Student with poor background education
I had a student that was a high school graduate, but had practically no actual education. He did not understand the concept of what the zeroes at the end of a number did to that number. (A 1 or 10 or 1000 were nebulous in his mind.)
He was in an Electronics Engineering Technician course. What I taught him as new information he grasped immediately and had partial understanding of what it meant and how it fit into the course material. However, anything that required previous knowledge to grasp was difficult of not impossible for him to understand.
I slowed the pace of the course in order to help him learn. The other students in the class did their best to help him learn, but in the end, he dropped because he was not "getting" the information in a useful way. He went into another course that had the least reliance on previous knowledge and did rather well.
He was not dumb, just uneducated. He was extremely smart, capable of learning new information rapidly, he just could not relate it to the knowledge he should have had but did not.
Is it fair to say that even with a poor history of education that a motivated learner/student can still succeed?
I like the NBA example; it's a good idea to relate basic info to something fun in real life. I always have a sentence skills review day in composition classes. A few don't need it, but most do. It's not exciting info to learn, but it helps students know that they are not alone in the need to review/learn basic grammar/punctuation. I assign different sentence skills to partners to review together and present to the rest of the class. It's not as dry as a straight lecture on this material, and it can give students confidence in some key problem areas.
I had some students who were in the same "boat". This is when the dedication and compassion of a teacher go out of the way to try to help him/her succeed in the course. With most accomodations like that of a student with learning disability, I open all channels to connect with the student; email, phone, I make individualized tutoring out of classtime, emphasizing the observed weakness, I contracted the student that he must always be present in class and must do the tasks in-class and out-class or else he'll fail. I give him advanced assignment, making sure that his solution is correct by cross-examining his responses, and that he must present in class to boost his morale. That was extremely tough time for me but so rewarding.
Repeating this information for all of the students was probably a good review for the entire class.
I have encountered this in teaching English (Composition) at a number of different proprietary colleges. At first, it was frustrating because one or two students couldn't form a sentence, while others had grammar problems of a higher order. What I ultimately did, was this:
I asked the class to think about NBA basketball players - professionals. I then asked if these stellar athletes still went to practice, and of course, the class said "Yes." I then asked them to explain why practice was important, and we reached the conclusion that fundamental skills, while basic, had to be maintained. With that as a premise, I indicated we would be starting with basic English grammar, and that this was not an insult to them, but rather, it might have been some time since everyone had been to "practice" so the skills were rusty.
I then began my first lecture: "What is a noun, what is a verb?" and every one of my students, even the ones that had excellent grammar skills, were very thankful and appreciative of the review.
So, I think you can overcome some weak background education by reviewing basic material, but you have to get the entire class to buy into it.
Hi David!
A sad commentary for his family as well as the education system. It is very tough for an instructor to try to build on past education when there has been none. AND - the next piece is that school admissions policies can set a student up for failure and large student loans. So what's the answer for this type of student?
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
