Issue 26(1)
Investing
in Your College Education: Learning Strategies with Readings.
(2006).
Thomas Stewart and Kathleen
Hartmann. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 320 pp. Price $42.76. ISBN
0-6183-8223-2.
Review
by: Beth Yarbrough
Academic
Advisor, College of Sciences and Mathematics
Auburn
University
Auburn, Alabama
Stewart
and Hartmann have written an accessible, creative text designed
for student success courses. Here they emphasize the investment
of time, money and energy that students make daily in college.
The investment theme is used as a metaphor throughout the text
and helps to emphasize students' roles and responsibilities in
their own success. Text authors strive to help students invest
their resources wisely in order to glean the greatest return.
Academic
aspects of student success are addressed: motivation, note-taking,
test-taking, reading strategies, writing, written and oral presentations,
along with major and career decisions. Important personal and
social issues are included, such as financial management and health
and wellness. The text also includes a strong chapter on critical
thinking skills.
The
text's greatest strength is its emphasis on academic disciplines,
i.e., psychology, education, business, math, etc. Each chapter
contains a reprinted chapter from a common freshman text along
with readings about careers and current issues in the highlighted
field. Prior to each reprinted chapter, the authors provide
specific advice for reading and studying based on the expectations
and characteristics of the field. Students are instructed to use
the reprinted chapter to observe differences and practice suggested
strategies.
Readings
in careers and current issues are strengths of this text. Career
readings are used to expand student understanding of the opportunities
afforded within a field. Current issues selections encourage students
to make creative connections from the classroom to the "real world."
Discussion questions offer students a chance to work in groups
and practice collegiate level discourse. Topics are often mildly
controversial allowing students to practice respectful disagreement
while they learn from each other.
A
Website is provided with extensive tools for students but it is
arranged primarily as an advertising site for the publisher. Resources
are difficult to locate. I was frustrated quickly by the amount
of digging required to find relevant content; students will likely
quit looking without finding the information they need.
A
few words of warning about the text are needed. First, the text
teaches students how to figure their GPA and discusses how repeat
courses are handled yet academic policies such as these vary by
institution. Thus, the methods illustrated may or may not reflect
the way a particular institution handles repeated courses and
grades. The section on sexual health is frank. Although handled
sensitively, religiously based schools may want to review this
section to be sure it fits their perspective.
In summary, the text is a good choice
for use in student success courses or by those wanting to learn
more about basic student success. Although most likely used with
freshmen in first year experience courses, this text is equally
appropriate for adult and transfer students. This text would work
best in a classroom setting with ample time for group discussions
and exploration.
