The Skills College Graduates Need

This is hardly surprising news, but at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities today, AAC&U's president released a report detailing the findings of a survey of employers.  What did the employers say about college graduates?  That they need more rounded skills, such as communication, and the need higher levels of knwlede.  The Inside HigherEd article states: "But, most surveyed said, colleges and universities have room for improvement in preparing students to be workers."

This is certainly impoertant information for those of us who are out there teaching. All classes need to teach what employers say they want most.  Again from the article; this is what the employers say:

Employers said colleges should place more emphasis on preparing students "to effectively communicate orally and in writing" (89 percent), to use "critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills" (81 percent) and to have "the ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings through internships or other hands on-experiences" (79 percent).

Hospital Care--Does Nursing Education Make a Difference!

How do we raise the standards of nursing education in the United States and at the same time increase the number of qualified and competent nursing practitioners? Does nursing education make a difference? Beverly Malone, CEO of the National League for Nursing, explores these questions in an article Choosing Sides in the January 14, 2010, version of Inside Higher Ed. She quotes recommendations from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in the book Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation where Carnegie recommends a requirement that nurses have a bachelor’s degree before entering into practice. While Malone largely agrees with much of the Carnegie recommendations, she disagrees with the requirement that nurses have a bachelor’s degree before being able to practice. A major factor for this disagreement is due to the fact that “. . . more than half of all registered nurses are ADN-credentialed only.” With such a huge percentage of registered nurses to work with, how could this radical recommendation be implemented in a timely fashion without affecting the care of patients? All in all, however, there are some very intriguing key findings and observations in this book; and I highly recommend reading the book highlights; just click on the above link.

Whether or not practicing nurses should have more education than an Associate Degree of Nursing has been an issue of debate for several decades, but not much progress has been made in moving the ADN practitioners into higher degrees such as Bachelors of Science in Nursing or Masters of Science in Nursing. After all, it’s a big job—there are almost 3 million nurses today. But let’s try to remember—it’s our health care we’re talking about, and more opportunities for health professionals can lead to better health care for us. Watch for results from President O’Bama’s 2010 Budget Proposal for $125 Million for Title VIII Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program. And let us know what’s happening on your campus in the field of educating nurses.

Does Service Learning Really Help?

Writing in today's Chronicle of Higher Education, Stan Katz blogs about the issues surrounding service learning.  Are students really doing the "learning" part of the experience, or is it just more like plain old community service? He makes some good points, especially that the service-learning experience shouild be closely managed by the institution (so as to not unduly burden the organization where students are doing the service) and should be tightly connected to the students' curriculum. He writes, "I suppose there may be a context in which a committed instructor could turn 'painting park benches' into a teachable moment, but I have long thought that the community-service component of service learning ought to be tightly integrated into the subject-matter content of the service learning course."

I'm a big fan of service learning and have used it extensively in my classes in years past.  Now might be a good time for all other faculty members to seriously consider incorporating service-learning experiences into their classes, and take the points in Katz's article as tips.

Oh -- and don't forget that CTL is sponsoring two Webinars about service-learning presented by Minnesota Campus Compact.  Get more information here and here.

Yet Another Good STEM Idea: Integrated Curriculum

Higher ed reporting suffers from the same weaknesses as does higher education itself: too little understanding of and attention paid to the scholarship of higher education. As a result, the latest idea is too often promoted as a new or first idea, and there's little sense of history or connection. Example? We're in trouble in STEM education. Do we take a scholarly approach to the analysis and solution of the trouble? Not often. And especially when it comes to teaching problems and solutions, we are susceptible (or resistant) to the latest decent-sounding idea as an idea--not as evidence. This morning's "latest idea" for improving STEM education comes from Princeton president Shirley Tilghman's speech yesterday to the Council of Independent Colleges. Tilghman, a molecular biologist, recommends more interdisciplinarity in introductory science courses, and cites positive results from experiments at Princeton involving seminars and a two-year Integrated Science Curriculum, as developed by David Botstein and colleagues. Sounds good. Now how do those ideas, how do the Princeton results, fit in the body of research on effective science instruction, and how can we encourage more of it, more carefully planned and applied? For instance, how can we predict whether ideas that work at private liberal arts colleges will be a good fit for students, classrooms and departments at our two-year colleges and comprehensive universities?
scienceed / 06 - Inside Higher Ed