Category Archives: education

Education Update

Posted in education, technology by

1) There’s an interesting article about the 10 most educated countries in the world. The U.S. did better than I expected. China isn’t on this list, which is evidently a sign that even though privileged Chinese students have been beating American students in science and math, the country as a whole has a long way to go.

Here are the top 10, with postsecondary education rates:
1. Canada
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 50%

2. Israel
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 45%

3. Japan
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 44%

4. United States
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 41%

5. New Zealand
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 40%

6. South Korea
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 39%

7. Norway
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 37%

8. United Kingdom
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 37%

9. Australia
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 37%

10. Finland
Pct. population with postsecondary education: 37%

2) Technology in the classroom.
There’s a good infographic about how professors are using social media:
Key stat: 80% of faculty use social media for some aspect of a course they are teaching.
Reading professors like an open facebook, or how teachers use social media
Courtesy of: Schools.com
And here’s an infographic on how 100% of colleges and universities are using it:
Pros and Cons of Social Media in Education

On a related note, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski have been promoting digital textbooks. I’m not about to join the debate on this divisive issue, but here are some thought-provoking articles:
The Promise of Education Technology (It’s Not Just About Lighter Backpacks), by Joel Klein
Who really benefits from putting high-tech gadgets in classrooms?, by Michael Hiltzik

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The LD Advantage

Posted in education, learning disability by

Check out my article posted by the Rise Scholarship Foundation. Did I become valedictorian in spite of or because of a learning disability?

2/2/12 Update:
My LD article has been retweeted by Scorebusters!
Scorebusters Twitter page

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Want to increase the number of students in STEM? Try grade inflation

Posted in education, grades, humanities, liberal arts, science, STEM by

There’s been a lot of talk these days about how to get more students to study STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) in college. Of course, one of the problems is that the math/science education provided in many high schools is inadequate. But there are also lots of students with exceptional educational backgrounds who decide they just can’t hack it in STEM. See the article “Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard),” by Christopher Drew in The New York Times, from November 4, 2011.

Here’s my half-serious suggestion: use grade inflation. Elite students are used to getting straight-As and stellar SAT scores. Throw them into an environment where they’re suddenly getting Bs and Cs, and of course they’re going to freak out. The humanities have endured grade inflation and survived. Many teachers now use A+s to signal extraordinary achievement. Honestly, I don’t care if you raise grades in STEM or lower grades in the humanities, but there should be some kind of standardization. Why should STEM courses have completely different grading criteria? Teachers can do whatever they want; there’s almost no regulation. If an engineering student is struggling just to get a C and sees his roommate earning an easy A in anthropology, he’s not going to be happy.

Top universities also need to offer more practical STEM courses, not just theoretical. Students who can’t or don’t want to join academia are given short shrift. I had to take a continuing education web design course at NYU one summer because there was nothing like that offered at Columbia. The requirements for STEM majors should also be less restrictive. As a Computer Science major at Columbia, I couldn’t take a lot of CS courses that interested me because they didn’t fulfill the requirements for my concentration, and I didn’t have the time or money to pursue them. Instead I had to take a bunch of required theory courses that I detested and never got any use out of.

As a side note, Sesame Street is also getting in on the math/science craze. I’ll be interested to check back in 15 years and see if it made a difference.

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How to Write a College Research Paper

Posted in education, grades, humanities, liberal arts by

I’m happy to announce that my first guest post for StudentAdvisor.com is now online! Click here to read The Five Rs of Writing a College Research Paper.
In case you’re wondering, the Five Rs are:

  • Read the instructions
  • Restrict your focus
  • Research actively
  • Reinforce your argument
  • Revise, Revise, Revise

Okay, so maybe that’s Seven Rs, but who’s counting? Read more here.

2/8/12 Update:
The Rise Scholarship Foundation has re-posted my article here!

For more tips on how to write a paper and much more, order your copy of The Secrets of Top Students today!

Re: Not all college majors are created equal

Posted in education, humanities, liberal arts, science, STEM by

I just posted this on The Washington Post‘s website, in response to the article “Not all college majors are created equal,” by Michelle Singletary. The original article is here.

Sometimes, getting a good education and pursuing what you love are worth more than the immediate economic benefits of an in-demand major. Should you really go into engineering and hate what you do for the rest of your life? Yes, more people should consider going to state schools so they can take on less debt, but you know what, this recession isn’t going to last forever. There will be a time when there will be more jobs out there and English majors and maybe even architects will be able to support themselves. The author wants students to know what they want to do after they graduate. That seems like wishful thinking to me. Can most people really carve their career paths in stone when they’re 18 years old? I can’t even do it now, when I’m… well, never mind. If you do what the author wants, you’ll just have more people starting out in STEM (science/ technology/ engineering/ math) majors, finding out they don’t like it, and switching majors – perhaps even delaying their graduation and costing them more money – or sticking with it and quitting their unfulfilling STEM-related jobs in a couple of years. (See stats here)

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Re: Rating Stuyvesant High School

Posted in education, grades, Stuyvesant by

There’s an interesting take on my alma mater, from the students’ point of view. Not surprisingly, fastidious Stuy students are way harder on their school than the NYC Department of Education, which gave the school an A. See the article Rating Stuyvesant High School.

The Stuyvesant Spectator editorial board gave the following grades to their school:

Mathematics B-
Biology B
Chemistry B+
Physics C+
English A-
Social Studies B+
World Languages B-
Computer Science A-
Technology B
Music & Fine Arts B
Student Services B/B-
Facilities B+
Quality of Student Life B-

For a math/science school, the humanities are rated quite highly at Stuyvesant. I always thought that AP European History was one of the best classes I’d ever taken. By the way, if a Stuy student got this kind of report card, he/she would be in tears.

I especially like this part about quality of student life:

“For students who can manage their homework and studies, Stuyvesant offers a wide range of extracurriculars that can satisfy nearly every student’s interests. However, for what seems to be the majority of students, extracurriculars can seem like an extra burden piled upon heaps of coursework and mountains of textbooks. The atmosphere of constant competition with both other students and one’s own personal standards is highly stressful and can encourage massive sleep deprivation for those who are inept at prioritization and time management.”

You know what, I’m glad I’m not in high school anymore.

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More on STEM

Posted in education, science by

I like this information sheet from onlineengineeringdegree.com.  As a former Computer Science student, I have some major unresolved issues with STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) courses.  I found that my program catered to people who already had a strong foundation in technology – i.e., not me.  Most of the professors were unfriendly or at least uncaring about how the undergraduates in their class were doing.  I had one professor who said that he wanted 10% of the class to drop out by the end of the semester – to this day, I don’t know if he was joking (and if he was joking, it wasn’t very funny).  The CS program I was in trained people for academic jobs and very advanced commercial jobs, but I felt completely unprepared for regular technical job interviews.  I also didn’t like that some STEM classes were graded so much harder than others – in some classes the average was a B or even a C – and so really don’t look good on your transcript.  In one class the average midterm grade was in the 40s, and we didn’t know how it was going to be curved till we got our report cards – scary!  I think part of the problem is that I am naturally a liberal arts person and not a math/science person, but STEM classes in general are not very welcoming.
STEM Shortage
Created by: Online Engineering Degree

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Are we raising a generation of Philistines?

Posted in education, liberal arts, science by

That’s what I thought when I studied computer science. My classmates had trouble understanding basic written instructions. They were outraged when they had to read articles that were more than 10 years old. Most of them looked down their noses at liberal arts majors. Half of my professors didn’t know the difference between “it’s” and “its.” You would think they could at least have done a spell check.

According to Alexander Astin in What Matters in College, engineering majors actually suffer a decline in things like writing ability, cultural awareness, and political participation. I know that STEM classes are becoming privileged in this society, but I fear a world dominated by technocrats.

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Liberal Arts Easier?

Posted in education, liberal arts, science by

The Wall Street Journal published the article “Students Pick Easier Majors Despite Less Pay,” by Joe Light and Rachel Emma Silverman, on 11/9/11.  A few comments.  I dislike the use of the word “easier” – I know lots of people who find science and technology easier than the liberal arts.  They’d much rather code than write a history paper or read a book.  It’s just more natural for them.  I also disagree with the statement that “introductory courses [in science and technology] are often difficult and abstract.”  In my experience, the introductory courses are the easiest, and the advanced courses are killer.  But maybe that’s just the program I went to.  As for math/science/tech classes taking more time, well, I probably studied more as a history major than as a CS major, because I had hundreds of pages of reading to do every week.  Maybe there are some liberal arts majors that take less time, but history is not one of them.  I know that lots of students are being pushed to go into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, but we shouldn’t forget that the humanities are important – and challenging – too!

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