Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Potential Topic for Research in the Disciplines Paper 9-9-14
I was interested by the Paul Tough reading because it was able to so clearly address many of the issues that effect underprivileged students. He also discusses one teacher's method to minimize the effect of these problems via extracurricular college preparation and the personalizing of schooling. These methods could be applied to a wider array of issues such as the ones discussed by Armstrong and Hamilton's "Paying for the Party". Students need to be better provided with the opportunity to gain skills and character that will allow them to more easily overcome the pressures of college. For example, students will be better equipped to complete there studies and be social, instead of feeling like they must choose between one or the other. A choice which cause many students to either drop out of school or graduate from school with "easy majors". As of the now I am interested in writing about getting the most out one's college experience without having to sacrifice academics or sociability. These is especially important due to the increasing personal cost of college in the United States as funding for college becomes increasingly privatized as according the "Understanding Privatization" reading.
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This is a good start. You might frame your topic in terms of helping disadvantaged students to graduate. That is essentially Tough's focus, and he mentions a number of interesting and important works, beginning with Crossing the Finish Line. A more classic text is Vincent Tinto's Leaving College:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Leaving-College-Rethinking-Student-Attrition/dp/0226804496
Tinto and his work are widely cited, and you might use him as a search term for looking into the "social integration" argument he first put forth and which our book "Paying for the Party" also endorses. Basically, he was the first to argue that students drop out less because of academic hurdles than from a sense that they do not belong or that they have not made enough friends to feel "socially integrated." Tough also supports that view.
What's up?
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