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A comment on Study: College Students Not Learning Much.

Re:Study: College Students Not Learning Much by adambourg on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @01:18AM (#2118884)
These people are idiots. 2300 college students interviewed... Think about that for 1 minute. That's a sample of less then 10% the size of my university. There are hundreds or even thousands of schools with over 10,000 students.

Where has this sample been taken? What colleges? How diverse was the population? Socio-economic statuses? These are all big concerns I have with this statistic. Also, what are they measuring? English? Maths? Sciences?

With all the high school emphasis on getting into college, I would not expect a serious improvement in the maths and English. If it's looking at general stuff, then yes, I would not expect a substantial shift, if we're talking about fields and careers then this is shocking data.

Given all that. I am a college junior, I have learned so much about math (calculus), science, computer science and how to solve problems. More so then I ever could have dreamed. College has opened me up to many new learning opportunities.

While the fault could be at the college, more then likely; however, it's on the student, not the school.

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Re:Study: College Students Not Learning Much by nocipher on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @01:29AM (#2118918)
Statistically, you do not need a certain percentage of the population you are surveying to obtain good results. There are other factors used to determine the required sample size to achieve results with a given level of confidence. See the article below if you're interested in the details.

Organizational Research: Determining Appropriate Sample Size in Survey Research http://www.osra.org/itlpj/bartlettkotrlikhiggins.pdf

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Re:Study: College Students Not Learning Much by idm on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @01:40AM (#2118941)
> These people are idiots. 2300 college students interviewed... Think about that for 1 minute.

Common sense is no substitute for an intro stats class. 2300 is plenty.

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