April 24, 2007
Standardized testing of college students won’t work, says new book by UW researchers
“Inside the Undergraduate Experience: The University of Washington’s Study of Undergraduate Learning” by Catharine Hoffman Beyer, Gerald M. Gillmore and Andrew T. Fisher (Jossey-Bass/Anker, San Francisco, CA., 2007), $40.
When Jeremy Nolan came to the University of Washington in 1999, he thought he’d major in business and become a stockbroker, but four years later, after a research project in Indonesia got him interested in nonhuman primates, he graduated with bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology.
UW researchers who noticed changes in that young man and many other students like him have produced a comprehensive study of UW students, the first longitudinal assessment of learning among a large group of American college students.
“Inside the Undergraduate Experience” appears as a federal commission proposes standardized testing of college students similar to that required by No Child Left Behind.
Published in March, the book is the result of the UW Study of Undergraduate Learning (UW SOUL). It says learning is mediated by academic disciplines, particularly the major the student chooses. UW Office of Educational Assessment researchers Catharine Hoffman Beyer, Gerald M. Gillmore and Andrew T. Fisher say meaningful assessment of undergraduate learning must be conducted at the departmental level, rather than centralized.
The researchers followed 304 students for up to four years at the UW, three or more times each year sending students open-ended e-mail questions and surveys. They also interviewed half the students each year, conducted focus groups, and collected portfolios of student work. They wanted to know what and how students had learned.
“Inside the Undergraduate Experience” blends quantitative and qualitative analysis with case studies, including stories told primarily in the students’ own voices. Researchers measured critical thinking, writing and quantitative skills, personal growth, diversity awareness and knowledge of information technology.
Results of the study show that writing, critical thinking and quantitative reasoning are not generic skills and that even among freshmen, such skills are mediated by the disciplines. Thus Nolan’s report on monkeys in Indonesia will be different in many ways from a chemistry lab report or an English essay. What counts as good thinking, writing, quantitative reasoning, and information literacy practice in college is closely aligned with the professional practices in those fields.
The UW researchers also learned:
- Gaps between high school and college learning were most obvious in writing, critical thinking and quantitative reasoning.
- Learning about others and one’s self is a central part of college and may be affected by choice of major.
- Peers are important, but faculty are the key to students’ learning.
- To a great extent, students meet their learning goals, and self-assessment is an important tool.
- Students make significant gains in critical thinking and writing during college.
The Spellings Commission, appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, has discussed plans for standardized testing, but Beyer and her colleagues say such testing wouldn’t lead to meaningful information. College learning “is mediated by the academic disciplines,” so a standardized test won’t capture students’ real academic experience, Beyer said. Also, she added, standardized tests can’t measure the rich experience inside and outside the classroom that results in an educated person.
NOTE: A university wide forum on UW SOUL and “Inside the Undergraduate Experience” will be held May 10 in the Walker-Ames Room in Kane Hall, 3:30 — 5:30 p.m.
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For more information, contact Beyer at cbeyer@u.washington.edu or (206) 616-6901. For an examination copy of “Inside the Undergraduate Experience,” contact Maria Meneses at mmeneses@wiley.com or 415-433-4151 (fax).
