I recently stumbled across an article in Faculty Focus that
proved to be an interesting read on how to help students who perform below
average in your courses.
The author of
this piece, the fabulous Maryellen Weimer, sheds some light on how to help
those students who struggle in courses to become better learners and more
active participants in learning.
She writes, “Unfortunately, all too often performance on the
first exam predicts performance throughout the course, especially for those
students who do poorly on the first test.”
This is then followed by a large variety of attempts to help those
struggling students by providing opportunities for tutoring, office hours,
study groups, review sessions, and more.
Although these opportunities seem like a great way to offer students
extra help, often times the students who need the assistance the most are the
ones who choose not to come.
Dr. Weimer proceeds to discuss the ways in which studies
have shown direct communication between professors and struggling students
paired with a request for students to speak with them directly outside of class
provided a much needed boost in student comprehension, attention, and motivation
in the course. Students who attended
these one-on-one meeting with their professors spent time talking through their
performance in the course, working on goals they’d like to achieve within the
course, and developing changes to implement in how and what they were studying.
These meetings tended to lead to large increases in test
scores from their first to second exams, sometimes with percentage jumps as
large as three letter grades.
To learn more about this process and the steps taken to help
students succeed,
click here.
Written By: Jessica Moser
