College Students are Having Problems with Critcal Thinking Skills

This is an interesting article about the problems college students are having with critical thinking skills. It chronicles difficulties of students not only with critical thinking but also other communication modes:

An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.

Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn't determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin.

Dr. Arum has a great idea:

For that reason, Arum added, he hopes his data will encourage colleges and universities to look within for ways to improve teaching and learning.

Arum co-authored the book with Josipa Roksa, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. The study, conducted with Esther Cho, a researcher with the Social Science Research Council, showed that students learned more when asked to do more.

I wonder if establishing common core standards and providing a "one size fits all" curriculum will help critical thinking skills. Do you really believe that by state establishing common core standards will take care of critical thinking problems college students are having when the emphasis is teaching to the test? Teacher pay will be tied to test results. Teachers will teach to the test to ensure good results for both them and their students. You can hardly blame the teachers; they don't have the autonomy or the authority to teach any curriculum other than what's mandated.

Let's go back to the previous sentence explaining when students performed better: students learned more when asked to do more.

Now, don't you feel better about teaching students with "one size fits all" standards?