Retention
There can be many factors that influence retention. From my experience, I believe students who lack focus on their school work do poorly and can cause them to quit or drop out.
It seems that in Don and I's situation, age has a major factor in retention. Many students are expeiencing they're first time away from home and may be exposed to a large city with a lot of different. Some of them not good people
It's also a matter of making courses challenging enough without leaving other students behind.
Many of my students come from a low income family. Because of this, education usually is not a high priority topic. Much of the time these students are the first in their family to even get this far. Yow need to encourage these students to see "light at the end of the tunnel."
It is important to praise them and make them feel a sense of success in their accomplishments.
I agree that there are many factors that affect retention,I believe that we as instructors have to try to observe and identify the issues our students are facing.
It all comes from knowing how to study and understanding small successes. Most 2 year program students come from some background where they have many issues to resolve other than school itself. In relation with these type of students, we have some outstanding caliber students who want to do nothing but excellent work. As an instructor, to juggle these two groups sometimes is challenging but if you know how to handle both type of students, retention improves greatly.
