Hi Theresa,
The human side of being an educator is very important for the students to know. This way they know you want them to be successful and will be supportive if they will put forth the needed effort.
Gary
It is important to get to know their students so they can learn why students have issues completing courses. Sometimes it helps to have courses which are required to be completed (or core courses) for graduation.
If you have some ideas why students leave course or the entire program, then you can try to put things in place to support those students to keep them in school and aid towards completion of thier program.
retention can be done in several ways.
- positive feedback
- open place for ideas
- pay attention to pace too fast or too slow
- let them know the practical application
Constant self-evaluation and peer evaluation will find the chinks in your armor of retention. Educators have to go through processes of self-evaluation in order to make sure the way they approach their classes is not in a degratory fashion. Peer evaluation are awesome, it allows an objective point of view of how you as an instructor acts, talks, walks and interacts with students, this feedback helps instructors better understand what students need and how to go about providing that environment for them.
There is an abundance of research on best practices in student retention. Understanding these practices appropriate for community college settings is important to designing retention strategies that will meet the needs of our students.
One of the best resources for instructors to help them retain students is other instructors. It is important to speak with others to see what works for them and how it applies to you.
Hi June,
Yes, it will and they need to be made aware of this over and over again. Their future is at stake. They need the content and skills to create a career for themselves.
Gary
Explain an demonstrate the knowledge they are receiving will put them head and shoulders above the other job seekers out there.
Giving numerous examples are one good strategy. I have found using acrynoms help as well for certain material
Showing respect to the students, and demostrating the importance to achieve the knowledge
As this module pointed out, it is important to get to know your students as individuals and as people. One thing I have noticed is that the longer I teach, the less I feel the need to be in such tight control of my classes. Students like to be treated like adults and they like to have fun in class. I have (sort of )learned the balance of creating a respectful, productive learning environment and a fun, enjoyable one as well.
by developing a relatioship with the students and understanding their needs
An instructor can become aware of effective retention strategies by working one on one with students to ascertain the difficulties or successes that each student is having. It is wonderful for both the teacher and the student when the student reports enjoyment of the lesson. After having taught literature for many years, I felt that explaining a particularly difficult piece was almost the same as explaining a joke. It certainly had the same result--a loss of the spirit of the selection (or joke). So it is much better when students are allowed the freedom to explore ideas and concepts on their own. As students succeed in the class, a pride develops and they work even harder for more opportunities at succcess.
Instructors have to get to know thier students and what is going on with them. If a students starts to say something about leaving then the instructor needs to talk with the student.
Get the students to want to be in class and participate in class. Students should actually regret missing class and that all depends on the instructor.
The instructor needs to keep the class surprised, varied in activities, flexible, and helping the students reach thier goals.
To increase there awareness of effective retention strategies instructors can first start by speaking with the campus' retention team. The retention team develops strategies to monitor, and retain students in school. They could also speak to instructors who have been successful at retaining their students. Most instructors can easily determine how well their retention strategies work. Those instructors who are successful should be resources used to help other instructors with their retention.
show some empathy when students need it.
Hi June,
So important for instructional planning. This also helps greatly in establishing rapport with the students because they feel you are willing to listen to them.
Gary
Leave yourself open to suggestions from students. Discuss options and let them feel they can contribute.
Feedback has been a great tool for me to reach the older student who has fears about their ability to be successful. It needs to be behavior specific for students who have poor self esteem. Often time. these students are so focused upon what they are not doing perfectly, it becomes a great surprise that there are things they are doing well and other things that are improving.
Instructors can become aware of effective retention strategies for use in their classes by applying strategies that more experienced instructors have used that are known to be successful from their experience. Another way is to apply strategies that you already know as an instructor that have seem to work in the past. It is a matter of trying different strategies and using the one that works the best for that set of students. The same strategy may not work each time and is determined by the set of students that you have at that time, that is why it important to experiment and use it as you see fit.
