Daily reCCAP: 04/09/12
What follows when a belief in objectivity and truth dies away in higher education? In time an educated person comes to doubt that purpose and meaning are discoverable—he doubts, finally, that they even exist. It’s no mystery why fewer and fewer students in higher education today bother with the liberal arts, preferring professional training in their place. Deprived of their traditional purpose in the pursuit of what’s true and good, the humanities could only founder.
Naci H. Mocan and Duha Tore Altindag
we analyze the impact of education on health behaviors, measured by smoking and heavy drinking. Controlling for health knowledge does not influence the impact of education on health behaviors, supporting the productive efficiency hypothesis. Although cognition, as measured by test scores, appears to have an effect on the relationship between education and health behaviors, this effect disappears once the models control for family fixed effects. Similarly, the impact of education on smoking and heavy drinking is the same between those with and without a learning disability, suggesting that cognition is not likely to be a significant factor in explaining the impact of education on health behaviors.
ed_open_textbook_provider_sued_by_publishers_k-12_implications.html”>Jason Tomassini
Boundless Learning, a young but fast-growing company in Boston that curates open education content for college students, so they don't have to pay hundreds (thousands, even) on textbooks, has been sued for copyright infringement. Textbook giant Pearson, along with Cengage Learning, and MacMillan Higher Education filed the complaint, alleging that Boundless is essentially trying to replicate three of their textbooks with “shadow versions” using free digital content. Using Creative Commons licenses, the company bases the content it recommends on the titles of the textbooks students are assigned.
Remedial classes could be slashed in Connecticut—but not because students are prepared to do college-level work. Under a bill approved by the state's Senate higher education committee, all community college and state university students could take college-level, credit-bearing courses with “embedded” remedial help for those who need it. That could mean an additional skills class, a lab, or tutoring.
Seventy percent of Connecticut's community college students start in remedial reading, writing, or math classes for which they earn no credit. Most never earn a certificate or degree.