Group 5 Presentation

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Group 5 Presentation

• Recommendations to the Committee Regarding
  Persistence in Developmental Courses

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Three Main Problems Effecting Students
Motivation to Complete Schooling
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Lack of Confidence
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Lack of Connection to the Learning Community
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High Occurrence of Extra-Curricular Stressors
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Students lack the confidence they need to succeed

• Many college students, especially those
  returning to college as adults, have educational
  histories comprised in part of systematic
  humiliation. They will have passed through
  classes in which they were told, directly or
  indirectly, that they were too dumb to learn.
  (Brookfield, 1990)

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What are the Suggested Solutions?
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Create a supportive student environment

• Create a student-centered learning environment.
• Utilize small group work
• Implement early opportunities for low-risk, high
  success.
• Conduct preparatory courses.
• Provide learning resources.
• Offer career counseling and academic advising.

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Entering students often feel disconnected from
the college community.

• The support of a learning community of peers can
  make a crucial difference to whether or not
  people persist in learning. (Brookfield, 1990)

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What are the Suggested Solutions?
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Build connections between students, teachers, and
staff.

• Increase student-teacher contact.
• Provide opportunities for online/phone
  interactions .
• Create a commons area for students to interact.
• Conduct orientation and
• student activity programs.
• Reduce class size.
• Encourage peer mentoring relationships.

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Nontraditional students experience increased
extracurricular stress.

• Students often struggle financially and work at
  least part time, juggling the responsibilities of
  family, work, and school.

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What are the Suggested Solutions?

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Accommodate non-traditional students needs

• Facilitate online or telephone office hours.
• Conduct evening and weekend courses.
• Provide child day care and adequate parking.
• Encourage carpooling/ commuter network.

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Who are the key players?
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We Are Working Together for the Success of Our
Students!

• Administration
• Students
• Teachers

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What can teachers do?

• Participate in adult education teacher training.
• Work with a mentor teacher.
• Increase teacher-student contact and encourage
  student-peer contact in and out of class.

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What is the Administrative Leaderships Role?

• Survey Students
• Assess Needs
• Provide Teacher Training
• Implement Policies
• Develop Programs
• Monitor Progress

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• The success of institutional retention efforts
  ultimately resides in the institutions capacity
  to engage faculty and administrators across the
  campus in a collaborative effort to construct
  educational settings, classrooms and otherwise,
  that actively engage students, all students not
  just some, in learning.
• Vincent Tinto

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For a list of References, please consult the Team
5 Action Plan.