The Instruction Myth: Why Higher Education is Hard to Change, and How to Change It
Higher education is broken, and we haven’t been able to fix it. Even in the face of great and growing dysfunction, it seems resistant to fundamental change. At this point, can anything be done to save it?
 
The Instruction Myth argues that yes, higher education can be reformed and reinvigorated, but it will not be an easy process. In fact, it will require universities to abandon their central operating principle, the belief that education revolves around instruction, easily measurable in course syllabi, credits, and enrollments. Acclaimed education scholar John Tagg presents a powerful case that instruction alone is worthless and that universities should instead be centered upon student learning, which is far harder to quantify and standardize. Yet, as he shows, decades of research have indicated how to best promote student learning, but few universities have systematically implemented these suggestions.
 
This book demonstrates why higher education must undergo radical change if it hopes to survive. More importantly, it offers specific policy suggestions for how universities can break their harmful dependence on the instruction myth. In this extensively researched book, Tagg offers a compelling diagnosis of what’s ailing American higher education and a prescription for how it might still heal itself.
1129563675
The Instruction Myth: Why Higher Education is Hard to Change, and How to Change It
Higher education is broken, and we haven’t been able to fix it. Even in the face of great and growing dysfunction, it seems resistant to fundamental change. At this point, can anything be done to save it?
 
The Instruction Myth argues that yes, higher education can be reformed and reinvigorated, but it will not be an easy process. In fact, it will require universities to abandon their central operating principle, the belief that education revolves around instruction, easily measurable in course syllabi, credits, and enrollments. Acclaimed education scholar John Tagg presents a powerful case that instruction alone is worthless and that universities should instead be centered upon student learning, which is far harder to quantify and standardize. Yet, as he shows, decades of research have indicated how to best promote student learning, but few universities have systematically implemented these suggestions.
 
This book demonstrates why higher education must undergo radical change if it hopes to survive. More importantly, it offers specific policy suggestions for how universities can break their harmful dependence on the instruction myth. In this extensively researched book, Tagg offers a compelling diagnosis of what’s ailing American higher education and a prescription for how it might still heal itself.
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The Instruction Myth: Why Higher Education is Hard to Change, and How to Change It

The Instruction Myth: Why Higher Education is Hard to Change, and How to Change It

by John Tagg
The Instruction Myth: Why Higher Education is Hard to Change, and How to Change It

The Instruction Myth: Why Higher Education is Hard to Change, and How to Change It

by John Tagg

Hardcover(None)

$41.95 
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Overview

Higher education is broken, and we haven’t been able to fix it. Even in the face of great and growing dysfunction, it seems resistant to fundamental change. At this point, can anything be done to save it?
 
The Instruction Myth argues that yes, higher education can be reformed and reinvigorated, but it will not be an easy process. In fact, it will require universities to abandon their central operating principle, the belief that education revolves around instruction, easily measurable in course syllabi, credits, and enrollments. Acclaimed education scholar John Tagg presents a powerful case that instruction alone is worthless and that universities should instead be centered upon student learning, which is far harder to quantify and standardize. Yet, as he shows, decades of research have indicated how to best promote student learning, but few universities have systematically implemented these suggestions.
 
This book demonstrates why higher education must undergo radical change if it hopes to survive. More importantly, it offers specific policy suggestions for how universities can break their harmful dependence on the instruction myth. In this extensively researched book, Tagg offers a compelling diagnosis of what’s ailing American higher education and a prescription for how it might still heal itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781978804456
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 04/05/2019
Edition description: None
Pages: 342
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range: 16 - 18 Years

About the Author

JOHN TAGG is a professor emeritus of English at Palomar College in San Marcos, California. He is the author of The Learning Paradigm College.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Where Are We And How Did We Get Here?

1 The Chronic Crisis 17

2 How Did It Get This Way? 41

Part II Why Is Change So Hard?

3 The Status Quo Bias 57

4 How the Status Quo Bias Defends Itself in Organizations 73

5 The Design of Colleges and the Myths of Quality 84

6 Framing the Faculty Role: Graduate School, Departments, and the Price of Change 101

7 The Myth of Unity and the Paradox of Effort 118

8 Faculty Expertise and the Myth of Teacher Professionalism 127

9 Trial Run: The Case of the Degree Qualifications Profile 142

Part III Learning To Change, Changing To Learn

10 Seeds of Change 155

11 How Do People Learn to Change? 163

12 Diffusing Innovation by Making Peer Groups 176

13 Promoting Innovation through Scholarly Teaching 188

14 The Teaching Inventory and Portfolio 202

15 The Outcomes Transcript and Portfolio 216

16 Changing the Faculty Endowment 228

17 Creating a Market for Education 247

18 Levers for Change: A New Accountability 265

Acknowledgments 285

Notes 287

Bibliography 303

Index 321

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