Former Harvard President Calls for Major Shift in Teaching in Higher Education
Ioana Patringenaru | May 2, 2011
Former Harvard President Derek Bok spoke at UC San Diego Tuesday.
Professors need to think about teaching the same way they think about their research, former Harvard President Derek Bok said last week during a talk at UC San Diego. He called for a major shift in the way faculty members think about and go about teaching in their classrooms.
A change is both badly needed and inevitable, said Bok, who quoted a wide variety of studies to make his case. Although the United States still delivers the highest quality education in the world, there is evidence that students are studying less and learning less than just a few decades ago, he said.
“I don’t think many faculty understand that behind all this is a competition that they don’t know they’re in,” Bok said. “They are vying and competing for the attention span of young people.”
“If you don’t know you’re in [a competition], you’re going to be licked,” he added.
Bok is not only the former president of Harvard, he also is the author of many books examining higher education, including “The Shape of the River,” a comprehensive study of the impact of affirmative action on higher education, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said. “We’re thrilled to have Dr. Bok here tonight,” she said.
Bok also is a staunch proponent of the value of a liberal arts education, said Naomi Oreskes, a science historian and provost of Sixth College. Bok’s talk was presented by the UC San Diego Council of Provosts in partnership with the Helen Edison Lecture Series.
Education under fire
The United States used to lead the world in the percentage of students graduating college. That’s no longer the case, Bok said. That’s all the more troubling because university graduates now have to compete for jobs with workers from abroad, he said.
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox welcomed Bok to UCSD.
The quality of education for college graduates also seems in peril, Bok said. Recently, 500 U.S. colleges administered the Collegiate Learning Assessment test to their undergraduates, Bok said. The test measures students’ writing and critical thinking skills. Results showed that 36 percent of students tested made no progress between there freshman and senior years in those skills.
Another study shows that the amount of hours college students are spending on homework has dropped by 40 percent since 1960. Students now study about 14 hours a week, Bok said. About one-third of undergraduates have never taken a course with more than 40 pages of reading per week; and half haven’t taken any courses requiring them to write more than 20 pages over the course of the semester.
Improving the quality of teaching
So, what can be done to make things better? Government regulation is not the answer, Bok said. Congress passed legislation requiring organizations that accredit colleges to make objective assessments of learning a priority. Many faculty and university officials are opposed to the new legislation, Bok said. They’re concerned that an emphasis on assessments will erode teaching freedom on campuses.
Rather, the will to change has to come from within higher education institutions themselves, Bok said. He also said he believes that once faculty realize their students aren’t learning as much as they should, they will be moved to action.
Harvard at 50 vs.
UC San Diego at 50
During his talk at UCSD last week, former Harvard President Derek Bok praised the campus for all its accomplishments in the past 50 years. "You played a very important part in what is clearly the best public higher education system in the United States and dare I say the world," he said. By contrast, Harvard, established in 1636, in its 50th year welcomed just 22 freshmen, a record that would stand for another 30 years. The faculty consisted of two tutors and the campus of one building, which later burned down. "And yet it was the finest university in America—and the only university in America," Bok said.
When Bok was president of Harvard in the 1970s, the university administered a writing test to its students. Freshmen who were science majors wrote better than seniors in the same majors. Science departments immediately swung into action to address the issue. In 2006, Bok returned to Harvard for a one-year stint as interim president. He ran the test again. Seniors who were science majors now wrote better than their freshman counterparts. “The moment the conflict was exposed, they knew they had to do something to fix it,” Bok said.
He said he believes a scientific approach will appeal to faculty, who use it every day in their research. University officials and professors need to identify areas where students aren’t learning as well as they should; gather evidence about what might be causing the problem; and test ways to fix it, Bok said.
“We need a climate of investigation,” he said.
For example, a UC Berkeley professor noticed that African American students were struggling in science classes while their Asian classmates thrived. The professor decided to take a closer look at students’ study habits. He noticed that Asian students studied in groups. If a student struggled with a problem, his classmates would help him think it through. African American students studied on their own, without the benefit of peer support. The professor then required all students in his class to study in groups. The performance of African American students improved dramatically as a result.
Leading private and public universities have been reluctant to assess their students’ learning, Bok said. He urged them to change their ways.
“I think it’s a pity,” he said. “But progress is going to come anyway.”
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