How College Works shares insights from research based on an unusual perspective in higher education literature – that of the student. Co-authors Chambliss and Takacs candidly observe at the outset of their book that students “just see things differently” than faculty, administrators and other adults – and much of the difference comes from the importance that students place on relationships. Thus, it comes as no surprise that one of their most powerful concluding suggestions to readers is that “the key to improving education in a college…is found less in the organization of programs than in the deployment of people.”
If author Daniel Chambliss is a pillar of the academy (30+ years faculty experience, holder of an endowed chair at Hamilton College, Yale Ph.D., widely published author and prize winner in his discipline) than co-author Christopher Takacs is an aspiring pillar (Hamilton grad, Ph.D candidate at Chicago and now published author). The book’s power lies in their ability to step outside the cultural trappings of their world and look at it from another perspective. And what more important perspective could there be in the world of education than that of students?
The co-authors aren’t calling for an easy experience in college. They are very clear that “one can’t assume that students’ own prescriptions for improving college will be correct.” But they draw on an extensive body of information about both student and alumni reflections on their experience at Hamilton College to reframe how colleges should go about improving both student and institutional outcomes. Their approach reinforces my own view of the importance of the “student relationship” in understanding institutional models.
They strongly assert that the earliest moments in a student’s college experience matter a great deal. Their first chapter after their introduction, “Entering,” discusses how important the very first days and weeks of the freshman year are in finding a small network of “personal relationships” that will sustain a student as she searches to belong to her new community.
Their next chapter, “Choosing,” explains the importance, and somewhat haphazard nature, of how students select courses and connect to academic disciplines. They make the case that a small circle of people, be they student friends or faculty mentors, are sufficient to yield significant long term benefits. And repeatedly, they emphasize the importance of relationships over content.
As expected given the co-authors’ backgrounds, the book delves into the challenges around learning and frames that with the classical (but not necessarily contemporary) liberal arts emphasis on writing, speaking and critical thinking. Their thoughts provide a deeper context to what is often referred to as “soft skills” in today’s higher education debates.
Chambliss and Takacs suggest that colleges are making a mistake in investing in increasing the number of small classes in the name of improved learning outcomes. I’m sure some will disagree strongly with their suggested “arithmetic of engagement” that claims this approach actually creates a small subset of students who receive a non-random share of the overall benefit. But again, the authors provide an analytical framework – viewing class size not as a count of classes but by the number of students who actually get into the smaller classes – which any institution could use to draw their own conclusion.
The value of How College Works is not confined to the elite, residential liberal arts colleges similar to Hamilton. Some aspects of the book are more relevant to traditional age students attending residential institutions, but the authors speak to underlying human behavioral issues that apply everywhere. Instead, their focus on the student perspective opens up new paths for exploring how to improve every college serving any type of student. Using the value proposition of the classic liberal arts view of the world, you don’t have to agree with their conclusions in order to benefit from learning how they examine the world around them and their students.
As is the case throughout the book, the authors succinctly capture a diverse and complex reality when they say that “different colleges produce a host of different positive results.” But all colleges do have one thing in common – the vast majority of those results have to do with students. If we really believe that higher education is about something more than specific skills and career readiness, than we must realize that the college experience is a life passage for students that goes well beyond the specific programs and courses in which they enroll. Chambliss and Takacs open the door to this perspective; we should all join them in that exploration.
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