Recently there has been a spate of articles in journals as diverse as Dow Jones, The New York Times, and Inside Higher Education which, when boiled down, ask about the fundamental value of a college education and raise the question of how, when we see that value, we will know what we are looking at. continue reading

Last sunday’s New York Times “News of the Week in Review” had an article by Jacques Steinberg entitled “Plan B:Skip College”. He is reporting on a fairly short list of people, including Charles Murray, who are serious about capping postsecondary education opportunity for currently marginalized people — read poor and/or of color. I am always impressed when people who have a privilege, like a college education and degree, argue that those without that privilege really don’t need it. continue reading

Even as the recession eases, we are confronted by two realities: state budgets that are deeply in the red and a rising demand for higher education. The President says we need more success in higher education to stay economically viable. and learners are voting with their feet, returning to school in record numbers.  If, however, our objective is to open higher education to more qualified and capable people, and to succeed with them, what is the actual impact of the recession and state budget deficits on most students and colleges? continue reading

President Obama has sent a strong and badly needed  message of philosophical and financial support for community colleges. But they, and their students, are still in deep trouble in many states whose economic recovery is key to the national economic recovery, including California and Florida. continue reading

I saw an ugly sight last week: An emerging new exclusion from the opportunity called higher education. This exclusion is the net result of reduced state budgets for community colleges and state colleges and universities, an increasingly expensive and ineffective education model, and the expressed attitudes of some policy, government, and educational professionals. continue reading

Stanford psychologist, Carol Dweck’s work is research-based and nuanced, but can be boiled down to a simple (and profound) schema.

There are two mindsets: fixed and growth.

People who primarily have a fixed mindset believe that intelligence, talents and personality are fixed and innate. For people who have a growth mindset, intelligence, talents and personality can be worked on, improved and made better.

The implications of this schema are profound for education. For example, being mindful of these fixed/growth mindset tendencies in students should influence the way we give feedback. (Positive feedback about a student’s innate intelligence is less helpful then praise about the student’s effort and hard work.)

Click on the image below to see Dr. Dweck’s Keynote Address at the 2009 Scottish Learning Festival:

I have been reading Mindset.  It is quite good.

This article is cross-posted at Kaplan University’s Innovations Lab.

I am excited and pleased today because I am holding my new book, Harnessing America’s Wasted Talent: A New Ecology of Learning (Jossey-Bass, Jan. 2010), in my hands. It lives up to its title, I think, describing how our technology-rich environment, populated with platforms, networks, social sites, and downloads, makes possible a level of access and completion in higher education that has been unattainable up to this point. I illustrate this point with a number of examples. Primary among them is being able to self-assess your experiential learning and then, if you wish, get it reviewed formally for academic credit , all on-line. continue reading

On January 7-8, about 100 people, drawn from a wide variety of educational, technical, labor, non-profit, and business backgrounds, gathered at Cavallo Point, a conference center in Sausalito. Sponsored by the Lumina Foundation, the topic was “Envisioning the Future of Higher Education”. For this old warrior, it was a bright moment in time when principles and potential for the future of higher education were expressed clearly and honestly, without regard for whether they would go down easily with the traditional academy. continue reading

In last week’s Newsweek, there were two articles that heralded the need for change in higher education. Yet, sadly, they promised more than they delivered. First Senator Lamar Alexander led with the cover story, “Why College Should Take Only Three Years.” This is a great idea, one that the European Union has embraced in its “Bologna Process”, among others. But then, instead of developing the educational rationale and suggesting a model for the three year BA, Alexander, a legitimate educational reformer as Governor of Tennessee, falls back on bromides: “college is expensive so let’s do it faster”, and “a three year degree is cramming four years of courses into three years”.

Then, a round-table discussion group promised us thoughts on “The Role of Higher Education” in the 21^st century. Again, sadly, the promise is clouded by disagreements about whether students need to know more or less these days, with opinions that varied from no, to yes, to reducing the four year BA would be bad. Through it all, Bob Zemsky and Michael Crow carry the heavier water, arguing for rethinking the enterprise, not just re-packaging it.

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What’s the world coming to when Harvard upperclass students can no longer get a hot breakfast in their dorms? “Students generally feel that if you come to Harvard, for what you’re paying, you should probably have the right to a hot breakfast,” says the President of Harvard Undergraduate Council. Students, she continues, want to “preserve the things that are at Harvard that you can’t get anywhere else.” Further, the Taekwondo club must now share space and practice time with the Crimson Dance Team. “OMG,” to borrow a phrase from the net. continue reading