Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Embedding Academic Skill-Building into Content Delivery in First-Year Courses
Introduction
This summer, I had the pleasure of conversing with faculty members about Dr. Maryellen Weimer’s text, Inspired College Teaching (2010) as part of a summer reading group. Compelling recommendations arose from those conversations which will hopefully become highlights of this year’s workshops and on-going Conversations on Teaching. One important recommendation was a request for more support and openness about what happens in our classrooms. Faculty members expressed a desire to have more opportunities for discussion about what is working and what is not and to have more access to each other’s classrooms (for those who volunteer) so as to continue learning and growing as teachers. Weimer advises faculty to “choose their pedagogical colleagues carefully” (p. 15) while at the same time encourages faculty to reach out to colleagues in and across disciplines as a source for good instructional ideas (2010). Look for opportunities to further this conversation in the coming academic year.
In addition to the recommendation to have more access to faculty conversations and observations about teaching, we also spent a considerable amount of time talking about our students. One notion consistently came to the fore: that of the under-preparedness of our first-year students to do academic work. This high school to college preparation gap is well documented and we have enough anecdotal evidence to strongly support its existence. The question becomes what to do with this knowledge? If our students are under-prepared for the work we are asking them to do, what resources do we have to help get them up to speed, and what more can we do?
Resources to Address Student Under-Preparedness
The Nittany Success Center (NSC) is well utilized with its cadre of well-trained student tutors, skilled professional tutors, student success workshops, and writing support. Use of the NSC rises every year. We also have a limited number of developmental courses, meant to target some of these needs. Courses such as LL ED 5 College Reading Improvement, B BH 197 Coping with College, ENG 4 Basic Writing, ESL sequence courses for academic writing preparation and language development, as well as the developmental math courses all work to help students get over this gap.
Another resource for our students is a summer program for freshmen who fall into “at-risk” categories, such as low GPA, first-generation college students, low income levels, or English language needs. This summer, the campus received a grant to offer a summer bridge program for these at-risk students. The goals of the program are to help students become familiar with key support personnel on campus, to give students access to and experience with technologies in the Penn State System, and to give them weekly opportunities to meet with reading, math, and NSC faculty to give them every opportunity to start the semester ahead of the game. The program used Ben Carson’s, Think Big (1992) text focusing on Carson’s philosophy for success as the framework for becoming successful in college.
Penn State York has many fine resources that help students to bridge the high school to college gap. Yet, the question remains, with all these resources, is it enough to overcome the problem?
Taking a Developmental Approach in First-Year Courses
With all the aforementioned resources in full swing, we still hear from faculty that many students are not ready, willing, or able to tackle the challenging academic and intellectual tasks expected from them. One idea that we discussed during the summer conversations was to take a developmental approach to instruction within first-year courses. Simply put, this means intentionally planning to model, explain, and implement key academic skills within an actual assignment or task within a course. For example, on the first day of class, you may begin with an introductory lecture to your course. If your experience is like mine, you look out on a sea of faces taking it all in, but students are not really doing anything. I think, “Why aren’t you taking notes?” And I might say, “You should be taking notes during this lecture.” But the outcome can be dismal. What could a developmental alternative look like?
To take a developmental approach to instruction means to explicitly teach the academic skill or strategy that you want students to use in your class. One successful example of this on our campus is the embedding of library instruction into courses with writing/research components. The instructional librarian meets with the faculty member and designs library instruction based on the actual assignment of the course. Students then learn the skill of effective library use within the context of an actual assignment. This example illustrates a very successful integration of the approach. However, taking the approach for other academic skills doesn’t mean faculty members have to depend on outside staff. Many of the skills we want students to use are those things we have mastered long ago in our own academic careers. All we have to do is share what we have learned.
Skills, Habits, Tools of Success
What are some of these skills/habits/tools that students need to acquire quickly as the year begins? Note taking, active and deep reading, periodic review strategies, help-seeking behaviors, exam study skills, test-taking skills, in-class discussions, and effective writing are just a few of the things we may falsely assume that students can and will do at the appropriate time and level and with the appropriate focus and time commitment. Our experience tells us this often isn’t the case. Neither will simply telling students they need to take notes, or study for exams, or read the textbook convince them to do it. We know that “telling” isn’t a powerful enough motivator to change or acquire new and challenging behaviors.
Killing Two Birds with One Stone
A successful integration of the developmental approach into a lesson takes a little planning. Identify the tasks that you expect students to do from day one in your classrooms. These are the tasks that often don’t have anything to do with the content per se, but have everything to do with students’ ability to learn the content. Then, identify moments in your teaching where these tasks would be useful/appropriate. Spread your developmental lessons out over the first few weeks of the semester. Present each one in turn, as it logically would fall into your lesson. Give yourself enough time to present the skill (explain and model it) and give students an opportunity to do it themselves. They should give you something tangible to assess that lets you give them feedback on how they completed that skill and processed your content! This also allows you to continue to set high expectations for them. Think of this as killing two birds with one stone. You embed the skill-building lesson within a normal content lesson. Because students can see the skill used in its natural context, the learning is more immediate and effective. Educational psychologist, Robert Gagne describes in his classic account of the critical “Events of Instruction” the importance of both teaching content, as well as teaching students how to learn the content. Taking a developmental approach in content lessons is one way to accomplish this important goal.
Power in Numbers
Finally, consider the opportunity we have to strategically and systematically address the known issues of student under-preparedness. We know that the current resources we have are extensive and effective for the students who utilize them. Yet, there is a larger problem. The problem of under-preparedness is so pervasive that the sheer number of students is too large to address with the current available resources. Taking a developmental approach within first-year or introductory courses can provide an avenue to reach all students with the important skills we know they need. With a little careful planning and expenditure of time, the issues that plague our students (and by extension us!) and get in the way of their success can steadily be improved. Additionally, this integration of developmental skill building into first-year courses can send a strong message to students about what we expect from their work. At the same time it will give them skills to reach those heights and confidence that, at their own hands and with our guidance, they can become the Penn State graduates of whom we all can be proud.
Interested?
Look for fall Conversations on Teaching sessions to share things you are already doing along these lines. The goal will be to gather sample generic activities that faculty across multiple courses and disciplines could tap into and utilize within their existing courses.
One summer project I worked on was to create a student tutorial for classes with large amounts of content. If you teach a course that requires students to learn large amounts of material independently, feel free to use this tutorial https://meeting.psu.edu/p3ko86kqddm/ You can place a link to it from within ANGEL or simply share the URL with your students. I have created a corresponding quiz as well if you are interested. The goal would be to talk about it within the context of your own course, and give students an activity to do as they complete it that allows you to monitor their practice and provide feedback. Ideally, they would eventually be able to connect their success in the course to their use of the skill!
As always, thanks for your input and start thinking of ideas to bring to the table that you already do to help our students succeed.
Have a great semester!
Works Cited
Carson, B. (1992). Think Big: Unleashing your Potential for Excellence. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Gagne, R. (1985). The Conditions of Learning (4th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston .
Weimer, M. (2010). Inspired College Teaching: A Career-Long Resource for Professional Growth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.