1. Kenneth J. Barideaux Jr., M.S. Jaclyn K. MAASS, M.S.
Transitioning to College: Preparing Students For Learning in Higher Education
Survey: to instructors:
What grade they teach, Lecture formats, question formats and type of questions,
Kenneth J. Barideaux Jr., M.S.
Jaclyn K. MAASS, M.S.

2. Postsecondary Enrollment
National Center for Education Statistics
Can anyone guess why students go to college?
The New America Education Policy Program conducted a survey of 1,011 U.S. residents ages 16-40, who were largely prospective college students (with the remainder in their first semester of college)

3. Full-Time Students Retention Rate
Retention rate is the percentage of full-time, first-time bachelor's (or equivalent) degree-seeking undergraduates from the previous fall who are again enrolled in the current fall.

4. National Graduation Rate
6 years!

5. National Graduation Rate
What are some reasons why students are dropping out?
Finances
Too much partying
Poor academic preparation
Life Happens
What are some reasons why students are dropping out?

6. Prepping Students to Optimize Learning

7. College Readiness
“College readiness can be defined operationally as the level of preparation a student needs to enroll and succeed—without remediation—in a credit-bearing general education course at a postsecondary institution that offers a baccalaureate degree or transfer to a baccalaureate program. Succeed is defined as completing entry-level courses with a level of understanding and proficiency that makes it possible for the student to be eligible to take the next course in the sequence or the next level course in the subject area.” (Conley, 2007)

8. Skills in College
There are some academic skills that students are assumed to have “mastered” before entering college.
What are some of those academic skills not captured by a standardized test?
SQ4R

9. Lectures
The lecture is perhaps the most dominant method for delivering instruction in higher education.
Criticism of “chalk and talk” – students are taught to memorize and regurgitate facts rather than develop a real understanding of the subject matter.
Reflection: Think back to some of your best college teachers……
The same lecture, given by the same professor in the same lecture hall, is actually not the same for each student listening; students with more background knowledge will be better able to absorb and retain what they hear.

10. Lectures
In many college classes, students must do the following things simultaneously:
Listen/attend to the lecture information
Comprehend/interpret the lecture information, and
Take notes on the lecture
Identify main ideas

11. Note-Taking Formats
Cornell Notes are formatted such that pages of notes are split lengthwise: the right side of the page is used for formal notes while the left side of the page is reserved for keywords and questions relevant to the notes on the right. At the bottom or footer of each page, the note-taker writes a brief summary of that page of notes.

12. Note-Taking During Class
General Findings (Carrier, 1983):
Students who take notes during a lecture will learn more than those who simply listen.
Past research on note-taking has indicated that students do a poor job of extracting the main points from a lecture (see Kiewra, 1989 for review)
Scaffold- provide partial notes- or explicitly point out main ideas during lecture. Provide power point, leave some blank.
Friedman
Early after writing, same day.

13. Discussion: Note-taking/ Main Ideas
How can we help students find main ideas/ discriminate between main and detail ideas?

14. Note-Taking cont.
Students will learn more from a lecture if they both record and review their own notes (See Friedman, 2014 for review).
Review after class (preferably the same day), and before the test.
Scaffold- provide partial notes- or explicitly point out main ideas during lecture. Provide power point, leave some blank.
Friedman
Early after writing, same day. ?

15. Discussion: Reviewing Your Notes
How can we encourage students to review/study in between classes?

16. Quiz Yourself! Ask questions while you read/ review notes.
In between classes, review & practice answering questions can identify concepts you don’t understand to ask during class, or pay special attention to during the lecture.
Confusion is your friend, not your enemy!
Scaffold- provide partial notes- or explicitly point out main ideas during lecture. Provide power point, leave some blank.

17. The Role of Confusion Confusion
Being confused is not a bad thing! It’s good- now you know what to study next
Frustration
Resolution
Confusion

18. Studying Strategies (We don’t know what we don’t know)
Encourage students to look for gaps in their knowledge
Ask yourself questions
Fact questions
Higher-order/ critical thinking
Generate examples
Comparison/ Contrast
Analogies
hard
(try “tagging” facts with ‘why’)

19. Discussion: How to Ask “Deeper” Questions
What type of critical thinking/applied questions have you used and what made them successful or unsuccessful?

20. Question Format Short Answer/ Free Entry vs. Multiple Choice
Short answer is more difficult & more beneficial for the student
Short answer may offer more insight into student’s understanding
Practice with short answer shows better transfer
But…. Practice with only short answer my not prepare your students for college tests which are predominantly multiple choice

21. Take Aways
A lot of skills necessary for success in college are not explicitly emphasized in earlier education.
To help support your students for future success, consider the components discussed today
What other academic factors do you think are important for this transition, and how might we address them?

22. References
Agarwal, P. K., D’Antonio, L., Roediger III, H. L., McDermott, K. B., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Classroom-based programs of retrieval practice reduce middle school and high school students’ test anxiety. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3(3),
Carrier, C. A. (1983). Notetaking research. Journal of Instructional Development, 6(3),
Conley, D. T. (2007). Redefining college readiness, Volume 3. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center.
Friedman, M. C. (2014). Notes on note-taking: Review of research and insights for students and instructors. Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, harvard. edu/files/hilt/files/notetaking_0. pdf. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York.
Kiewra, K. A. (1989). A review of note-taking: The encoding-storage paradigm and beyond. Educational Psychology Review, 1(2),