In North America an obsession with national and personal success has begun to cloud the decisions of both politicians and citizens alike. As individuals strive to make their way to the top and accomplish their personal version of the American dream important aspects of life begin to be neglected. According to Scott Jaschik’s article “Academically Adrift” students are not receiving the gains of learning because they lack rigor, but the article does little to address why students are “drifting through college without a clear sense of purpose” (Jaschik). Other studies suggest that rather than increasing workload universities should focus on creating a positive learning experience for students both academically and through extracurricular activities.
Intrinsic interest is the key to truly motivating students to learn and allowing them to enjoy learning. Jaschik has aptly recognized the relationship between rigor and gains of learning, but he later relates that “the authors focus on pushing students to work harder” (Jaschik). The article implies that giving students more work is going to improve their work ethics, but according to Slavin’s book “Students Motivating Students to Excel” students’ interest in doing academic work and learning academic material is one of the key motivational factors in student productivity. Increasing work load is unlikely to increase intrinsic motivation. Rather than increasing work load universities should focus on increasing the students’ power over their learning. A variety of methods could be used to increase learning power including but not limited to: providing alternatives to lectures, allowing greater diversity in course selection and providing more testing options.
In addition universities should continue to maintain student life satisfaction by providing social and extracurricular activities. Jaschik’s article suggested that university officials should “[worry] less about students’ non-academic experiences” (Jaschik). Yet the authors’ justification for this claim is purely based on a correlation between gains in knowledge and students in classes with higher workloads. This claim is very poorly thought out as not only does this correlation lack any evidence as to the direction of causation, but no measures where done to see the effects of decreased non-academic experiences on students happiness and well-being. According to an article by Gilman “social interest was significantly related to higher levels of overall satisfaction, as well as satisfaction with friends and family… [and] school satisfaction” (Gilman, 749). Considering the possible detrimental effects of decreasing social interests the authors should conduct further studies on the consequences of reducing extracurricular activities before making a claim for this action.
Contrary to the claims made in Jaschik’s article, research suggests that universities should focus on increasing student intrinsic motivation while also maintaining current social and extracurricular activities in order to improve both student gains of learning and satisfaction.
Works Cited
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