Why Students Fail in College
Every year since 1958 college faculty across the United States have been
asked their opinions on why some of their students do not succeed.
During the past forty-five years, there has been little change in the reasons
they have given.
1. College students fail because they are unprepared to assume
responsibility for their own learning. They have not learned to manage time.
They do not discipline themselves to study. Students have difficulty deciding
whether they understand what is expected. Then they are not sure where to
find the information that they need, or how to separate misleading or irrelevant
information from that which is pertinent. They have difficulty synthesizing
information from several sources and bringing it to bear on a problem. Assignments
may simply go undone.
2. Many college students have poor communication skills. They are unable
to interpret tables, diagrams, graphs, mathematical expressions, and specialized
languages such as chemical equations. They express their own ideas ambiguously.
Their writing often is poorly organized, grammatically incorrect, and riddled
with contradictions.
3. Students lack originality. Although skilled at memorizing,
applying specified algorithms in a routine manner, and repeating what they
are told, they are stumped by novel tasks for which they have been given
no algorithm. In addition, few students show an ability to evaluate facts,
directions, or other information.
4. Students lack flexibility. Anyone can learn from a gifted
teacher in a supportive environment, but colleges have many intelligent professors
who are poor teachers and who provide weak learning environments. This
is an unfortunate but unavoidable fact of the college environment which students
are often unprepared to deal with responsibly by adapting their learning
strategies.
This has been adapted from Heath Chemistry, Teacher’s Ed.,
p. 5T.