A new study, ”Academic Skill Deficiencies in four Ontario universities,” offers solid, but troubling evidence that the secondary schools feeding universities are falling well short of expectations on the skills-building front. A year later, the same survey was performed at the three other universities cited. Clearly the secondary-school system is failing to meet basic pedagogical objectives, and culling incompetent studentsAnd, as noted, the results were dismal. University students should be honing already-absorbed competencies, not learning them from scratch, nor should university-level academics’ time be wasted in remedial instruction. In a 2008 study,psychology professor Ellen Greenberger found that two-thirds of university students believe that if they’re “trying hard,” their grades should reflect their effort, not their actual achievement.

Source: National Post April 30, 2019 14:37 UTC