What’s Going on With College Students?
College students still have not recovered from the pandemic. Professors are reporting record levels of disengagement with coursework and trying to find ways to get students motivated again. From a great article in Inside Higher Education, Bethie McMurtrie wrote:
In 20 years of teaching at Doane University, Kate Marley has never seen anything like it. As many as 30 percent of her students do not show up for class or complete any of the assignments. The moment she begins to speak, she says, their brains seem to shut off. If she asks questions on what she’s been talking about, they don’t have any idea. On tests they struggle to recall basic information.
Does this explain why Biden’s approval ratings with young people are tanking?
We’ve heard a lot about learning lag with K-12 students, but this is also a huge issue with first year students at colleges. They didn’t learn anything for their last year or more at many high schools, so colleges are having to clean up this mess. The Hechinger Report reports that many incoming college students are unprepared to complete college-level work.
