Research Institutions Improve Undergraduate Education
The Boyer Commission, a group funded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, has concluded that undergraduate education at research institutions is in better shape than it was just three years ago because faculty and administrators have started to focus more attention and resources on it.
In 1998 the commission surveyed the nation’s research universities on their teaching practices and issued a report saying that the institutions paid insufficient attention to undergraduate education. The 1998 report suggested that many students, despite being on campuses with world-class resources largely funded through their tuition payments, graduated with little education of real value.
The commission made recommendations for improving undergraduate education, which included involving undergraduates in research and collaborative learning; strengthening programs for first-year students by offering an "inquiry-based" first year with intensive seminars and block scheduling that would allow a group of students to take multiple classes together; improving undergraduates’ communications skills; and requiring "capstone" projects for seniors.
In spring 2001 the commission resurveyed the same institutions, and its new report concludes that they have made "considerable headway," particularly in strengthening writing, critical thinking, and research programs for undergraduates. Many universities said their most noteworthy recent achievement had been increasing student participation in research and creative activities, and almost all respondents said they had expanded writing requirements.
The university respondents expressed less interest in some of the commission’s other recommendations. While a majority offer some kind of block scheduling to first-year students, relatively few enroll. And while most require senior projects of students in some majors, few require them of all students. Only about 15 percent of the respondents said they considered collaborative learning a "serious curriculum issue," and many agreed that while "inquiry-based teaching" sounds good, it is a "buzzword" whose meaning is unclear.
The commission’s report, while lauding universities’ achievements thus far, notes that most of the improvements have benefited the best students. It asserts that the next challenge is for universities to extend their efforts to a wider spectrum of students, which may be especially difficult for cash-strapped public institutions to do.
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