Helping Students Who are Performing Poorly

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

From the CETL Library: My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a student again?  Maybe you’ve contemplated the ways in which the world of education has changed since you left it as a student and entered it as an educator.  Perhaps the frustrations of watching your students’ strange habits, their seeming disinterest in your course, or their apparent lack of priorities have made you wonder what the heck is going on in their minds.  Rebekah Nathan wondered the same things.

“After more than fifteen years of university teaching, I found that students had become increasingly confusing to me.  Why don’t undergraduates ever drop by my office hours unless they are in dire trouble in a course?  Why don’t they respond to my (generous) invitations to do out-of-class research under my guidance?  How could some of my students never take a note during my big lecture class?  And what about those students who bring whole meals and eat and drink during my class?  Or those other students who seem to feel absolutely no embarrassment in putting their head or their feet on their desk and taking a nap during class?”

Teaching was becoming more difficult for Rebekah as understanding her students became more difficult.  She was faced with the challenge of attempting to teach to a population that was slowly becoming foreign to her.   So, as an anthropology professor and researcher, she decided to take things into her own hands and conduct a year-long research project in which she enrolled as a freshman student at the very university she worked at.

My Freshman Year is the result of her research findings through this study, and explores habits, routines, thought processes, and priorities of the college students she was surrounded by.  During her time spent as a student, she observed the ways that students handled stressed and balanced their schedules, she interviewed them on their professors and classes, and she participated in all aspects of the college life including classes, movie nights, residence hall activities, intramural sports, and living in the dorms.  Her results are certainly eye opening as well as entertaining.

To read more about Rebekah Nathan’s experience, head over to the CETL library and pick up a copy of My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student from the “Understanding the Student” section.

Written By: Jessica Moser

Cultivating Learning Relationships

Take a moment and consider who your best teachers were growing up.  Now, list the qualities that made you think of them in such a positive way.  What made your list?  Knowledgeable?  Caring?  Attentive?  Kind?

When asked this question, most people tend to answer in similar ways.  Your own list might include “cared for me as a person” or “actively interested in my learning” as traits you admired in your best teachers, and you aren't alone!  These qualities are among the most common when people are asked to consider what they deem significant about their teachers. 

 

In fact, according to a study completed in 2011, when 17,000 students were asked to list the qualities of an effective teacher, “respectful” and “responsive” topped their lists.  Not surprisingly, students responded best to teachers who exhibited these characteristics and seemed to genuinely care about their success.  But what are the best ways to show students that you care about their learning?

John Orlando, the associate director of training at Northcentral University, offers some helpful tips for developing learning-centered relationships with your students.

An Emphasis on Feedback

Firstly, research has proven time and time again that students crave feedback on their work.  They look for written feedback that tells them what could use work, and then also how to make the best improvements.  Providing this sort of feedback rather than a laundry list of things that their work did or didn’t have is much more beneficial for them as well as for yourself.  Taking the time to provide this sort of feedback shows just how much you care about their work and efforts as a learner, and then offers them ways to improve for the future.  What must the student know and be able to do in order to improve their work?  Tell them.

Why are we doing this?

It’s the age-old question that students begin wondering as early as elementary school.  Take some time in your courses to explain why the skills you are teaching are important.  “It will be on the test” isn’t motivation enough for students to actively involve themselves in the class.  Since motivation is generated by seeing value in a task beyond the grade scale, provide the information required for students to understand what the big picture is and how it will benefit them in the long run.

Just Checking In

Take the opportunity to periodically check in on your students and ask them how the course is going for them.  Ask them to write a paragraph about how they think they’re doing, whether or not they are learning the material, and what struggles they’re experiencing.  This interest in student progress encourages students to focus on their understanding of the class material and to come to you for help when they need it.  Doing this two or three times during a course can improve learning, attitude, and motivation.

Tip Provided By: Jessica Moser

Adapted from: Faculty Focus (Magna Publications)

From the CETL Library: Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do

“People on the street may not have recognized the Vivaldi he was whistling, but they could tell he was whistling classical music.  This caused him to be seen differently, as an educated, refined person, not as a violence-prone African American youth.”

This book by Claude M. Steele provides an insightful look into the stereotypes surrounding us throughout our lives – both the ones that we ourselves emulate, and the ones we recognize in others.  Through several of his experimental studies on this subject, Steele suggests we look closely at the stereotypes we inherently see and consider the ways that we allow them to affect our perceptions.

Filled with several different case studies and social experiments, Steele has compiled a collection of experiences covering a wide range of populations including specific portions focused on race, gender, sexuality, age, and assigned groupings based on specific topics (i.e. “overestimators” vs “underestimators”).  Each of his studies showed a specific interest in how populations reacted to stereotypes that were either emphasized or smothered depending on the study.  The findings for each are fascinating and work to broaden our personal self-perceptions as well as our perceptions of others.

One such revelation stands out in particular when Steele specifically looks at the grade disparity seen between white and black students upon arriving to college despite having equal SAT or ACT scores.  After implementing several experimental testing situations, Steele discovered that black students tended to score lower on their college work.  Further exploration as well as Steele’s projected reasoning behind these lower scores can be found in chapters 2 and 3.

This book provides an interesting look into the circumstances that surround the stereotypes we have, the ways in which we use them, and the ways we allow stereotypes to affect different aspects of our lives.  A good read for anyone interested in the diversity they find within their classes, and how to become more aware of the ways their own perceptions affect the ways they teach in some way, shape, or form.

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do can be found in the “Diversity” section of the CETL library.

Review Provided By: Jessica Moser

From the CETL Library: Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's

“To this day, when I speak, I find visual input to be distracting. […] That’s why I usually look somewhere neutral—at the ground of off into the distance—when I’m taking to someone.”

Published in 2007, this book isn’t one that is necessarily new to the scene of studies on autism spectrum disorders.  However, John Elder Robinson’s first-hand account of living with Asperger’s syndrome provides interesting insight into the learning experiences, struggles and accomplishments that accompany such a disorder.

As you may already know, Asperger’s syndrome was originally discovered in 1981 by Hans Asperger.  It was later added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1984 on the premises of Hans’ observations that children who were often intelligent with above average vocabulary skills exhibited autistic behaviors with pronounced deficiencies in social and communication skills.  Since then, research on Asperger’s and autism has expanded vastly, with recent findings discovering 1 in 150 people fall somewhere on the autism spectrum.  (Asperger’s was removed as a specified autism disorder in 2013, and was replaced with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder ranked on a severity scale.)

Why is this important to note?  Teachers are consistently told that they should get to know their students in order to build stronger rapport in their courses, thus increasing student motivation, participation, and achievement.  There’s no question that John Elder Robison’s autobiographical lens can be helpful to understanding autism spectrum disorders as he describes his own experiences growing up with the disorder, and thus lead to a deeper understanding of how to best reach students outside of the “neurotypical” population.

Most importantly, John Elder Robison’s story strengthens the need for differentiated instruction in classrooms.  Considering the best ways to understand, appreciate, and build upon student differences is one of the key ingredients to differentiating your curriculum, and getting a glimpse of a behind the scenes story provides a good way to gauge how to implement those concepts in your own ways.

A great read for those who are looking for a stronger understanding of their population of students, or are interested in reading a funny, descriptive, and memorable first-hand account of someone’s own experiences with an autism spectrum disorder.

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s can be found in the “Understanding the Student” section of the CETL library.

Review Provided By:  Jessica Moser

Teaching Millennials: Bridging the Gap

Examples not working?  Jokes gone flat?  Seinfeld references missed faster than you can say, “No soup for you?”  Don’t worry, it’s not just you.

College faculty all around the nation are struggling with teaching to the millennial generation.  With a population steeped in YouTube videos, Tweeting what they had for breakfast, and asking Siri what the weather’s like, it’s no wonder you are beginning to hear nothing but crickets after your best punch lines.   

Here are some things you should know about millennials in order to better connect with them.

1. Millennials are used to being protected.  They’re used to their parents hovering over them or sweeping in to save the day.  Terms like “helicopter” or “lawnmowerparents” are now truer than ever.  Keep that in mind. 
2.  Millennials are team-oriented.  Crowdsourcing is something they’ve grown up with, so group work and relying on a team is nothing new to them. 
3. Millennials are achievement-oriented.  Keep in mind that this generation above all others has been exposed to standardized testing and education movement.  This provides them with an internalized value of results far above the process of learning itself.
4. Millennials are pressured.  Due to this focus on achievement, they’ve been feeling the pressure to be the best for quite some time.

Not only is it important to consider these elements in order to understand your students and the generalizations about their generation, but it’s also important to reflect on how we can move beyond these generalizations to build a pedagogical approach that benefits our courses, our students, and ourselves.  Consider these tips for teaching today’s college student:

1. Get to know your students.  It’s impossible to connect with students on any level until you gain an understanding of what sort of knowledge and experience they are already bringing to your classroom.  Start out with a formative assessment of some kind to allow students to share what they know, and what gaps they may have in understanding your class content. 
2. Show your students ways to organize and apply knowledge.  Millennials are used to getting information at lightning speed, and usually in various different ways, so teaching how to process all of this material is a good place to start.  Incorporating different types of materials for teaching each concept can be helpful as well.
3. Discuss the value of failure.  Because this generation is so focused on achievement, they often lose sight of the ways in which failure can work as a good learning tool.  Provide opportunities in your classroom that are low stakes, and focus on working on the process involved in learning a concept rather than the product.  These could be group activities, discussion posts, or hypothesis-driven activities.  Emphasizing the importance of the learning process is also a good way to establish intrinsic motivation. 

If you’re still wondering what to do about those Seinfeld references whipping over your students’ heads, well, let’s just say we know what your first homework assignment should be.