ERIC Number: ED191372
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1977
Pages: 9
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Student Influence and Higher Education.
Juola, Arvo E.
Since 1965, student views and feelings have influenced great changes in higher education, sometimes to the detriment of long-term interests in academic institutions and colleges. One conspicuous recent trend is the desire of college students for more influence, impact, or power. Other prevalent attitudes may be characterized as a desire to be anti-traditional, positive to change in general (especially rapid and extreme change), and free from controls such as living regulations, dress codes, and prohibitions concerning demonstrations. Based on an 80-item instructional preference scale administered to 700 freshmen at Michigan State University in 1975, students consistently rejected activities that suggested prescription, uniformity, compulsion, requirements, impersonalization, instructor control, systematic coverage, and relative grading. Television as an instructional medium was also indicated as undesirable, and programmed instruction and pass-no credit grading systems were rejected. Using these data, it is suggested that student preferences by themselves can be fallible and misleading as an exclusive basis for isolating effective learning tasks. Student views must be considered in making institutional decisions, but students appear to have a problem in specifying aspects of their instructional experiences which lead to effective learning because their immediate short-term desires for identity, acceptance, and freedom are too real and overpowering. (DC)
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Michigan State Univ., East Lansing. Learning and Evaluation Service.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A