Student Engagement (Retention)
When people began multitasking on their computers, it was as if a new world had evolved: desktops could now run spreadsheets, Word documents, and even a calculator simultaneously. As our computers multitasked, we soon followed. Multitasking during the 1990s and the 2000s became the rage. Multitasking had become the purported path to improved productivity and capability.
Cognitive psychologists, the same professionals who create SAT test questions, have learned more about the workings of the human brain over the last 25 years, than the preceding 3,000 years. More interestingly, according to Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist who currently teaches at the University of Virginia, and is the author of Why Don’t Students Like School, there are actually nine principles absolutely “fundamental to the mind’s operation that …do not change as circumstances change.” (p. 1, Why Don’t Students Like School, Daniel Willingham, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 2009) He serves up these principles, giving each its own chapter.
According to a news item posted in the October 5th Korea Daily, "almost 1 out of 2 Korean-American students attending America's top universities drop out." This news arose from a doctoral dissertation by Samuel S. Kim, presented at Columbia University in late September. His dissertation was based upon a longitudinal study (a study that tracks a group of individuals over a relatively lengthy period of time) of 1400 Korean students enrolled at 14 universities (all the Ivies, Amherst, Duke, Stanford, Georgetown, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis) between 1985 and 2007.
