Student Retention From Mentor Commons

Student retention Keeping students in college until they graduate Reasons students drop out Not well prepared for college work Getting behind/lost and giving up Personal reasons / family life, work issues Lack of personal connection to faculty and students A program tried by one school “which works” Connect with your students Teach your students how to learn Active learning in the classroom Assess as you go along, both the students and yourself Let the students teach – themselves and each other

Connecting with your students Nametags the first day – to make a human connection with them Tell students your story – who are you, why did you want to study this field? Help students learn each other’s names Team work, exchange names, emails, form a study group Make sure they have your contact info / URL for class web page

Teaching students how to learn Students don’t know how to read a textbook Skim, read again slowly, take to another medium, test yourself, write down questions you don’t understand to ask someone Find out their learning styles – visual, auditory, kinesthetic Study Guides and Strategies http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Active Learning Students retain 70% of the info in the first ten minutes of class but only 20% from the last ten minutes. Don’t try to cover so much content that they are overwhelmed Is it more important that you cover the material or that they understand the material? Talk for 20 minutes or so, then give them something to do Cooperative exercise with their neighbor Think – Pair – Share with a neighbor

Assess students and yourself At the end of class, ask students to write down “what’s the muddiest (most confusing) point you heard today?” or “what’s the point you want more explanation of?” Read them by next class meeting, and address as necessary

Let the students teach I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand The best way to learn something is to teach it Have students work in teams to solve a problem Have individual students write up tutorials about a class concept Post best ones for studying by all students