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410 sats \ 5 replies \ @SimpleStacker 22 May \ on: College English majors can't read Education
Many problems with this study.
  • The passage chosen is written in an almost deliberately obtuse style, with improper English grammar (flow of thought style), and a geographical/social context with proper nouns that students would be unfamiliar with.
  • The sample size is only 85, and not a random sample of English majors across the country.
  • Rather, the sample was taken from two low-tier regional universities in Kansas. Moreover, the selected students had ACT scores indicating low to mid proficiency in English. They were somehow recruited into the study, but it wasn't clear how it was ensured that the recruited sample is actually representative of all English majors at these two universities.
  • My guess, therefore, is that these students are below the average level of English proficiency for all English majors across the country.
  • Even so, I'd venture to guess that if you tried this test on a bunch of college professors (not necessarily english profs), that many of them would struggle to read the passage as well.
Even though I agree with the premise that college standards in America are declining, I don't think this article is strong evidence demonstrating that.
I might have a bigger problem with academics pushing shoddy research than English majors who can't read Charles Dickens.
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62 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury 22 May
Come on man - these are English majors reading one of the canonical works of a foundational English author.
Any student of anything will encounter foreign vocabulary requiring sensible strategies to infer from context - or else the ability to look shit up, as well as the ability to know you should look it up, when instructed that that is a move one can make.
The meta-cognition (or lack of it) revealed here is remarkable.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 22 May
Eh, I find the lack of objectivity in sample selection and the subjectivity in response categorization in the research study equally remarkable.
The journal which this study was published in has an impact factor of 0.05 which is very very low. I'm not normally one to tout credentials, but as it stands the credential of the journal is consistent with the lack of quality of the research. This seems like the kind of journal that could easily get targeted by Sokal hoaxes.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 22 May
These were some of my thoughts as well. I would say Bryan Caplan's book is enough of an indictment on so called public education.
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7 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 22 May
And also his indictment of college education public and private
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30 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 22 May
It would be interesting for someone to conduct this study without seemingly putting their thumb on the scale. My guess is they'd come to qualitatively similar conclusions.
My recollection, from when I was more involved in education, is that ed majors are pretty universally the lowest aptitude, whether it's at Podunk U or an Ivy.
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