Building Community in the Classroom

Transforming Developmental Students into Successful College Learners and Participants

Dr. Paul and Kimberly Nolting, Academic Success Press, Inc. www.academicsuccess.com

Long Term Teaching Goal for Education Faculty

Timeline of a Student’s DE Course Series

Level of

Responsibility

Ownership

By the Completion of a Student’s DE Course Series

Instructor

Student

Agenda

Psychosocial factors related to student persistence:

Self-efficacy: Theory and ApplicationSense of Belonging: Theory and ApplicationSocial Support: Theory and ApplicationSelf-regulated Learning

Includes examples of instruction and curriculum as well as collaboration with counselors.

Goal: Nurture these skills and attributes before students enter into college level courses

Psychosocial Factors Related to Student Persistence

Self-efficacy

Belief in one’s ability to accomplish a specific task or reach a specific goal

Students make personal interpretations of their past accomplishments and failures and set their own goals based on these interpretations.

These goals become their personal standards.

Self-efficacy can be developed and taught. Ames, 1990; Bandura, 1988; Tollefson, 2000

Students with low self-efficacy get overwhelmed easily & manifest defensive or learned helplessness behaviors.

Students with high self-efficacy attempt tasks and persist when the tasks get difficult. They figure out different ways to get the task done.

Self-efficacy & Academic Performance

A person’s interpretation (include feelings) of his or her academic performances and past learning experiences

alters or shapes

Current learning environments, behaviors and self-beliefs that affect

self-efficacy

Current learning behaviors and academic performance*

influences

*Responses to these experiences can either re-affirm current self beliefs and a person’s interpretation of events or change the self beliefs and interpretation. This is important in helping students acquire stronger self-efficacy and/or manage math anxiety. Bandura; Pajares

Measuring Task-specific Self-efficacy

The more specific the task, the more accurate measurement of self-efficacy. (Pajares, 1995 and 1996)

Pre and post measurementPre measurement may ask why they are confident or not confident of learning the task.Post measurement may include questions asking why the students felt either stronger, same, or less self-efficacy after completing the task.

Samples (Self-efficacy Believes in Academic Settings, Pajarec, 1995, 1996)

Source Question Answer Options

Reading for understanding a section from a history textbook about what led up to the American Revolution

How confident are you that you will be able to organize the reasons for the revolution into a timeline?Into a who, what, how, why matrix?

1 (I’m sure I can) to 5 (I’m sure I can’t) with intervals of 1

Writing a paragraph about a significant person in your life

How well can you use concrete descriptions and specific examples to write a paragraph about a significant person in your life?

0 (not well at all) to 7 (very well) with intervals of 1

Samples (Self-efficacy Believes in Academic Settings, Pajarec, 1995, 1996)

Source Question Answer options

Solving a discount word problem

How much confidence do you have when it comes to solving discount word problems?

0 (no confidence) to 9 (complete confidence) with intervals of 1

Self-efficacy about a math test

How sure are you about earning at least a B on this math test?

1 (I’m sure I can) to 5 (I’m sure I can’t) with intervals of 1

Note that some students will go down in confidence/self-efficacy at some point because they have inflated self-perceptions, particularly students just out of high school. Reality hits about learning in college and their self-perceptions are more realistic. If they change their learning behaviors, their self-efficacy should increase.

Insert pre and post questions about why they assessed their self-efficacy they way they did. This provides insight about their struggles.

Instructional Formula for Building Self-efficacy

Short-term learning goals

+ Strategies to make

progress toward the goals

Experiences on which students can shape new images of their ability to learn. Ames, 1990

Learning strategies help students to engage in real learning and value knowledge.

Example: Reading for Personal Involvement

Long term goal:Read, understand, and

apply chapter one in Navigating College

Short term goal:Skim chapter for overall

picture and to develop an interest in topic

Strategies to reach short term goal

Read introductionRead chapter objectives and write

questions (in the margins) that reflect how you react to them

Read quotes with pictures and write your response next to each of them.

Read bold subtitles or italicized words. Select at least five and write your personal reaction for each one in the margin.

Example: Writing an Explanatory Paragraph

Long term goal:Write an explanatory

paragraph about what you learned after meeting with your instructor

Short term goal:Develop the content

outline

Strategies to reach short term goal:

Provide set of questions (for selecting content) that leads them through the process from topic sentence, 2 major support ideas and details to support each major idea.

Provide a structural outline for them

Model the process with small group writing workshop.

Sense of Belonging: “Mattering” and Marginality

Mattering refers to individual’s feeling that he or she counts, makes a difference… others being interested in us and being concerned with our fate.

Marginality refers to not fitting in, not important, and not being accepted.

Rosenberg and McCullough; Schlossberg, 1989; Rayle and Chung, 2007.

Collegial Relationships

Many students need strategies and guidance in developing collegial relationships with faculty and students.

Incorporate out of class activity that involves developing collegial friends. This can become a “how to” writing activity, whether paragraph or essay.

Students can develop basic research reading on the topic of getting along with professors and developing collegial friends. Then they can discuss what they find and learn in class.

Social Support

Research relates a student’s social (friends and family) support to college persistence.

New college students are in a new environment that detaches them from social supports on which they depended in the past… or, at the least, changes the dynamics.

Research has linked level of support with the level of tenacity to face tough academic situations and the accompanying academic stress.

Social support involves emotional and information support people.Rosenberg and McCullough; Schlossberg, 1989; Rayle and Chung, 2007.

Counseling and Faculty Collaboration:Building Social Support System

Invite counselor in for two classes to talk about building a support system of at least two people to help when college gets tough and to celebrate victories, both small and large.

Counselor can provide follow up support as they see possible.

Navigating College chapter focuses specifically on this process.

This can be a descriptive paragraph: Describe a significant person in your life

Students can read a simple biography of an important person and discuss (not write) what they learned from the book in class.

Counselor and Instructor Collaboration:Self-perception as a College Student

Bring awareness to the power of students’ self talk.

Provide strategies and guidance to reshape negative self talk into productive.

Counselor provides expertise and presents chapter on productive attitudes.

Design small group or individual activity based on chapter.

Role playWriting dialogue for skit

Principles for Productive LearningSelf-regulated Learner

Attempt to control their behavior, motivation, affect and cognition. They have an academic thermometer.

Have goals to accomplish and these goals are standards by which they assess how they are doing.

Individual student is in control of his/her actions.

Guiding Process of Self-regulating

The self-regulated learner asks…..

In chapter Planning Productive Academic Study, there are sets of self-regulated questions.

Students can practice writing short answer questions with these questions while actually applying them to the strategies that they are practicing.

Active Learning

Collaborative learning – home/task groups Pair share- work problem-review notesStudent tutoring/teaching Students put problems on board before classStudent roll play

Conclusion?

Integrate curriculum that supports students in developing necessary psychosocial attributes into the skills courses.Design activities that nurture collegial relationships that can be carried on to the next semester.