But don't the form study groups and work their butts off studying for their exams during their non-school hours? Or is that a bogus stereotype?

I think the stereotype is commonly practised, in South Korea especially. What I find interesting is that other stereotypes of learning in "Confucian heritage countries" (as I've seen them referred to) are large class sizes, adherence to rote learning, little positive reinforcement and so on - which tend to run strongly counter to Western best practice.

kat,

sorry, I had to go teach and now I'm back.

what do I think colleges and universities could do?

1. when the GI bill was introduced in the 1940s, that brought a broad expansion of colleges and universities. Some expansion was really rough, but it forever changed HE. Colleges and universities had to adapt to the veterans and then other students who came to campus. Because many colleges have since become more selective, these adaptations have been reduced. Colleges and universities need to find a way to do remedial ed (or better: skill development in courses that count for credit toward degrees) so that students who attend a community college and transfer experience less "transfer shock."

2. colleges and universities (especially the faculty at four-year colleges) could get off their pretentious asses and sit down to work out appropriate articulation agreements for coursework in CCs to count toward 4-year degrees.

3. Colleges and universities could sponsor summer programs to train CC faculty in teaching various subjects that comply with articulation agreements.

Many public colleges and universities are hanging on by their fingernails due to low public support, but some colleges in many states have the resources to do the above.

Assuming no new funds, the remedial education piece can be done. In addition, colleges and universities can sponsor programs to help new and transfer students properly acclimate. Peer groups and peer advising can assist with transfer and can help with persistence. In addition, staff trained to do intensive advising with students identified as "high risk" (transfer students, perhaps lower income students, etc.) can also help with persistence.

Finally, colleges and universities need to encourage faculty participation in pedagogical training so that they encourage success in various gateway courses - particularly writing and gateway science and math courses.

le nubian,

Thanks! I've always wondered what the perspective is from the other side of high school graduation. My expertise is all 6-12 so it's interesting to read about the issues from your perspective.

One thing that is nuts-making for me is how ill prepared my students are for my class and how I scramble to prepare them for a traditional comp class. My system switched from 12th comp and lit analysis to a straight out expository class, which I hope is helpful for college (or would have been for me since I was not an English major).

But the skills? The ones they leave with are just not strong enough (I can move a kid maybe a year to a year and a half ahead if they do the work, but not much further... so if they come to me writing like a 6th grader, they might leave writing like an 8th or 9th grader, which is still not good) and they test into English 28 or English 21 and then spend 3 years just getting to English 101. It's depressing.

If you're interested in issues around community colleges, I recommend the blog "Confessions of a Community College Dean." [link] He has his ranty issues, but he's often insightful, and the way things work from inside the administration is often not the way things look to the general, even informed, public. (He is all over remediation, retention, etc.)

Oh flea, thanks for the link. Just skimming now, but yes, I can see where it's a whole different perspective.

Kat, I hope you have an easy-as-possible day.

So, if msbelle wants to take a few weeks off from her job and come to the DC Metro area, we may have just bought another house. My DH will be gone for 2 weeks in October, the person in my dept who handles most of the faculty requests will be going on Grand Jury duty for 4 weeks starting mid-October and another person will be teaching in Poland . . . Packing and moving should be fun! Oi. I never thought my DH's reaction to the house would be "let's go for it" rather than his usual "stop it" when I start looking.

Whoa! (I might be coming to DC Nov. 9-10, for a conference, and I am good at (and enjoy, albeit not to msbelle levels) packing/unpacking!)

Good like with the surgery Kat.

There's a term entry-level job at an academic library nearby. I really want to apply, but sitting down w. my resume last night was just depressing. All transferable skills and no direct experience. Also, the subjects covered are not my strong suit.

Sparky, congrats on the new house! Is it in roughly the same area?

We have some questions to pose to the inspection people about the house, like you do when the house is close to 100 years old, so we may have to repudiate the contract sometime in the next 7 days, but we're crossing our fingers as this would get us off our very busy street onto a very quiet one for the same mortgage payment.

Link goes poof soon: (poof!) If you want to know ping my profile addy!

I like my libraries new and my houses old.