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| Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More (New Edition) | 
| Author: Derek Bok
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 61781
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 434
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0691136181
Dewey Decimal Number: 378.73
EAN: 9780691136189
ASIN: 0691136181
Publication Date: December 26, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
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 Wonderful! November 4, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
President Bok obviously understands colleges and what ails them. Though no polemic, this book takes to task both the prevailing wisdom about higher education (Liberal professors are undermining student thinking) and the myth that students just want to use a college education to get to a great graduate school. There is much wisdom here for all sectors of education. Thank you, President Bok.
A wonderfully thoughtful book on higher education July 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Derek Bok is one of the most thoughtful observers (and participants) in higher education today. As president of Harvard for 20 years (1971 - 1991) he had many opportunities to see first hand how an elite university works--or doesn't. Many years ago I read his book "The State of the Nation", which I found to be a reasonable analysis of many of the difficult issues facing the country. In "Our Underacheiving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More", Bok is able to focus on issues that he has a unique perspetive on. The begins with the basic question: "What is the purpose of higher education?" His response is given in a series of wonderfully insightful chapters focusing on critical thinking, diversity, and character. Unlike many commentators, he takes a measured response towards such divisive topics as preprofessionalism and the degree of faculty commitment to undergraduate education. Bok presents a powerful argument that the modern university has largely abdicated its responsibility to teach a strong core curriculum, as compared to a random hodgepodge of courses that students and faculty can agree will be "fun". This book deserves to be a classic treatise on higher education, alongside books such as Clark Kerr's "The Uses of the University".
Too Little Interest in Improvement Among Faculty Members May 21, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Unless you are a glutton for punishment, chances are that you'll never read all of the major critiques of undergraduate education in the United States. It would take a true masochist to follow up all of that reading with a look into the latest research on how and when undergraduates can learn more at college. But only someone with a true love for the subject would also consider what colleges should be trying to accomplish for students, professors, and society. Meet Derek Bok, veteran of two decades as president of Harvard University, who recently served another year as interim president after Larry Summers resigned last year. He's a man with a mission: Make undergraduate education as good as it can be.
That zeal won't be evident to the casual reader. The material is presented in such an even-handed way that it's easy to conclude that President Bok has no strong opinions. That would be a mistake. You need a hint: President Bok started out as a professor interested in labor law where strict adherence to standards is critical to effectiveness. He later served as dean of Harvard Law School at a time when the students (my class) barricaded him all night in the library where he amiably chatted with all comers. President Bok's often turgid prose also makes his words seem less powerful than they might be.
But read between the lines. Ignore what the conservative flame-throwers have to say about too much sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll and not enough great books. American four-year colleges can do a lot better in their main missions:
1. With greater emphasis, more resources, and a pervasive role throughout the curriculum, student can learn to write and speak much more effectively.
2. By focusing more on encouraging critical thinking, emphasizing greater student participation in class, and providing more challenging assignments that require applied thought, the 95 percent of students who cannot apply any of the disciplines they were exposed to in college can make an applied contribution to the world.
3. Academic leaders need to consider that they can build character by exposing students to more ethical questions and involving students in public service community activities. Students themselves seem to want more guidance in this area.
4. Colleges should encourage knowledgeable participation in the political process. Otherwise, our form of government may atrophy due to disinterest by its best educated citizens.
5. Colleges need to move beyond integrating a diverse student body into helping each student develop greater abilities to relate to other people.
6. Expanding student perspectives beyond the domestic American views to see global issues and opportunities.
7. Creating a greater awareness of disciplines outside of one's own area of interest, especially for those with a scientific and vocational focus.
8. Better balancing student desires to get a job after college with faculty desires to ignore vocational perspectives.
9. Employing the most effective teaching methods, experimenting to find better ways for students to learn, and being flexible in shifting one's teaching style.
It's in this last area that the book's critique seems most justified. Colleges are supposed to be the home of advanced knowledge in all dimensions. Why has helping students learn taken such a back seat? It's hypocritical.
Having sat in on classes at many elite colleges over the last 30 years, I must admit to disappointment with what I experience. The amount of useful information that's exchanged could easily be assembled into a briefing document that I could read in five minutes. Surely, something better could be done with the remainder of the class time.
When I was an undergraduate, the only way I could stay awake was to try to create a verbatim record of the lecture. Then, I would summarize the results into less than 50 words. Today, I might only need 30 words.
Bravo, President Bok!
This book deserves to be treated very seriously and acted on.
Perhaps it will be. I mentioned to the president of one college that I was reading the book, and he immediately became defensive and hostile. I think at least he is hearing the message.
Responsible Teaching July 28, 2006
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
Research Professor Derek Bok's "Our Underachieving Colleges" (2006, hardback) presents a new way of thinking about education in American colleges. Understanding that his presentation could create academic criticism, Bok builds his argument upon a substantial foundation of convincing research (with 49 pages of endnotes).
Suggesting that American undergraduate education produces a global affect that results in stiff foreign competition, Bok challenges U.S. colleges to reorganize, with candid faculty reappraisal, in order "to lift the performance of our institutions of higher learning to new and higher levels" (page 6). He says that American education may no longer take teaching and learning for granted. He frets that college students are learning less now that in the 1960s and 1970s (history's most anti-education era). Bok presents this book to show how students learn and how colleges effect student development.
The author proposes that college faculty should be prepared to change its teaching methods (principally lecturing) for the benefit of students. Bok correctly believes that the college's tasks involve teaching undergraduates to think critically (chapter 5), actively communicate (chapter 4), build moral character (chapter 6), and prepare for good citizenship (chapter 7). He questionably believes that teaching diversity, multiculturalism, and specializing in career preparation should be important in American education.
The best part of this book is Bok's presentation of Eric Mazur's quantitative teaching application (pages 132-34). I plan to implement Mazur's process in my next teaching forum. The book is least helpful in suggesting that group learning is better than lecturing (pages 118-123). Although lecture teaching does present certain challenges in assessing learning, group work (where student discussion takes over from professorial guidance) is vastly inferior to most other teaching methods. It is almost impossible to gauge individual learning form group exercises. (Group work relieves teacher responsibility while promoting aggressive students. Because teachers guide classes, give tests and award grades, student group work should be kept to an extreme minimum.)
"Our Underachieving Colleges" is a responsible presentation about how American colleges may reform themselves to lead 21st century worldwide and teaching learning. Bok's argument is persuasive and his wisdom is profound. This book is recommended to all concerned with U.S. higher education, teaching reform, and looking for new teaching methods. Order your copy soon.
Excellent, complex look at the problems of undergrad education July 7, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
In this book, Derek Bok does an incredible job of laying out the shortcomings in undergraduate education. However, he does this without failing to acknowledge the good being achieved. As a former college president Dr. Bok speaks from a position of authority on the subject. The problems he identifies he backs up with thorough, thought provoking research. He does not just leave the problems as they stand but offers helpful, realistic suggestions for improvement. The greatest strenght of Dr. Bok's book is that he appreciates the complexity of the problem. The issues he raises as well as the solutions he proposes are not simplistic answers to superficial issues. This book is a must read for anyone involved in education. On top of all that, it is well written and thus a pleasure to read. In fact, I recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading a well written book.
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