukushima disaster. Even I caught the fever in the last week, writing about emergent strategy and a theoretical physicist’s argument for the scientific importance of failure. This was before I even saw that there is a whole special issue of the Harvard Business Review (subscription required) this month dedicated to the very subject. Entrepreneurs, MBA students, and other future business professionals, take note: whatever the cause, the business case for failure seems to be in vogue.
As Adrian Wooldridge, author of the Economist’s Schumpeter column, also points out, failure is all the rage these days, at least in business literature circles. One of his best observations, as relayed in the April 18 “Money Talks” podcast (iTunes link):
I think some of the biggest disasters in corporate history have come from groupthink, from yes-men, from people being unwilling to raise their hand and say, ‘Actually, things are going badly here.’
Indeed. Here’s to critical thinking: not just nice to get you through some school exercises, but a vital, coveted business skill.
April 18, 2011
According to Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist at Arizona State University, students don’t know how to fail. Fail well, that is.
What does that mean? Citing feedback from physics graduates who became businesspeople, he says that science teachers at all levels need to teach students how to handle failure–in other words, handle the ambiguities of the real business world. As he says,
“In the real world, most problems are not solvable exactly, and there are many competing demands. And you have to often change course in the middle …”
It was pretty striking to hear this physics professor talk about exactly the same philosophy that an international business school professor espoused to MBA students less than a month ago. Only one day previous to discovering Krauss’ thoughts on the scientific importance of failure had I written the above-linked blog post about business theory’s parallel emergent strategy.
By the way, I first came across this information through the excellent “60-Second Science” podcast from Scientific American (iTunes link provided for subscription ease). It’s a fast, free way to get daily audio updates on all sorts of interesting new scientific findings.
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Related reading: This is not the first time I’ve blogged about the importance of failure. See a post from one year ago on a Harvard Business Review article that showed how earthquake recovery shines a light on the usefulness of failure in business.
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Photo courtesy of Chris Griffith via Flickr.
April 15, 2011
Two big-time B-school academics (Micheal Porter, Henry Mintzberg). Two conflicting strategies in the world of business.
One McGill professor, Karl Moore, breaks down the implications of each strategy in a recent Forbes.com “Rethinking Leadership” column.
Deliberate vs. emergent strategy
Essentially, use the past to predict the future (deliberate), or learn from a constantly changing present as it changes (emergent). Moore argues strongly for the latter’s greater relevance, explaining that organizations in today’s world need to learn “what works in practice” over time. In other words, figure out the best ways to adjust to an ever-changing reality as it changes. In a globalized information economy where industrial boundaries blur increasingly every day, being in tune to emergent strategy makes sense:
“It is precisely because we cannot, try as we may, control the variables that factor into business decisions that Mintzberg’s emergent strategy is so useful.”
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April 11, 2011
Or, the corporate ladder is so last century.
The YSGTS blog salutes Deloitte chief talent officer Cathy Benko for preparing today’s graduates for the realities of the information-driven workforce. In a Hire Education (WSJ) post from last week, she cites a figure predicting “60% of the new jobs created this century will require skills now possessed by a mere 20% of today’s workers.” [Emphasis added.]
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April 8, 2011
Every so often, this blog takes a look at various websites that use Education 2.0 (read: web-based) technologies to provide learning opportunities and communities for students and teachers. Today, we look at TeachStreet, the self-described “online community for people who love to learn.”
What it does
It allows would-be students to find thousands of courses in whatever subject interests them (cooking, piano, GMAT prep), either by connecting them to local teachers or online classes. Teachers are also given access to potential students and can post profiles and their subject areas of expertise. For added teacher marketing power, three different subscription options exist for recruitment and lead-generation. Students can see upcoming classes in their area (one sampling is at the bottom of the home page): Fitness, particularly yoga, seems big in Cleveland.
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March 31, 2011
Graduate schools are stress factories. I’ve never actually attended one, but I’ve heard they’re awful. My lady is in grad school. She’ll tell you—she tells me all the time—it sucks.
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