They might attend their lectures, do additional hours of study and get good grades; but... what are students learning in college? A recent article in the New York Times asks just this question: "what are America's kids actually learning in college?". Thanks to Peter C for sending on the link. According to the NYT article, "a provocative new book, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, makes a strong case that for a large portion of the nation’s seemingly successful undergraduates, the years in college barely improve their skills in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing." The authors are Professors Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia. A Google-Books preview is available here.
Arum and Roska's research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardised test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. More details on the authors' research project are available here. According to the authors' analysis (of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions), 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills, including: critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing (during their first two years of college). According to the authors, "many students come to college not only poorly prepared by prior schooling for highly demanding academic tasks that ideally lie in front of them, but — more troubling still — they enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment."
In relation to academic commitment, education economists would draw attention to the idea of non-cognitive skills. Pedro Martins has shown that a targeted program related to non-cognitive ability – study skills, motivation, and self-esteem – can improve student achievement at state schools in Portugal. In work that I have done with Liam and Colm, there is a clear demonstration of academic advantage for Irish university students who are more future-orientated and more conscientious. A targeted program (providing academic and social supports) was evaluated in the setting of an Irish university by Denny, Doyle, O’Reilly and O’Sullivan (2010); the results suggesting it was an effective means of improving academic outcomes for socio-economically disadvantaged students attending Irish universities.
Returning to the NYT article, it interprets Arum and Roksa's research to indicate that "students are hitting the books less and partying more. Easier courses and easier majors have become more and more popular. Perhaps more now than ever, the point of the college experience is to have a good time and walk away with a valuable credential after putting in the least effort possible." A study by three Cornell economists found a large increase in enrollment in courses with a median grade of A; after a new policy which introduced the publication of course median grades on the Internet. This is suggestive of students enrolling in classes where it easier to obtain higher grade-scores; an issue which I raised before in relation to the Irish Leaving Certificate: the final examination at the end of second-level education Ireland.
Recent research by Brian Jacob, Brian McCall and Kevin Stange (all from the University of Michigan) specifically addresses the issue of the consumption-value of college education. Jacob, McCall and Stange report that students "appear to value several college attributes which we categorize as consumption because their benefits arguably accrue only while actually enrolled, including college spending on student activities, sports, and dormitories." In addition, research by Babcock and Marks (discussed on this blog before) documents that academic time investment among full-time college students fell from 40 hours per in 1961 to 27 hours per week in 2003. Another article from the NYT tells us that Arum and Roksa's research is "consistent with the findings of the National Survey of Student Engagement, which has polled more than 2 million students at more than 1,000 colleges and universities over more than a decade — and reported that many spend little time studying or writing."
According to this article in the Huffington Post, the Collegiate Learning Assessment "has its share of critics who say it doesn't capture learning in specialized majors or isn't a reliable measure of college performance because so many factors are beyond their control." Nonetheless, it looks like this debate is set to grow more widespread in the future. It also resonates with last year's debate in Ireland about the issue of grade inflation. Introducing a research component into the undergraduate curriculum could be one way to improve students' skills in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing. In 2005, Trinity College Dublin launched a summer programme offering undergraduate students, typically from Science and Engineering, the opportunity to work in research for an 11 week period, on projects in laboratory environments.
Showing posts with label grades. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grades. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Does Drinking in College Affect Students' Grades?
I recently discussed on the blog new evidence pointing towards a positive relationship between students' grades in college and their later-life health outcomes. A recent economics paper adds a new dimension in this area by producing findings on the effect of preceding health-risk behaviour on subsequent academic performance. The paper is by Scott E. Carrell, Mark Hoekstra, and James E. West; and is called "Does Drinking Impair College Performance? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach". Abstract: here. Paper: here. Discussion on the Freakonomics Blog: here.
The paper exploits a discontinuity in drinking at age 21 at a college in which the minimum legal drinking age is strictly enforced. A comparison is made between the grades of students who turned 21 before final exams to those who turned 21 just afterward. The authors find that drinking causes causes statistically and economically meaningful reductions in academic performance, particularly for the highest-performing students. The authors suggest that concern regarding the harmful effects of drinking in U.S. colleges is reflected by the Amethyst Initiative - in which 135 university presidents and chancellors argue that current policy has resulted in binge-drinking by students.
The paper exploits a discontinuity in drinking at age 21 at a college in which the minimum legal drinking age is strictly enforced. A comparison is made between the grades of students who turned 21 before final exams to those who turned 21 just afterward. The authors find that drinking causes causes statistically and economically meaningful reductions in academic performance, particularly for the highest-performing students. The authors suggest that concern regarding the harmful effects of drinking in U.S. colleges is reflected by the Amethyst Initiative - in which 135 university presidents and chancellors argue that current policy has resulted in binge-drinking by students.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Do Higher Grades Mean Better Health?
The relationship between education and health has been discussed several times on this blog, most recently by Kevin. Kevin mentioned that there is a positive socioeconomic gradient: more educated people have better health on average. However, this does not imply that one causes the other. Kevin also mentioned recent research by Nils Braakmann, which examines the relationship between education and health, exploiting exogenous variation from a compulsory schooling law in the UK. Braakmann's results indicate "neither an effect of education on various health related measures nor an effect on health related behaviour, e.g., smoking, drinking or eating various types of food."
An interesting way of moving this research topic forward could be to focus more on quality of education rather than quantity of education. While there are many ways to consider how best to measure quality, one outcome that differentiates between students is grade point average, or grades. This metric has been the source of much debate (some of which I mentioned yesterday), but there is already some research which has set about examining the relationship between grades and health. (As an aside, readers may be interested to know that there is a positive relationship between college grades and subsequent earnings, as reported by McIntosh (2006), Loury and Garman (1995), Jones and Jackson (1990), Filer (1983) and Wise (1975).)
The research examining the relationship between grades and health came to my attention via an article by Roni Caryn Rabin in the Health section of the New York Times. The article refers to research done by Dr. Pamela Herd, and her colleagues at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The research uses the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has been following more than 10,000 people who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. "Those students who finished in the top 25 percent of their high school class were healthier, decades later, than the ones who finished in the bottom quarter... Even among those who each had 12 years of education, the person who performed better had better health".
Dr. Herd considered the possibility that better non-cognitive ability (or certain personality traits) could be driving both academic performance and health behaviour. NYT journalist Rabin provides more detail on Dr. Herd's thoughts on the matter:
An interesting way of moving this research topic forward could be to focus more on quality of education rather than quantity of education. While there are many ways to consider how best to measure quality, one outcome that differentiates between students is grade point average, or grades. This metric has been the source of much debate (some of which I mentioned yesterday), but there is already some research which has set about examining the relationship between grades and health. (As an aside, readers may be interested to know that there is a positive relationship between college grades and subsequent earnings, as reported by McIntosh (2006), Loury and Garman (1995), Jones and Jackson (1990), Filer (1983) and Wise (1975).)
The research examining the relationship between grades and health came to my attention via an article by Roni Caryn Rabin in the Health section of the New York Times. The article refers to research done by Dr. Pamela Herd, and her colleagues at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The research uses the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has been following more than 10,000 people who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. "Those students who finished in the top 25 percent of their high school class were healthier, decades later, than the ones who finished in the bottom quarter... Even among those who each had 12 years of education, the person who performed better had better health".
Dr. Herd considered the possibility that better non-cognitive ability (or certain personality traits) could be driving both academic performance and health behaviour. NYT journalist Rabin provides more detail on Dr. Herd's thoughts on the matter:
"One explanation is that the same psychological characteristics that make for a hardworking student — like conscientiousness, dependability, good study habits and following the rules — also shape healthy behaviors. But when Dr. Herd examined personality surveys the graduates of 1957 filled out, controlling for variables like family background and childhood health, she didn’t find a strong correlation with health status... She’s convinced there’s something about the actual mastering of academic material that’s vital... the process of developing critical thinking skills and improving cognitive function."
Sunday, January 02, 2011
What Do Grades Really Mean?
The Christmas Day edition of the New York Times carried an interesting article entitled "A Quest to Explain What Grades Really Mean". The motivation for the article was based around concerns relating to grade inflation, a topic which has been discussed before on this blog; for example here. There are also concerns on the part of students: "In hard economic times, students worry that professors who are stingy with the A’s will leave them at a disadvantage in graduate school admissions and employment." Interestingly, the NYT article states that: "Princeton adopted guidelines in 2004 providing that no more than 35 percent of undergraduate grades should be A’s, a policy that remains controversial on campus." According to the Ivy Gate Blog, Princeton have studied the effects on admissions rates to top medical schools and law schools, and found no effect. It was also reported in the NYT article that "Dartmouth transcripts include median grades, along with the number of courses in which the student exceeded, equaled or came in lower than those medians. Columbia transcripts show the percentage of students in the course who earned an A."
There is also reference to some academic research in the NYT article. In 1996, Cornell’s faculty adopted a “truth in grading” policy, and median grades were posted online starting in 1998. The policy called for median grades to be shown on transcripts as soon as student-records technology made that possible, but that did not happen until a full decade later. "While the median grades were available only online, a study by three Cornell economists found a large increase in enrollment in courses with a median grade of A — further driving grade inflation." This is suggestive of students enrolling in classes where it easier to obtain higher grade-scores; an issue which I raised before in relation to the Irish Leaving Certificate: the final examination at the end of second-level education Ireland.
There is also reference to some academic research in the NYT article. In 1996, Cornell’s faculty adopted a “truth in grading” policy, and median grades were posted online starting in 1998. The policy called for median grades to be shown on transcripts as soon as student-records technology made that possible, but that did not happen until a full decade later. "While the median grades were available only online, a study by three Cornell economists found a large increase in enrollment in courses with a median grade of A — further driving grade inflation." This is suggestive of students enrolling in classes where it easier to obtain higher grade-scores; an issue which I raised before in relation to the Irish Leaving Certificate: the final examination at the end of second-level education Ireland.
Monday, October 04, 2010
The Lake Wobegon Effect in Student Self-Reported Data
The Lake Wobegon effect, as described by Wikipedia, is also known as illusory superiority or the above average effect. It is a "cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others. This is evident in a variety of areas including intelligence, performance on tasks or tests and the possession of desirable characteristics or personality traits." The phraseology of the Lake Wobegon effect comes from Garrison Keillor's fictional town, Lake Wobegon, where "all the children are above average".
In 1994, Maxwell and Lopus published an article in the American Economic Review: The Lake Wobegon Effect in Student Self-Reported Data. According to the authors, overstated achievement may produce biased estimates of the relationship between achievement and educational inputs, if overstatement is correlated with achievement. Maxwell and Lopus produce evidence for biases which stem from two sources. First, below-average students tend to inflate their academic achievements, and second, they often fail to report their inferior accomplishments.
In a more recent paper (Journal of Economic Education, 2010), Haley, Johnson and McGee examine whether using student-survey data in place of official records data meaningfully biases regression estimates. They motivate their contribution by noting a useful statistical feature of overreporting on bounded variables such as grade point average. "Specifically, the misreports will be negatively correlated with the true grade point average, yielding a form of nonclassical measurement error that actually counteracts the bias." The authors connect this observation to reliability ratios used in labour economics. In two applications, they find that it is unnecessary to correct for the bias from the Lake Wobegon effect because it is so small.
In 1994, Maxwell and Lopus published an article in the American Economic Review: The Lake Wobegon Effect in Student Self-Reported Data. According to the authors, overstated achievement may produce biased estimates of the relationship between achievement and educational inputs, if overstatement is correlated with achievement. Maxwell and Lopus produce evidence for biases which stem from two sources. First, below-average students tend to inflate their academic achievements, and second, they often fail to report their inferior accomplishments.
In a more recent paper (Journal of Economic Education, 2010), Haley, Johnson and McGee examine whether using student-survey data in place of official records data meaningfully biases regression estimates. They motivate their contribution by noting a useful statistical feature of overreporting on bounded variables such as grade point average. "Specifically, the misreports will be negatively correlated with the true grade point average, yielding a form of nonclassical measurement error that actually counteracts the bias." The authors connect this observation to reliability ratios used in labour economics. In two applications, they find that it is unnecessary to correct for the bias from the Lake Wobegon effect because it is so small.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Semesterisation's effect on exam results
"Trinity College will be releasing a report on semesterisation and its effect on students’ exam results next month, according to the college’s Communications Office." This is an excerpt from a story in The University Times, a Trinity college newspaper.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Lecture Attendance at Irish Universities
"If I’m Not Learning, Why Go?" This is the title of a blog-post from last year by Stephen Kinsella. Here's an excerpt: "One answer MIT surveyors found was when students didn’t feel they were learning, they didn’t go. This is certainly because the penalty to not going to a lecture is reduced by the presence of online learning materials like power point slides and handouts." Here's a link to a newsletter about the MIT Survey: Clay, T. and Breslow, L. (2006) “Why Students Don’t Attend Class“, MIT Faculty Newsletter, XVIII(4).
According to the MIT survey, students’ attitudes toward lectures vary widely, from "I never miss them" to "they’re worthless," with most responses falling somewhere in between. Most students reported they try to attend lectures, and usually do, missing them from time to time as the result of academic, extracurricular, or personal conflicts. "When asked to estimate what percentage of their lectures they attend, about two of every three respondents (67%) estimated that they attend at least 90%, three of every four (76%) that they attend at least 75%, and more than nine in 10 (93%) that they attend at least half."
Recent research by myself and others from Geary has shown that approximately 12% of Irish university students claim to attend all of their lectures. 32% of students claim to attend 90% or more of their lectures. 47% of students claim to attend 80% or more of their lectures. 57% of students claim to attend 70% or more of their lectures. Finally, 67% of students claim to attend at least half of their lectures. However, one must be cautious in drawing comparisons between the results from the MIT survey and the survey of Irish university students. The figures quoted above from the MIT survey are based on 47 responses by students in one subject. The figures quoted above from the Irish Universities Study are based on 2,867 responses across all subject areas. And of course, another (perennial) problem is social desirability bias: that is, students may say they attend their lectures because they think they should (say that).
According to Paul Latreille (H/T Stephen Kinsella), "falling lecture attendance among university students has become a major concern in the last few years. While the precise extent of the problem may vary, the phenomenon exists across subjects and has been documented in several countries (e.g. South Africa, Australia and the US, as well as the UK - see for example the references cited in Clearly-Holdforth, 2006). Various explanations have been advanced, including intrinsic factors (e.g. interest, motivation, learning styles and preferences), extrinsic factors (e.g. socio-economic considerations (such as the need to work), family commitments, assignment deadlines) and factors related to the lectures themselves (e.g. quality, value, interest)." Those interested in the role of technology in student learning will find an interesting discussion throughout Latreille's article. Laitrelle also covers the topic of "paternalistic" approaches to encouraging lecture attendance.
In 1993, David Romer published an article which ignited a lively debate about mandatory attendance policy: "Do Students Go to Class? Should They?" Daniel Marburger has investigated the impact of enforcing an attendance policy on absenteeism and student performance. The evidence he produces suggests that an enforced mandatory attendance policy significantly reduces absenteeism and improves exam performance. Alternatively, attendance at classes could also be potentially improved if students made a contribution toward the cost of their education. Finally, another possibility may simply be to communicate to students the importance of attending their lectures. Research papers by Schmidt (AER, 1983), Romer (JEP, 1993) and Durden and Ellis (AER, 1995) all show that lecture attendance is important for attaining high grades. Other studies from Irish settings also show the same: Maloney and Lally (1998), Kirby and McElroy (2003) and Purcell (2007).
Addendum: as is often the case in relation to other questions, establishing causality between lecture attendance and grades is difficult. Papers by Park and Kerr (1990), Bratti and Staffolani (2002) and Martins and Walker (2006) discuss this issue well. I am also reminded of the cartoon below.
According to the MIT survey, students’ attitudes toward lectures vary widely, from "I never miss them" to "they’re worthless," with most responses falling somewhere in between. Most students reported they try to attend lectures, and usually do, missing them from time to time as the result of academic, extracurricular, or personal conflicts. "When asked to estimate what percentage of their lectures they attend, about two of every three respondents (67%) estimated that they attend at least 90%, three of every four (76%) that they attend at least 75%, and more than nine in 10 (93%) that they attend at least half."
Recent research by myself and others from Geary has shown that approximately 12% of Irish university students claim to attend all of their lectures. 32% of students claim to attend 90% or more of their lectures. 47% of students claim to attend 80% or more of their lectures. 57% of students claim to attend 70% or more of their lectures. Finally, 67% of students claim to attend at least half of their lectures. However, one must be cautious in drawing comparisons between the results from the MIT survey and the survey of Irish university students. The figures quoted above from the MIT survey are based on 47 responses by students in one subject. The figures quoted above from the Irish Universities Study are based on 2,867 responses across all subject areas. And of course, another (perennial) problem is social desirability bias: that is, students may say they attend their lectures because they think they should (say that).
According to Paul Latreille (H/T Stephen Kinsella), "falling lecture attendance among university students has become a major concern in the last few years. While the precise extent of the problem may vary, the phenomenon exists across subjects and has been documented in several countries (e.g. South Africa, Australia and the US, as well as the UK - see for example the references cited in Clearly-Holdforth, 2006). Various explanations have been advanced, including intrinsic factors (e.g. interest, motivation, learning styles and preferences), extrinsic factors (e.g. socio-economic considerations (such as the need to work), family commitments, assignment deadlines) and factors related to the lectures themselves (e.g. quality, value, interest)." Those interested in the role of technology in student learning will find an interesting discussion throughout Latreille's article. Laitrelle also covers the topic of "paternalistic" approaches to encouraging lecture attendance.
In 1993, David Romer published an article which ignited a lively debate about mandatory attendance policy: "Do Students Go to Class? Should They?" Daniel Marburger has investigated the impact of enforcing an attendance policy on absenteeism and student performance. The evidence he produces suggests that an enforced mandatory attendance policy significantly reduces absenteeism and improves exam performance. Alternatively, attendance at classes could also be potentially improved if students made a contribution toward the cost of their education. Finally, another possibility may simply be to communicate to students the importance of attending their lectures. Research papers by Schmidt (AER, 1983), Romer (JEP, 1993) and Durden and Ellis (AER, 1995) all show that lecture attendance is important for attaining high grades. Other studies from Irish settings also show the same: Maloney and Lally (1998), Kirby and McElroy (2003) and Purcell (2007).
Addendum: as is often the case in relation to other questions, establishing causality between lecture attendance and grades is difficult. Papers by Park and Kerr (1990), Bratti and Staffolani (2002) and Martins and Walker (2006) discuss this issue well. I am also reminded of the cartoon below.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Grades
1. How are college-grades determined? The economics literature points towards a simple answer: "by spending more time on study". I don't provide links here, but for evidence on the positive relationship between study-time and grades, see Arulampalam, Naylor and Smith (2007), Stinebrickner and Stinebrickner (2007) and Martins and Walker (2006). Dustmann and Van Soest (2007) show that part-time employment while in school has a negative effect on males' exam performance. Kalenkoski and Pabilonia (2010), DeSimone (2008), Joensen (2007), Oettinger (2005), Van Dyke et al. (2005), Stinebrickner and Stinebrickner (2003) and Ehrenberg (1987) all provide evidence that working (to varying degrees) while in college has a harmful effect on grades.
2. Why do students care about their grades? Again, I don't provide links here, but for evidence on the positive relationship between college grades and subsequent earnings, see McIntosh (2006), Loury and Garman (1995), Jones and Jackson (1990), Filer (1983) and Wise (1975).
3. What about grade inflation? Some economists are concerned about its interaction with the signalling model of labour market earnings. Others extend this concern to how social background may end up as a driver of labour market sorting.
4. However, grade inflation is hard to measure. In the paper 'More For Less or Less for More?', Geraint Johnes (Lancaster) and Robert McNabb (Cardiff) emphasise that studies of grade inflation have not distinguished between the effects of declining standards and increasing efficiency. "Yet both of these phenomena can plausibly explain an improvement in measured performance of educational institutions over time." Johnes and McNabb propose a method whereby competing effects can be disentangled. Their findings suggest that there has been no decline in standards in the UK university sector during the last decade. Efficiency, meanwhile, has risen steadily over the last 25 years.
5. It is also worth bearing in mind that sometimes universities split into high-grading and low-grading departments. Sabit and Wakeman-Linn (Journal of Economic Perspectives, albeit as far back as 1991) discuss the situation in the United States: "Economics, along with Chemistry and Math, tends to be low-grading. Art, English, Philosophy, Psychology and Political Science tends to be high-grading." Interestingly, it appears that there are higher returns to more harshly marked disciplines; see "Ability Sorting and the Returns to College Major" (Arcidiacono, Journal of Econometrics, 2003). "Large monetary premiums exist for choosing natural science and business majors even after controlling for selection."
2. Why do students care about their grades? Again, I don't provide links here, but for evidence on the positive relationship between college grades and subsequent earnings, see McIntosh (2006), Loury and Garman (1995), Jones and Jackson (1990), Filer (1983) and Wise (1975).
3. What about grade inflation? Some economists are concerned about its interaction with the signalling model of labour market earnings. Others extend this concern to how social background may end up as a driver of labour market sorting.
4. However, grade inflation is hard to measure. In the paper 'More For Less or Less for More?', Geraint Johnes (Lancaster) and Robert McNabb (Cardiff) emphasise that studies of grade inflation have not distinguished between the effects of declining standards and increasing efficiency. "Yet both of these phenomena can plausibly explain an improvement in measured performance of educational institutions over time." Johnes and McNabb propose a method whereby competing effects can be disentangled. Their findings suggest that there has been no decline in standards in the UK university sector during the last decade. Efficiency, meanwhile, has risen steadily over the last 25 years.
5. It is also worth bearing in mind that sometimes universities split into high-grading and low-grading departments. Sabit and Wakeman-Linn (Journal of Economic Perspectives, albeit as far back as 1991) discuss the situation in the United States: "Economics, along with Chemistry and Math, tends to be low-grading. Art, English, Philosophy, Psychology and Political Science tends to be high-grading." Interestingly, it appears that there are higher returns to more harshly marked disciplines; see "Ability Sorting and the Returns to College Major" (Arcidiacono, Journal of Econometrics, 2003). "Large monetary premiums exist for choosing natural science and business majors even after controlling for selection."
Monday, November 16, 2009
Evaluating the Impact of the UCD New ERA Widening Participation Initiative
This is the title of a half-day conference to be held in UCD on December 3rd. Full details (including where to RSVP) are available here. The study examines the performance of the New ERA programme across 3 domains: increased access from disadvantaged school, retention rates and overall exam performance. Kevin Denny will present the results. Susan Dynarski, (Professor of Education and Public Policy, University of Michigan, USA) will deliver the keynote address.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Impact of Financial Support on Study Duration and Success
The Economic Logic blog links to research on the impact of financial support on study duration and success. Daniela Glocker (DIW Berlin) uses German data and finds that the source of support matters. Institutional student aid leads to shorter study duration than, say, support by parents. The amount of financial support has no impact on duration, but improves the probability of successful completion of studies.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
The Economics of Attention
Your attention is a scarce resource. In the Information Economy, this is more critical than ever. Before I elaborate on the economics of attention, I want to motivate its importance based on previous posts about scarcity in resources that are not land, labour, capital or enterprise. We've heard about the knowledge economy, information economics and time-allocation. While knowledge, information and time are important, it may be time to turn our attention to, well... attention - the new scarce resource.
To illustrate how economists think about 'non-traditional scarce resources', I'll begin with a discussion on time use (or time-allocation). This resource is the closest in essence to attention (with knowledge and information being more similar in their nature; also, attentive use of time is needed to acquire knowledge and sift through information). Time-allocation is the first-stage decision in various production functions; on top of this comes the application of attention. As time-use has been discussed quite a bit on this blog, it's a good place to start. Here's a paper about student time use and academic performance; here's one about whether the recession is making students study harder.
More recently there was a link to the presentation at Google by Zimbardo and Boyd on time perspectives. In the MetaPsychology review of Zimbardo and Boyd's book, the point is emphasised that time cannot be replenished - in contrast to other goods, such as gold, diamonds, etc. Therefore, you have to be more careful about how to spend your time. Zimbardo and Boyd ask: "Why do we often spend our money more wisely than our time?"
I agree with Michael Daly that the ability to recognise our time perspectives and to switch between perspectives efficiently is important (see a brief summary of the perspectives here). Aaron Swartz suggests that "time perspective” is a concept which Zimbardo has essentially come up with himself, but which he feels (not without some justification) is rather important.
I'm inclined to agree - after reading about and working with the consideration of future consequences scale (CFC) a lot - "time perspective" seems to offer a more comprehensive theory of how we interact with "time". There of course may be scope to use both the CFC and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory in a research project - a recent article by Adams and Nettle in the British Journal of Health Psychology does just that.
In addition to time-allocation and time perspectives, 'attention' plays an important role in how human behaviour produces outcomes. The most illustrative example I can think of is the recent debate on student time use and online social networking. The question that we debated was "does Facebook hurt your grades?". The conclusion offered by Aryn Karpinski (at Ohio State University) is that her research does not suggest that Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there's some relationship between the two factors. "Maybe [Facebook users] are just prone to distraction. Maybe they are just procrastinators".
An attempt has been made to replicate the results of Karpinski's research. Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern University and a fellow this year at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, says the following: "We found no evidence that Facebook use correlates with lower academic achievement". More details on this are available here.
The main point I want to make is based on the opening comment in this post: that attention is a scarce resource. While students may allocate their time across activities such as study and online social networking, how much attention are they giving to each activity? Are they so zoned into Facebook that that they can't cope with the Twitter Mania, but when it comes to study is the intensity a lot less? Is designated study time interrupted by SMS text messages, tweets and the like? Or is there just less concentration applied to the activity of study?
On his MindBlog, Derek Bownds states that concentration is the issue of our time(s) (sic). He mentions a NYT article by John Tierney on the science of concentration. A clip from this is below:
With attention and concentration such critical issues in the production functions for study, research and a whole range of activities that feed into the knowledge economy, I have taken a renewed interest in mindfulness - something which Michael has mentioned on the blog. A number of times. Liam also linked to a lecture by Kabat-Zinn on mindfulness - originally presented to staff at Google.
The framework I am most interested in, however, is what this blog post is essentially about - the economics of attention. Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. It's not new - Herbert Simon was perhaps the first person to articulate the concept of attention economics when he wrote:
Simon noted that many designers of information systems incorrectly represented their design problem as information scarcity rather than attention scarcity, and as a result they built systems that excelled at providing more and more information to people, when what was really needed were systems that excelled at filtering out unimportant or irrelevant information (Simon 1996, p. 143-144). We have such systems now - you can skip the ads on TV if you want! You can also block out email spam.
"Attention economics" today is largely concerned with the problem of getting consumers to engage with advertising (sellers compete for scarce attention). However, it would be worth developing a stream in attention economics that relates to academic production functions, the knowledge economy, health behaviour and well-being. A final thought: we should all be careful with those little drops of dopamine. And bear in mind that business is going to get your attention using style, for style is what competes for our attention amidst the din and deluge of the new media (see Richard A Lanham - The Economics of Attention).
Simon, H. A. (1971), "Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World", written at Baltimore, MD, in Martin Greenberger, Computers, Communication, and the Public Interest, The Johns Hopkins Press, ISBN 0-8018-1135-X.
To illustrate how economists think about 'non-traditional scarce resources', I'll begin with a discussion on time use (or time-allocation). This resource is the closest in essence to attention (with knowledge and information being more similar in their nature; also, attentive use of time is needed to acquire knowledge and sift through information). Time-allocation is the first-stage decision in various production functions; on top of this comes the application of attention. As time-use has been discussed quite a bit on this blog, it's a good place to start. Here's a paper about student time use and academic performance; here's one about whether the recession is making students study harder.
More recently there was a link to the presentation at Google by Zimbardo and Boyd on time perspectives. In the MetaPsychology review of Zimbardo and Boyd's book, the point is emphasised that time cannot be replenished - in contrast to other goods, such as gold, diamonds, etc. Therefore, you have to be more careful about how to spend your time. Zimbardo and Boyd ask: "Why do we often spend our money more wisely than our time?"
I agree with Michael Daly that the ability to recognise our time perspectives and to switch between perspectives efficiently is important (see a brief summary of the perspectives here). Aaron Swartz suggests that "time perspective” is a concept which Zimbardo has essentially come up with himself, but which he feels (not without some justification) is rather important.
I'm inclined to agree - after reading about and working with the consideration of future consequences scale (CFC) a lot - "time perspective" seems to offer a more comprehensive theory of how we interact with "time". There of course may be scope to use both the CFC and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory in a research project - a recent article by Adams and Nettle in the British Journal of Health Psychology does just that.
In addition to time-allocation and time perspectives, 'attention' plays an important role in how human behaviour produces outcomes. The most illustrative example I can think of is the recent debate on student time use and online social networking. The question that we debated was "does Facebook hurt your grades?". The conclusion offered by Aryn Karpinski (at Ohio State University) is that her research does not suggest that Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there's some relationship between the two factors. "Maybe [Facebook users] are just prone to distraction. Maybe they are just procrastinators".
An attempt has been made to replicate the results of Karpinski's research. Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern University and a fellow this year at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, says the following: "We found no evidence that Facebook use correlates with lower academic achievement". More details on this are available here.
The main point I want to make is based on the opening comment in this post: that attention is a scarce resource. While students may allocate their time across activities such as study and online social networking, how much attention are they giving to each activity? Are they so zoned into Facebook that that they can't cope with the Twitter Mania, but when it comes to study is the intensity a lot less? Is designated study time interrupted by SMS text messages, tweets and the like? Or is there just less concentration applied to the activity of study?
On his MindBlog, Derek Bownds states that concentration is the issue of our time(s) (sic). He mentions a NYT article by John Tierney on the science of concentration. A clip from this is below:
"You can lead a miserable life by obsessing on problems. You can drive yourself crazy trying to multi-task and answer every e-mail message instantly...Or you can recognize your brain’s finite capacity for processing information, accentuate the positive and achieve the satisfactions of... the focused life."
With attention and concentration such critical issues in the production functions for study, research and a whole range of activities that feed into the knowledge economy, I have taken a renewed interest in mindfulness - something which Michael has mentioned on the blog. A number of times. Liam also linked to a lecture by Kabat-Zinn on mindfulness - originally presented to staff at Google.
The framework I am most interested in, however, is what this blog post is essentially about - the economics of attention. Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. It's not new - Herbert Simon was perhaps the first person to articulate the concept of attention economics when he wrote:
"...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it" (Simon 1971, p. 40-41).
Simon noted that many designers of information systems incorrectly represented their design problem as information scarcity rather than attention scarcity, and as a result they built systems that excelled at providing more and more information to people, when what was really needed were systems that excelled at filtering out unimportant or irrelevant information (Simon 1996, p. 143-144). We have such systems now - you can skip the ads on TV if you want! You can also block out email spam.
"Attention economics" today is largely concerned with the problem of getting consumers to engage with advertising (sellers compete for scarce attention). However, it would be worth developing a stream in attention economics that relates to academic production functions, the knowledge economy, health behaviour and well-being. A final thought: we should all be careful with those little drops of dopamine. And bear in mind that business is going to get your attention using style, for style is what competes for our attention amidst the din and deluge of the new media (see Richard A Lanham - The Economics of Attention).
Simon, H. A. (1971), "Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World", written at Baltimore, MD, in Martin Greenberger, Computers, Communication, and the Public Interest, The Johns Hopkins Press, ISBN 0-8018-1135-X.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Does Facebook Hurt Your Grades? Can Twitter Make You Smarter? What About YouTube?
Does Facebook hurt your grades? This may be the question that parents everywhere will soon be asking their children. There is the argument that students cannot blame Facebook because if Facebook did not exist, they would find another distraction. However, Facebook users under parental supervision will probably have scant praise for the researchers from Ohio State University who have shown that the majority of students who use Facebook every day are underachieving by as much as an entire grade, compared with those who shun the site. See the story in the Times here.
The researchers discovered that students who spend their time accumulating friends, chatting and “poking” others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work. “It is the equivalent of the difference between getting an A and a B,” said one of the researchers, Karpinski. Of course, this does not account for selection bias and unobserved characteristics. Also, the researchers have not yet analysed whether a student’s grades continue to deteriorate the longer he or she spends on Facebook. So the same individuals have not been tracked over time.
A new YouTube offering may take up as much of students' time as a Facebook account, though it may help their grades. "YouTube University" has gathered together all the video channels of the universities and colleges it's partnered with over the years and put them under the YouTube EDU banner. One of the videos (below) is from the University of Minnesoata and is about using Twitter, Wikis and instant messaging in the classroom.
Educational researcher Cynthia Lewis says that the use of social media in the classroom serves two purposes. The first is catching the attention of students and increasing their participation in the classroom. The second is preparing them for communicating in tomorrow's new media landscape. She says that "21st century literacies are all about digital media".
While it may be the case that too much Facebook can hurt your grades, doing the right amount of social networking through online platforms can help your career and is also a lot of fun. Plus, it may help learning in the classroom.
The researchers discovered that students who spend their time accumulating friends, chatting and “poking” others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work. “It is the equivalent of the difference between getting an A and a B,” said one of the researchers, Karpinski. Of course, this does not account for selection bias and unobserved characteristics. Also, the researchers have not yet analysed whether a student’s grades continue to deteriorate the longer he or she spends on Facebook. So the same individuals have not been tracked over time.
A new YouTube offering may take up as much of students' time as a Facebook account, though it may help their grades. "YouTube University" has gathered together all the video channels of the universities and colleges it's partnered with over the years and put them under the YouTube EDU banner. One of the videos (below) is from the University of Minnesoata and is about using Twitter, Wikis and instant messaging in the classroom.
Educational researcher Cynthia Lewis says that the use of social media in the classroom serves two purposes. The first is catching the attention of students and increasing their participation in the classroom. The second is preparing them for communicating in tomorrow's new media landscape. She says that "21st century literacies are all about digital media".
While it may be the case that too much Facebook can hurt your grades, doing the right amount of social networking through online platforms can help your career and is also a lot of fun. Plus, it may help learning in the classroom.
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Impact of Employment during College on Academic Performance
Jeffrey S. DeSimone (NBER Working Paper 14006; May 2008) looks at the impact of employment during college on academic performance. DeSimone uses the Harvard College Alcohol Study; waves: 1993-2001, and considers the problem of unobserved heterogeneity. Using two-stage GMM regressions, he instruments work hours using paternal schooling and being raised Jewish, which are hypothesized to "reflect parental preferences towards education manifested in additional student financial support but not influence achievement conditional on maternal schooling, college and class."
DeSimone finds evidence for the identifying assumptions of instrument strength and orthogonality. The GMM results show that an additional weekly work hour reduces current year GPA by 0.011 points, roughly five times more than the OLS coefficient. The effects are stable across specifications, time, gender, class and age, but vary by health status, maternal schooling, religious background and race/ethnicity.
DeSimone finds evidence for the identifying assumptions of instrument strength and orthogonality. The GMM results show that an additional weekly work hour reduces current year GPA by 0.011 points, roughly five times more than the OLS coefficient. The effects are stable across specifications, time, gender, class and age, but vary by health status, maternal schooling, religious background and race/ethnicity.
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