The Influence of Active Learning on the College Student Departure Process - Essay Example

The US secretary of education, Margaret Spellings expressed her concern over the rising tuition fee in the United States and articulated the need for governmental actions in order to moderate tuition growth. There were remarkable variations in average tuition and fee charges between the various states. While Pennsylvania showed average tuition and fee charges like $8410 in 2005-2006, it was $3100 in Florida and $6910 in South Carolina. In fact, there was a notable difference in charges as well as in the student enrollment in various institutions. A number of reasons are pointed out as the factors driving tuition charges. Dennis Jones suggests tuition setting in public institutions as closely related to the health of other institutional revenues. Apparent influences of a variety of political factors in postsecondary policymaking at the state level have been observed. Various examinations revealed relationships between indicators of educational structure and indicators of political influence.

Descriptive representation compares the similarities in the background between elected officials and their constituents. On the contrary, substantive representation refers to the interests elected officials to serve. There are various opinions on the enhancement of substantive representation and various models are also developed. The model named ‘presence’ assumes minority representatives to act as stronger advocates for minority constituents (McLendon et al, 6). The panel-data model implies that the pricing behavior of universities is heterogeneous and is difficult to be captured using available data (McLendon et al, 15). The influence of institutions on their agents and their actions in the arena of post-secondary policy hold important implications that determine their ‘look’.

This article written by Braxton, Milem and Sullivan (2000) describes the significance of active learning in determining the rate of student persistence and departure. According to the authors, active learning is found to have an influence on student persistence or departure decisions. Various theoretical perspectives have been put forward to explain college student departure among which Tinto’s interactionalist theory of college student departure is found to be most important. Braxton, Sullivan, and Johnson (2000) recently assessed Tinto’s theory empirically and conceptually. According to the theory, student-entry characteristics like family background, individual attributes, pre-college schooling experiences etc influence the level of students’ initial commitment to the institution which in turn influences the subsequent level of commitment. But propositions left social integration unexplained in theory. Social integration significantly influences college student departure process and Tinto suggests that it must be initiated in the college classroom. Therefore college classroom can be regarded as one of the sources that influence social integration, subsequent institutional commitment and college departure. Some scholars identified the vital influence of students’ classroom-based academic experiences on college withdrawal decisions.

Cooperative learning and discussion of course satisfy other students who are also found to play a significant role in the college student departure process. Active learning that involves maximum presence and students’ participation in their thoughts and activities constitute sources of influence for college students’ withdrawal decisions. Discussions, debates, and role-play include some of the practices under active learning. Active learning enables students to indulge more in collegiate social communities and encourage them to consider their collegiate experience personally rewarding. All these improve student attitude towards their institution and encourage persistence. According to Braxon et al (2000), knowledge level exam that limits examination questions to the knowledge of facts stand as a negative indicator of active learning. Read More