Talking About Leaving

Jul 31, 2000
Paperback
US $49.00
CAN $62.00
UK £28.99
ISBN: 9780813366425
ISBN-10: 0813366429
Published by Westview Press

Description

This intriguing book explores the reasons that lead undergraduates of above-average ability to switch from science, mathematics, and engineering majors into nonscience majors. Based on a three-year, seven-campus study, the volume takes up the ongoing national debate about the quality of undergraduate education in these fields, offering explanations for net losses of students to non-science majors. Data show that approximately 40 percent of undergraduate students leave engineering programs, 50 percent leave the physical and biological sciences, and 60 percent leave mathematics. Concern about this waste of talent is heightened because these losses occur among the most highly qualified college entrants and are disproportionately greater among women and students of color, despite a serious national effort to improve their recruitment and retention. The authors' findings, culled from over 600 hours of ethnographic interviews and focus group discussions with undergraduates, explain the intended and unintended consequences of some traditional teaching practices and attitudes. Talking about Leaving is richly illustrated with students' accounts of their own experiences in the sciences. This is a landmark study-an essential source book for all those concerned with changing the ways that we teach science, mathematics, and engineering education, and with opening these fields to a more diverse student body.

Reviews

"Highly recommended."
— Choice

"The collection and analysis of an extensive set of field notes provided a wealth of anecdotal evidence.... Valuable and insightful."
— The Mathematics Teacher

"One of the most impressive aspects of Talking About Leaving is the depth to which the authors have analyzed the problems that confront students.... The authors leave little doubt that instruction and guidance in college courses in science, mathematics, and engineering need to be recast."
— Planning for Higher Education

"Seymour and Hewitt's conclusions are thought-provoking and somewhat surprising, and will cause science and mathematics educators to re-examine their assumptions about why students do and don't become scientists.... A good reference text for those interested in improving undergraduate curricula in science and engineering."
— Nature

"Elaine Seymour and Nancy Hewitt have done something that no one else in science education thought to do. They asked students to reflect on their college learning experiences. The results are wondrously rich and suggest entirely new approaches to the organization and teaching of science, mathematics, and engineering at the college level."
— Sheila Tobias, author of Overcoming Math Anxiety; They're not Dumb, They're Different

"This is the single best work I have read on the subject. I expect and hope that it will have a great impact on the field."
— Barbara Lazarus, Carnegie-Mellon University

"This incisive and very original study goes right to the heart of the issue of why talented, and initially well-motivated undergraduates abandon science and engineering majors early in their college careers. It should be required reading for all mathematics, science, and engineering faculty and administrators."
— David A. Sanchez, Former assistant director, National Science Foundation, Texas A&M University

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