Are You Smart Enough?: How Colleges' Obsession with Smartness

Are You Smart Enough?: How Colleges' Obsession with Smartness Shortchanges Students

This book explores the many ways in which the obsession with â€œbeing smartâ€ distorts the life of a typical college or university, and how this obsession leads to a higher education that shortchanges the majority of students, and by extension, our societyâ€™s need for an educated population.

The author calls on his colleagues in higher education to return the focus to the true mission of developing the potential of each student: However â€œsmartâ€ they are when they get to college, both the student and the college should be able to show what they learned while there.

Unfortunately, colleges and universities have embraced two very narrow definitions of smartness: the course grade and especially the standardized test. A large body of research shows that it will be very difficult for colleges to fulfill their stated mission unless they substantially broaden their conception to include student qualities such as leadership, social responsibility, honesty, empathy, and citizenship.

Specifically, the book grapples with issues such as the following:

â€¢ Why Americaâ€™s 3,000-plus colleges and universities have evolved into a hierarchical pecking order, where institutions compete with each other to recruit â€œsmartâ€ students, and where a handful of elite institutions at the top of the pecking order enroll the â€œsmartestâ€ students.

â€¢ Why higher education favors its smartest students to the point where the â€œnot so smartâ€ students get second-class treatment.

â€¢ Why so many colleges find it difficult to make good on their commitment to affirmative action and â€œequality of opportunity.â€

â€¢ Why college faculties tend to value being smart more than developing studentsâ€™ smartness (i.e., teaching and learning).
Country USA
Brand Stylus Publishing (VA)
Manufacturer Routledge
Binding Paperback
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781620364482
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	Stylus Publishing (VA)
Manufacturer	Routledge
Binding	Paperback
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781620364482
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Are You Smart Enough?: How Colleges' Obsession with Smartness Shortchanges Students

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