Fascinating Study About, Well, Studying

Keith O’Brien from the Boston Globe reports on a study by Philip Babcock  and Mindy Marks that suggests students in college across the country are studying much less than before:

The average student at a four-year college in 1961 studied about 24 hours a week. Today’s average student hits the books for just 14 hours.

The decline, Babcock and Marks found, infects students of all demographics. No matter the student’s major, gender, or race, no matter the size of the school or the quality of the SAT scores of the people enrolled there, the results are the same: Students of all ability levels are studying less.

It’s an interesting read, one that explores the roles of more active students and access to technology as possible explanations. While it seems that the level of activity will almost necessarily be somewhat subjective, technology would, on the surface, seem to reduce some of the time needed to work outside of class. I have vivid memories of writing research papers on my electric typewriter in my first year of college without the aid of the Internet or any electronic databases, memories that make me shudder still.

The study’s authors hit on another cause, a shared desire of students and professors to do less work:

One theory, offered by Babcock and Marks, suggests that the cause, or at least one of them, is a breakdown in the professor-student relationship. Instead of a dynamic where a professor sets standards and students try to meet them, the more common scenario these days, they suggest, is one in which both sides hope to do as little as possible.

“No one really has an incentive to make a demanding class,” Marks said. “To make a tough assignment, you have to write it, grade it. Kids come into office hours and want help on it. If you make it too hard, they complain. Other than the sheer love for knowledge and the desire to pass it on to the next generation, there is no incentive in the system to encourage effort.”

Breaking down this dynamic—shared desire for less effort—seems to be what needs to be at the center of educational reform efforts. When teachers and professors are effectively punished (by additional workloads relative to their peers) for having high standards, it seems inevitable that expectations and demands on students will slip.

  • http://www.pogreba.com Don Pogreba

    Test

  • Nick Cohea

    I think this development is also related to grade inflation. I don’t know about other universities, but it is true of my school that grade inflation essentially means you don’t have to do anything: B+ guaranteed. I have received A- grades in computer science courses I didn’t deserve to pass. I also got an A in Philosophy and Feminism, a 200-level course I took first year–out of my field–just because I know how to write a summary. (The course structure was “we’re going to read these essays, discuss them in class, and you are going to summarize their views on the final.)

    Others have said repeatedly that what in their day was C work now passes as A/A- work, and we have lowered academic standards.

    I am pretty disenchanted with university, not over grade inflation and the lowering of standards (I can’t lie, I benefit greatly from them), but because it is clear to me that university is a hoop one jumps through to put something on a resume.

    I feel that the time we spend in discussion group, or even having a profound, heart-to-heart discussion with a friend about a book you both read are ultimately more educational activities. Assessment is antithetical to learning.