The Knowledge Economy and Postsecondary Education Report of a Workshop (2002) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Workshop Report: The Knowledge Economy and Postsecondary Education
Workshop Report: The Knowledge Economy and Postsecondary Education
Pages 1-10
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 2... ...
Workshop participants noted that many colleges and universities, particularly those without academically selective admissions criteria, are moving to modify their curricula to what they perceive as desirable by potential students and their employers. The institutions' agility in making these adjustments is questioned by many critics, some from within academe and some from other sectors.
|
From page 3... ...
The resurgence of the American economy in the l990s suggested that the connection between schooling and subsequent worker productivity, while important, was not as direct or linear as had seemed to the authors of A Nation at Risk, because the increase in academic performance of American school children was considerably more modest than the rate of growth of the economy and the performance of the stock market in the late l990s. Today the focus has shifted in the United States and, as the World Bank has observed, internationally, to the ability of the postsecondary education system to prepare workers both effectively and efficiently to meet the demands of organizations whose job requirements appear both more complex and less static than previously.
|
From page 4... ...
Workshop participants noted that many colleges and universities, particularly those without academically selective admissions criteria, are moving to modify their curricula to what they perceive as desirable by potential students and their employers. The institutions' agility in making these adjustments is questioned by many critics, some from within academe and some from other sectors.
|
From page 5... ...
Some of the explanation for lack of agreement among workshop participants on these matters was based upon a difference in fundamental principles regarding the role of higher education in the United States, particularly alternative views of its purpose. For example, the participants recognized that they would not on this occasion resolve the difference between those who sought public support for colleges and universities that provide excellent education for both employment and citizenship at costs affordable to all and those who believed that students (and their families)
|
From page 6... ...
Other providers, particularly for-profit organizations with significant capacities for distance or virtual learning, recognize great opportunities for developing programs to serve students' need for immediate focused instruction that will enhance job skills. During the workshop, Brandon Dobell, who follows the business fortunes of these companies for Credit Suisse First Boston, explained the popularity of such organizations on Wall Street: their excellent customer service, good business models, and effective management permit them to meet their earnings estimates regularly.
|
From page 7... ...
How Does Learning Occur Best? Traditionally colleges and universities have addressed this question by engaging in discussions about curriculum, course requirements, and syllabi, and occasionally pedagogy, triggering familiar arguments about the value of the 50-minute lecture versus seminar discussion.
|
From page 8... ...
An additional point made by many of the workshop participants is that while attention to assessment has increased substantially throughout postsecondary education recently, given the stimulus of the growth of cognitive science, technology, distance learning, and the for-profit education providers, the adequacy of these new assessments remains a subject for additional investigation and research.
|
From page 9... ...
higher education in the last 50 years is well documented by Lisa Hudson and others, the explanations for the differing participation rates by gender, ethnicity, and age are not. Workshop participants raised the question: Why have women, particularly White and Black, increased their participation rates so markedly?
|
From page 10... ...
financial aid policies over the last 25 years from fewer grants to more loans had the effect of diminishing educational opportunities to those living in low-income families who are understandably fearful of debt? Is stratification by family wealth increasing in U.S.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.