Transcript Building a Team to Bridge the First

Building a Team to Bridge the
First-year Learning Gap
CACUSS 2007
Sheilagh Grills
Brandon University
• “Building partnerships and
facilitating collaboration is an
involved, multi-faceted process of
building trust, increasing
understanding and enhancing
effectiveness which occurs within
the historical and cultural context
of the institution.”
– (Walker, 2007: 24)
Learning Skills at Brandon
University
• According to Maclean’s, BU had a 72.2% retention
rate in 2005
• We have historically offered non-credit, no-cost
workshops on specific academic skills, targeted
primarily at first-year students.
• 6-week ‘Success Series’ of workshops dealing with
the most commonly requested topics
– Students were encouraged to attend all six sessions, but
attendance was strictly voluntary
– I looked at entry characteristics of students and the
number of sessions they chose to attend
Entering High School Average by Session Attendance
84
82.7
82
80
79.8
79
78
76
74
72
70
1 or 2 Sessions
3 or 4 Sessions
5 or 6 Sessions
• academic aptitude rating scores coming in
to university account for less than 2% of the
variability in at-risk students’ first-year
GPAs
• some estimates are that 1/3 of students who
have earned academic scholarships in the
U.S. take developmental or remedial
courses in their first year
Entering At-Risk Status by Session Attendance
80
73.3
70
60
50
50
40
30
22
20
10
0
1 or 2 Sessions
3 or 4 Sessions
5 or 6 Sessions
• at risk students must learn the academic
skills necessary to actively engage the
material and get the most out of each lecture
in their first year, or they risk dropping out
(voluntarily or at the request of the
institution)
Attrition Rates by Session Attendance
5 or 6
Sessions
30.8
0
3 or 4
Sessions
45.5
18.2
1 or 2
Sessions
59.3
44.4
0
20
40
60
• Using this data I began the process of building this
series of workshops into a learning skills and
critical thinking course, called ‘Fundamentals of
Inquiry’, team taught by staff and faculty, which
would count as an elective.
• A credit-bearing course that used critical thinking
and learning skills to improve student engagement
was received with some skepticism.
– “University 101” model was attempted over the years,
but was never approved.
Team Approach
• Student Perspectives
– Students’ experiences and ways of knowing can
be important stepping stones, but with this
information alone we can end up with various
pathways in no particular direction
• Staff/Front Line Experience
– Anecdotal evidence can suggest a particular
path of action, but can also fan out in a wide
variety of short, time sensitive lines
• Faculty Research & Institutional Data
– can produce enduring plans, but can also
produce actions based on 20 year old protocols
– can be removed from HOW questions, and
process or procedure issues
• Building a Team of Students, Staff and
Faculty was central for:
– Grounding the project
– Basing it on data
– Implementing
Goals
• 1. The Transition Course as Learning
Community
– First-year learning communities can assist with
both social and academic integration, which in
turn increase satisfaction and persistence rates
– Peer cooperative learning programs that
specifically embed learning strategy practice or
active learning methods into academic content
are more effective than collaborative learning
that simply increase interaction, but are more
demanding of institutional resources
• James, Bruch & Jehangir (2006:11)
distinguish between the functions of a
learning community and a learning
community
– “[In] a learning community … members help
each other learn to join the academic
community: by supporting each other through
listening, disagreeing, and working together,
students build academic skills and explore ideas
in ways that value individual knowledge”
Goals
• 2. Demonstrate, teach and require deep
processing of broad, interdisciplinary concepts.
– the acquisition of cognitive skills rather than the
acquisition of facts
– deep processing produces the greatest and longest
effects in knowledge acquisition, comprehension and
retention
– emphasize skills that transfer broadly across disciplines
and form the foundation for subsequent intense studies
within a particular discipline.
– engage in self-regulatory learning, and to see
themselves as part of the broader academic
community rather than passive receivers of
knowledge
• students who monitor and take control of their own
learning are more successful academically, are less
likely to attribute failure to external, stable sources,
are more likely to work harder, longer and select
more challenging learning tasks and have an
improved sense of self-efficacy.
– multiple forms of evaluation
• smaller, weekly assignments
• research essay
• an oral presentation
• a peer cooperative learning program that
includes:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
peer interaction
structured activities
interdependence and self-directed learning
informal and formal student-faculty interactions
senior students as mentors and models
high academic expectations
scaffolded instruction
discussion of affective components of learning
Preliminary Results
High school average by Group
82
80
80.8
78.8
78
76
74.3
74
72
70
All BU
Control Group
Inquiry Class
Learning and Study Strategies
Inventory (LASSI )
• Provides standardized scores and norms for
a 10-scale assessment of students’ awareness
about and reported use of learning and study
strategies:
– anxiety, attitude, concentration, information
processing, motivation, self-testing, selecting
main ideas, use of support services, time
management or test taking.
Initial Group Differences
• Students enrolled in the ‘Fundamentals of
Inquiry’ class had significantly lower scores
than their peers in the first week of the
semester on four dimensions:
–
–
–
–
Motivation
Self Testing
Time Management
Test Taking
Pre-Post Comparisons
• Looked at any changes in awareness and
reported use of learning skills between the
first week and last week of the semester.
• There were no significant differences in the
control group for any subscales.
• Students enrolled in the introductory
psychology course were found to have no
significant changes between September and
December.
Figure 1. Comparison of Pre-Post LASSI
Scores for Students in Control Group
33
32
31
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
Pre-test
Post-test
• For the students enrolled in Fundamentals of
Inquiry, significant improvements were made in
all areas except the Attitude subscale
• Even for the subscales where the control group
was found to have significantly higher scores at
initial entry, these advantages were all erased at
the end of the semester
Figure 2. Comparison of Pre-Post LASSI Scores for
Fundamentals of Inquiry class
33
32
31
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
Pre-test
Post-test
Scale
Pre-Test
Mean
Post-Test Significance
Mean
ANX
21.69
24.97
ATT
30.91
32.09
CON
23.50
28.28
p < .001
INP
25.69
30.47
p < .001
MOT
27.03
30.06
p < .001
SFT
22.09
26.41
p < .01
SMI
23.88
30.00
p < .001
STA
24.56
27.44
p < .01
TMT
21.78
25.72
p < .001
TST
24.34
28.97
p < .001
p < .05
Comparison of GPA between Groups
3.5
3
3.05
2.55
2.5
2
3.01
2.06
1.5
sGPA 1
Control group
sGPA 2
Inquiry class
Critique
• Make a topic of Attribution theory and Intellectual
development
– Gaps between student expectations and institutional or
faculty expectations:
• faculty wanted graduates of this course to be at an advanced level
in critical thinking and essay writing
• students wanted to know what was the ‘magic bullet’ for
university success
• Continuity is Critical
– one central coordinator
– someone respected by both ‘sides’
– guest speakers with specific units or objectives
• The Team’s the thing
– Follow Schroeder’s (1999) principles for
developing successful partnerships
– involve others in planning and implementation,
especially a potential antagonist
• advisors/guidance counsellors
– be systematic about aligning resources
• data & institutional support
• collective agreements & control of for-credit course
delivery
• The Relationship Factor Carries forward
Exponentially
– the informal student-faculty relationship
happens!
– don’t underestimate the time and resources
needed
• Imbedded learning skills instruction within
academic content demands a lot of institutional
resources
• By building a diverse team, we were able to put
together sufficient ‘portions’ of workload of
existing staff
• senior students as tutorial leaders and mentors helps
build the learning community, a sense of belonging
AND helps wean the needy students
• Interdisciplinary Aspect allows for greater
range of connections
– allows for discussion of discipline areas and
how specific areas relate
– identifying the types of questions that each
student tends to ask in weekly assignments and
class discussions.
– Helps undecided students sort out what types of
courses to take the following semester.
– a new major: BA in Interdisciplinary Studies
In Sum
• Not quite a learning community, not quite a
philosophy course and not really learning
skills workshops
• It seems to have been helpful
• Ongoing
• Build the partnerships