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sha towers

Doctoral degrees: The disposable academic | The Economist - 27 views

www.economist.com/17723223

phd academia university education doctoral degrees

shared by sha towers on 31 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • There is an oversupply of PhDs. Although a doctorate is designed as training for a job in academia, the number of PhD positions is unrelated to the number of job openings. Meanwhile, business leaders complain about shortages of high-level skills, suggesting PhDs are not teaching the right things. The fiercest critics compare research doctorates to Ponzi or pyramid schemes.
  • A graduate assistant at Yale might earn $20,000 a year for nine months of teaching. The average pay of full professors in America was $109,000 in 2009
  • America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • PhD students and contract staff known as “postdocs”, described by one student as “the ugly underbelly of academia”, do much of the research these days.
  • In some areas five years as a postdoc is now a prerequisite for landing a secure full-time job.
  • About one-third of Austria’s PhD graduates take jobs unrelated to their degrees. In Germany 13% of all PhD graduates end up in lowly occupations. In the Netherlands the proportion is 21%.
  • In America only 57% of doctoral students will have a PhD ten years after their first date of enrolment. In the humanities, where most students pay for their own PhDs, the figure is 49%.
  • in 1966 only 23% of science and engineering PhDs in America were awarded to students born outside the country. By 2006 that proportion had increased to 48%. Foreign students tend to tolerate poorer working conditions, and the supply of cheap, brilliant, foreign labour also keeps wages down.
  • The earnings premium for a PhD is 26%. But the premium for a master’s degree, which can be accomplished in as little as one year, is almost as high, at 23%
  • PhDs in maths and computing, social sciences and languages earn no more than those with master’s degrees
  • the skills learned in the course of a PhD can be readily acquired through much shorter courses.
  • In one study of British PhD graduates, about a third admitted that they were doing their doctorate partly to go on being a student, or put off job hunting.
  • The more bright students stay at universities, the better it is for academics. Postgraduate students bring in grants and beef up their supervisors’ publication records.
  • Writing lab reports, giving academic presentations and conducting six-month literature reviews can be surprisingly unhelpful in a world where technical knowledge has to be assimilated quickly and presented simply to a wide audience.
  • Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at everything they have done. They will have amassed awards and prizes. As this year’s new crop of graduate students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else.
  • sha towers on 13 Apr 11
     
    article from the Economist "The Disposable Academic: Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time
Randolph Hollingsworth

Career and Technical Education: Five Ways That Pay Along the Way to the B.A. - 1 views

www9.georgetown.edu/...CTE.FiveWays.FullReport.pdf

Career and Technical Education transfer transition transition to college college readiness

shared by Randolph Hollingsworth on 21 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Randolph Hollingsworth on 21 Sep 12
     
    New report from Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University, September 2012, by Anthony P. Carnevale, Tamara Jayasundera, Andrew R. Hanson - Daniela Fairchild of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute writes in The Education Gadfly Weekly: "At 31 percent, the United States currently ranks second among OECD nations-behind Norway-for the percentage of its workforce with a four-year college education. That's the good news. The bad news is that we rank sixteenth for the percentage of our workforce with a sub-baccalaureate education (think: postsecondary and industry-based certificates, associate's degrees). Yet a swath of jobs in America calls for just that sort of preparation, which often begins in high school. Dubbed "middle jobs" in this report by the Center on Education and the Workforce, these employment opportunities pay at least $35,000 a year and are divided among white- and blue-collar work. Yet they are largely ignored in our era of "college for all." In two parts, this report delineates five major categories of career and technical education (CTE), then lists specific occupations that require this type of education. It's full of facts and figures and an excellent resource for those looking to expand rigorous CTE in the U.S. Most importantly, it presents this imperative: Collect data on students who emerge from these programs. By tracking their job placements and wage earnings, we can begin to rate CTE programs, shutter those that are ineffective, and scale up those that are successful. If CTE is ever to gain traction in the U.S.-and shed the stigma of being low-level voc-tech education for kids who can't quite make it academically-this will be a necessary first step."
Deb White Groebner

Education Week: Will We Ever Learn? - 37 views

www.edweek.org/...29lerman.h29.html

education education_reform standards NCLB

shared by Deb White Groebner on 24 Apr 10 - Cached
  • All students should master a verifiable set of skills, but not necessarily the same skills. Part of the reason high schools fail so many kids is that educators can’t get free of the notion that all students—regardless of their career aspirations—need the same basic preparation. States are piling on academic courses, removing the arts, and downplaying career and technical education to make way for a double portion of math. Meanwhile, career-focused programs, such as Wisconsin’s youth apprenticeships and well-designed career academies, are engaging students and raising their post-high-school earnings, especially among hard-to-reach, at-risk male students.
  • Maintaining our one-size-fits-all approach will hurt many of the kids we are trying most to help. Maybe that approach, exemplified in the push for common standards, will simply lead to yet more unmet education goals. But it won’t reduce, and might increase, the already high rate at which students drop out of school, or graduate without the skills and social behaviors required for career success.
  • Deb White Groebner on 24 Apr 10
     
    Well-written commentary for anyone interested in the impact of Common Core Standards. "What's Wrong With the Common-Standards Project" "We need rigorous but basic academics, homing in on skills that will be used, and not short-shrifting the "soft skill" behaviors that lead to success in college and careers. The management guru Peter Drucker got it right: "The result of a school is a student who has learned something and puts it to work 10 years later."
anonymous

Emerald | The loneliness of the long distance researcher - 1 views

www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm

research academic writing writing groups

shared by anonymous on 09 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • cross a threshold in their understanding
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 09 Nov 12
       
      being part of a writing group may necessitate a change in how the person thinks about their writing or themselves as a writer
  • acilitate a speedy response from a peer audience
  • factors of a CoP or CoW is the development of trust
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • willingness to share knowledg
  • CoW break down the walls of these rooms and provide an open space or arena for collaboration?
  • virtual CoPs need to make good use of internet standard technologies and users need to possess ICT skills.
  • CoW members would need to develop a sense of belonging
  • After initial enthusiasm, where a number of co-authors introduced themselves, things fell quiet, and I myself was as guilty as anybody else in not checking the forum any more after a few weeks of inactivity
  • – the collaborative writing of the final chapter – was moved to Google docs,
  • used a blog and wiki to write a 1,500 word essay in her discipline online and in real time.
  • http://anessayevolves.blogspot.com/
  • On the wiki, topic-related material was explored and drafts were constructed
  • In the online environment contributions were overwhelmingly supportive, non-hierarchical and candid.
  • wiki as a framework to create a comprehensive online knowledge base which covers the entire veterinary curriculum.
  • As part of the wiki, students maintain a personal profile which allows them to reflect on the experience
  • COPYEDITING-L (https://listserv.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/wa-iub.exe?A0=COPYEDITING-L)
  • How would their writing contributions – often practice based – fit in a CoW inhabited by academics writing for scholarly publications?
  • . Firstly, the need to find a medium for your CoW that works, that is widely used, and with which the would-be participants are familiar and comfortabl
  • ow is a CoW initiated? Can it be self-perpetuating or does it need leaders/mentors to drive it?
  • degree of intervention.
  • anonymous on 09 Nov 12
     
    Development of online writing communities, hosted by libraries. Covers emotional aspects of writing as well as technical
Mr. Carver

Education Week: Research Shows Evolving Picture of E-Education - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...26research.h28.html

elearning

shared by Mr. Carver on 03 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Research shows that virtual schooling can be as good as, or better than, classes taught in person in brick-and-mortar schools
  • But that broad conclusion, which comes mainly from a couple of research syntheses published in 2001 and 2004, masks a lot of variation in the designs of online classes and in who takes them
  • to figure out under what conditions, what scenarios, in what content areas, and with what students.”
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • draw students at the extremes of the academic spectrum
  • high-performing students tend to be younger,
  • the best academic records in online classes tend to be in that high-ability group
  • adaptive-intelligence technology
  • “more a matter of learning style.”
  • “Whether that’s 24-hour technical support, tutorial support, parental vigilance, or face-to-face site coordinators or mentors,”
    • Mr. Carver
      Mr. Carver on 03 Apr 09
       
      Probably the most important thought in the whole aritcle. Technology (as with anything) is useless on its own. Support needs to be there.
  • “You pay attention to what’s going on,” she says, “and you respond to them as individuals.”
    • Mr. Carver
      Mr. Carver on 03 Apr 09
       
      Isn't that a standard practice of good teaching?
  • But research has far to go to identify exactly what factors make an online course effective.
Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder

CBI: Change is possible - but we must be clearer about what we ask schools to develop i... - 1 views

www.cbi.org.uk/...change-is-possible

CBI Education campaigns

shared by Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder on 22 Nov 12 - No Cached
    • Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder
      Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder on 22 Nov 12
       
      Question: What are the goals set out on the political level? What does Gove want to achieve?
  • lacks
  • guardrails
  • ...46 more annotations...
  • which makes transformational change
  • ifficult
  • In Finland, the goals of education are explicitly linked to competitiveness, research and innovation.
  • nowhere in the UK do they really drive the terms under which schools are assessed.
  • In England, the government has defined its approach as being based on curriculum rigour.
  • This lack of a comprehensive statement of the achievement we are looking for schools to deliver is a key failing.
  • best schools
  • areas of high disadvantage
  • define the outcome they need
  • in the face of the complex and inconsistent demands the system places on them.
    • Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder
      Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder on 22 Nov 12
       
      Clear indication that the system as a whole is not supporting a generally accepted set of goals. Instead, the schools are trying to achieve a goal they see as important at worst while fighting the systemic demands.
  • One such school leader told us they had taken a conscious decision with one group of young people to focus on five key subjects and some life skills, knowing that the accountability system would score them down for it, as it expected eight qualifications from all students at that time.
  • Our system should reward schools making brave decisions which focus on boosting long-term outcomes for pupils, not punish them.
  • It should be able to survive changes of government and provide the test against which policy changes and school actions are judged
  • shine the light on whether the system is truly addressing the needs of all students, rather than just the few required to meet a government target.
  • Focus on raising the ambition and attainment for every child as far as their abilities permit
  • guide young people effectively on their choice of enabling subjects…
  • thos and culture that build the social skills also essential to progress in life and work, and allow them time to focus on this
  • Have a school accountability and assessment framework that supports these goals rather than defining them.
  • social literacy
  • a range of core subjects
  • ncluding critically maths, English, the sciences
  • effective use and understanding of computer science.
  • ‘enabling subjects’
  • humanities, languages, arts, technical and practically-based subjects
  • equip a young person to move on
  • o university, or to an apprenticeship or vocational qualification
  • a set of behaviours and attitudes,
  • An exclusive focus on subjects for study would fail to equip young people with these, though rigour in the curriculum does help
  • ‘employability skills’
  • Behaviours can only be developed over time, through the entire path of a young person’s life and their progress through the school system.
  • right context at school
  • A supportive culture, pastoral care and the right ethos are all needed to make the difference.
  • a long tail of pupils failing to achieve the desired outcomes can no longer be accepted.
  • enable all of our young citizens to reach the desired standards.
  • conflicting expectations placed on schools.
  • renewed system should be able to judge performance against the goals based on more complex metrics.
  • judgement
  • on overall culture and ethos, teaching and governance
  • group of data points, including testing but also outcomes data.
  • Development of a clear, widely-owned and stable statement of the outcome that all schools are asked to deliver.
  • beyond the merely academic, into the behaviours and attitudes schools should foster
  • basis on which we judge all new policy ideas, schools, and the structures we set up to monitor them
  • Ofsted
  • asked to steward the delivery of these outcomes
  • resourcing these bodies to develop an approach based on a wider range of measures and assessments than are currently in use,
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