The push to reduce the time students spend in developmental courses is overdue. Read the attached link for more details.
Doing Developmental Education Differently | Scaling Innovation.
Community Colleges need to continue their focus on liberal arts.
When it comes to motivation, not all praise is the same.
It makes sense to me that if I want to spark motivation in my students, giving them feedback, as long as it’s positive, will help them feel motivated. After all, praise is praise right? Maybe not. Yesterday I listened to an excellent eSeminar, “The Science of Motivating Students for Success,” Christine Harrington, author of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!, To access the seminar go to:
http://community.cengage.com/Site/devstudies/m/mediagallery/1704.aspx?channel=Eloqua&elq_mid=2996&elq_cid=
One of the points she made related to the nature of praise and how different kinds of praise inspire more motivation than others. For example, telling a student “You did a great job on this. You’re clearly very bright.” vs. “You did a great job on this. You clearly worked hard.” Results in differing levels of motivation for these students to persist, succeed, etc.
Why might this be so? The answer lies in the interplay between how a person explains his success and the type of feedback we give him. Telling a student that she must be really smart gives her the message that the reason she did well was because of something internal to her but also something that is pretty fixed. Intelligence or ability is usually seen as unchangeable. If, on the other hand, telling same student that she worked really hard gives her message that it’s still something internal, but it isn’t fixed. If she keeps putting effort in, she will do well. Effort is changeable. We can always choose to try harder. Continue reading
The Unprepared Nation Infographic #collegereadiness #highered #edu11.
Graphics tell the story better than words.
It never ceases to amaze me that colleges, especially community colleges, are so resistant to acknowledge that student success courses do work
Student success courses catch on, slowly, at community colleges | Inside Higher Ed.
This is a good article from NACADA clearinghouse about the intersection of counseling and advising.
I just came back from meeting a group of students who will begin their first semester here next week. There were eleven of them, most looking eager, some not so much. I can’t help but wonder if they’ll all be here in May. I’ve learned to be doubtful about this, but I’m trying hard not to predict the outcome.
On the first day of class I will ask them what’s the percentage of their commitment to staying in the class. Last semester all but one of said they were 100% committed. The one other said she was 95% committed. At the end of the semester, 9 out of 14 finished the course, as well as the entire semester. So what happened to the other 5? Lots of things, mostly having to do with complicated lives in one way or another. This isn’t to say that the others had smooth sailing through the semester.
When I reflect on why some navigated well and others not, I look at some of the differences between the two groups. One difference was their maturity or the degree to which there was recognition of the ups and downs in life. The successful students knew there would be obstacles, but planned for them in advance.
Another difference was the level of commitment to a clearly defined goal. Those students who knew why they were here, no matter the reason, hung in. Some students actually developed clearer goals during the semester and this helped them turn things around.
The two groups also differed in their ability to learn from both successes and “failures”. Success taught some students that hard work and their own skills paid off and that failure wasn’t permanent and could be remidied with hard work and support. In essence, the nine students who made it through their semester had challenges, both personally and academically, but knew and learned how, in spite of the challenges, to say on course.
Intention isn’t always enough. I think this will be one of first lessons we talk about after all students most likely will tell me that their 100% committed.