Attention, Relevancy, Confidence, Satisfaction--
I normally use a combination-my goal is to give students WIFM (what’s in it for me) and ground them in returning to the reasons why they started school in the first place. This is an actual email stream with a student. It was initiated due to a 1st offense Academic Dishonesty. It was snowballing and this student was ready to just give up….she ended up earning an A in the class! It was touch and go in Week 2, when she was redoing her assignment.
xx-you would be surprised and filled with joy to know how many students I teach each year who are stationed in the Middle East, be it Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, a carrier, you name it. It is really awesome when I see their names called at graduation.
I have a really cool picture of one student hanging out of a helicopter! He is now enrolled in a doctoral program.
xx-you need to seek support for yourself right now...friends, maybe other parents like you in your community. Keep the lines of communication open with a support group and make sure you FEEL good every day. This is YOUR time to shine.
School can be an outlet for you.-trying new things with new people. Mistakes are OK as long as you learn from them....isn't that what you taught your son when he was growing up? Listen to your own good advice...hey no one likes being wrong...it really stings the ego...but if making an error in grad school allows you to better yourself over the long run-then it may not be that bad. Learning is a life-long endeavor....I expect to see your name at graduation in a few months and odds are your son will be able to log in to VIRTUAL GRADUATION and share in his mom's success.
Dr. Sabrina Segal
________________________________________
From: xx
Sent: Tue 14-Jun-05 8:42 AM
To: Sabrina Segal
Subject: RE: XXX 000-1 U1 IP RESUBMISSION REQUIRED-(file attached)xx
Thank you for these words of encouragement, after receiving a copy of my son's will and beneficiary designation in the mail yesterday, I had an absolutely sleepless night. I was prepared to quit school this morning. I am trying to regain my composure this morning to see if I can go on. Again, thank you.
xx
________________________________________
From: Sabrina Segal
Sent: Tue 6/14/2009 7:24 AM
To: xx
Subject: RE: XXX 000-1 U1 IP RESUBMISSION REQUIRED-(file attached)xx
xx-this assignment is a small bump in the road for you.
It is NOT uncommon to be asked to resubmit the 1st week’s individual assignment. Most likely you are experiencing a series of emotions right now. Remember, this is a LEARNING experience and it is just a matter of learning a new skill or upgrading one in order for the assignment to be resubmitted. Use the resources; ask questions; submit a paragraph to make sure you are going in the right direction. My email is OPEN for communication-but the only way it works is if you keep corresponding with me.
You decided to return to school for specific reasons. You raised a son who is serving his country and we are all proud of him. You earned a Bachelor degree and now this is YOUR time to complete the Masters degree. With the GI bill, your son can join you in the pursuit of higher education...do NOT stop now. Share the school experience with your relative-it will give you something forward-thinking to discuss traveling to chemo...something positive, that will change YOUR life.
Begin working on the Week 2 assignments, but be sure to learn about paraphrasing...you can do this...
Dr. Sabrina Segal
I think brainstorming sessions would be the best way to become aware of effective retention strategies. If others have tried methods that work, or don't work, that would be helpful to know.
There is no doubt that the administration can offer a prethora of services to the student and the instructor to ensure they are successful. Success breeds more success and in turn will help retention.
Actually the instructor is on the front line as far as retention is concerned. The instructor knows which student needs help, personal issues, money issues, family issues and the like. The instructor has the ability to make such an impact that a lot of retention problems can be avoided if the instructor is proactive and empathetic with thier students.
Older students sometimes volunteer what type of feedback they prefer, as do students with learning challenges. For everyone else, I am always reading their facial expressions when I interact with them. I try to remember any little personal info a student might volunteer, so I can engage them in a little personal conversation that shows I think about them. Also, a little joking during a lecture or demo can help engage the class as a group.
I occasionally play a game of questions with students working in groups. The groups take turns answering questions. Once the groups work through all of my questions, the groups are allowed to ask other groups questions. All of the questions are related to material covered in lectures, homework, etc.. to meet the learning objectives. This approach works to reinforce material covered and to help students having difficulty with the material.
Hi Louis,
Good point about needing to be responsive to student input. The key to understanding is the willingness to listen. You are listening to your students and making adjustments that help them to increase their learning and retention.
Gary
Hi Rick,
Thank you for sharing this success story. The goals and objectives of the course remained the same but the outcomes were much higher as a result of your willingness to adjust the delivery format. This is what developmental student centered teaching is all about. Keep up the good work and I wish you much success in the future.
Gary
At the end of each course, I ask my students what they enjoyed and what they felt needed improvement. One student suggested that we go out on a fieldtrip and so I incorporated this into the curriculum and developed a learning outcome for the fieldtrip.
Effective retention strategies is an ongoing process and all instructors must address every type of student they have. Daily questions that gear instructors to engage students also is a means to effective retention.
~Louis
By actively intenacting with the students to build rapport and understanding.
In a class that I teach, the student must gather prescribed product, prepare it and present a dish based on the items gathered. I found in this study for this particular class, that only a third of the population faired well. I changed the format to producing the same multiple items in a timed window format, that not only did the students mention less stress. it created a greater opportunity for success in many different learning categories, overall greater student retention because the students recieved immediate confidence in this project format.
participating in classes like this one could be helpful in becoming aware of effective retention strategies.
Karen
I think you may have missed the opportunity to make a genuine connection with your student when all you do is go to the next in your chain of command. Perhaps merely reaching out to the student and offering encouragement will be enough, other steps can be followed either concurently or at a later date.
Hi Paul,
I agree that there has to be an intial evaluation of the class and this can be done in several ways. I will always try to get the students to express their likes and dislikes of food and wine. In this time I can see how others are interacting with the dialog and it helps me get a read on the class. I think this is the fine tuning but needs to happen each day.
Great point Paul,
best regards,
Brad
Hi Brian,
That is correct. Students can benefit from have an expert (the instructor) review their work and offer information about how they can improve. This is both beneficial for student growth.
Gary
Instructors can become aware of effective retention strategies in their classes by first evaluating the level of knowledge of the subject overall by the class and then establish the highs and lows of the individual students. At this point instruction can be fine tuned to keep the class engaged and focused on the goal of learning.
From student feedback and having the students do the teaching rather than the instructor and the instructor just be a facilitator and assist the learning process.
But, that can lead in my opinion to giving the student a false sense of their accomplishments. You, must in some form criticize their work.
An instructor can ask his/her students how they learn best and be aware of the difference learning styles in the class
Step one:
Select several topics that will utilize the skill sets and knowledge.
Step two:
Demonstrate and expain thoroughly the skill set using one of your chosen topic.
Subsequent steps:
Review and demonstrate again the skill set using one of your chosen topic.
