Report
Ad hoc Mentoring
Committee
April 11, 2001
“to
look at issues of student mentoring particularly as it affects retention from a
faculty perspective; to explore how faculty can contribute to improve retention
and to review the
issues associated with sticking points and to make appropriate recommendations
to the Academic Council for consideration”.
To that end we
have met several times, participated in and attended the Computer Science
department’s Teaching Seminar and have reviewed other documents and
recommendations to arrive at this report.
The committee believes that the vast majority of
UMR instructors teaches with the very best of intentions and has committed
themselves to help UMR students to be as successful as they possibly can
be. The committee also believes that
occasionally those intentions are unintentionally misdirected. To assist both the faculty and their
students to understand what might be reasonably expected of each, we submit the
following recommendations. In the
tradition of good science and engineering, we have attempted to make these as
objective as possible in order to reduce any misunderstanding.
Before proceeding to those recommendations an
oft-repeated concern needs to be addressed.
This concern was echoed in President Myers’s charge to the
committee. Namely,
“At the same time, faculty and administration should have
very appropriate concerns that academic standards are not sacrificed . . . .”
The committee finds no
evidence to suggest that anyone associated with UMR has any interest in
lowering or sacrificing our academic standards. UMR students, as much as UMR faculty, take great pride in our
tradition of high quality and are adamant that those standards be
retained. It has on occasion appeared
to the committee that this concern is put forth as a way to avoid examining
cherished classroom behaviours. The
committee believes that its recommendations are consistent with and will even
enhance UMR’s high standards.
Contained in the Strategic Plan for the University of
Missouri System - October 2000, is
the following section:
Strategic
Directions for the Future
Student
Learning and Achievement
Strategic
Goal: Develop a learner-centered environment that promotes the improvement of
learning and personal development of students at all levels.
Objective 1: Redirect the educational process to focus on a learning environment as opposed to a teaching environment.
Action Steps:
1.1 Adopt the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.
The
committee endorses those principles and makes its recommendations within the
context of them
Seven
Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education
Principle 1: Encourage
Student-Faculty Contact
Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.
Recommendation: Instructors are encouraged to use email as
a tool to promote interaction with students. When a student sends an email
question, the committee suggests that the student’s name be removed and then
the original question plus the answer be forwarded to the entire class.
Recommendation:
Instructors are encouraged to serve as advisors for student professional
societies and groups, to attend the meetings and other activities and socialize
with the students.
Recommendation:
Instructors are encouraged to bring students to professional conferences
and encourage them to present student posters or papers of their work.
Principle 2: Encourage Cooperation
Among Students
Learning is
enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning,
like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated.
Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one's own
ideas and responding to others' actions sharpens thinking and deepens
understanding.
Recommendation: none.
Observation - UMR students do not believe this
principle. In fact, they will actively
resist most cooperative type assignments.
UMR students arrive on campus having been very successful in high school
without ever needing to seek help from others. They take individual pride in not needing help. UMR students
regard asking for help, any kind of help, as a strong form of failure. All of their past successes have been
achieved as rugged individualists and that’s the only way that they know how to
proceed.
Principle 3: Encourage Active Learning
Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.
Recommendation: In a course that serves as a prerequisite for a course in the same discipline, mention repeatedly with explicit examples how the current material will apply in the later semesters.
Recommendation: In a course that serves as a prerequisite for a course in a different discipline, acquire problems from post requisite course and show how the current material will be utilized in later semesters.
Recommendation: Extra curricular activities such as design competitions and co-op
experience often help students better understand what they are learning. Faculty should encourage students to
participate in such activities
Principle 4: Give Prompt Feedback
Knowing what you know and
don't know focuses learning. Students need appropriate feedback on performance
to benefit from courses. When getting started, students need help in assessing
existing knowledge and competence. In classes, students need frequent
opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various
points during college, and at the end, students need chances to reflect on what
they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves.
Recommendation: Assign grades honestly. Inform students of the letter grade scale that applies to each significant effort. During the semester, the students should know with reasonable certainty that ‘if the semester ended today I would receive a letter grade of x’.
Recommendation: one or more of the following should precede each exam
·
Sample
exam from previous semester
·
Set
of sample / example questions
·
Review
in class prior to exam of the salient issues that will be addressed on the exam
Recommendation: At least one significant work
should be graded / returned prior to the last day to drop and not show on the
transcript
Recommendation: At least 60% of the points should be accumulated
prior to the last day to drop the course.
Principle
5: Emphasize Time on Task
Time plus energy
equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one's
time well is critical for students and professionals alike. Students need help
in learning effective time management. Allocating realistic amounts of time
means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How
an institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators,
and other professional staff can establish the basis for high performance for
all.
Recommendation: none.
Observation: UMR students describe their ‘effort level’
in high school as minimal. They will
readily admit that they:
·
Never had to
study a text diligently
·
Never had to
take extensive notes based on a classroom lecture
·
Never had to
carefully budget their time
·
Never had to
memorize significant amounts of material
·
Never had to
calculate without an electronic calculator
·
Never had to
spend several hours preparing for an exam
The faculty
on the other hand assumes that UMR students arrive on campus prepared to carry
out all of the above skills. There is a major disconnect here that the committee felt unprepared to
address.
Principle 6: Communicate High Expectations
Expect more and you will get more. High expectations
are important for everyone - for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to
exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting students to
perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions
hold high expectations for themselves and make extra efforts.
Recommendation: Do not use fear as a motivational
device. The following are strongly
discouraged
·
Tests with
averages in the 40's and 50's, regardless of later scaling
·
Exam grades
that are left exceptionally low because they ‘might’ be rescaled in the future
·
Midterm
grades that are only loosely correlated to final grades
·
Being
purposely vague about grading procedure to keep students ‘motivated’
·
Structuring the class so that
a ‘bad day’ can cost the student 2 letter grades or more.
·
Counting any single grade
effort more than 30% of the semester total.
Said in another way: Students "expect" there to be a relationship between
their grade and their effort in the class.
That is, more effort means a better grade. Structuring a class to keep students about two letter grades
lower than what they will ultimately receive, in order to motivate them to
strive for more, is demoralizing and should be avoided.
Principle 7: Respect Diverse Talents and Ways
of Learning
There are many roads to
learning. People bring different talents and styles of learning to college.
Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art
studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory.
Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work
for them. Then they can be pushed to learning in new ways that do not come so
easily.
Recommendation: Structure the class so that points may be earned in a variety of ways. Assigning all of the points via the traditional ‘three exams and a final’ is discouraged. Graded homework, laboratory exercises, individual or group projects and writing assignments are other possibilities for allowing students to earn points.
Seven Principles of Good Practice, Chickering, A.W. and Gamson, Z. F. in Undergraduate Education. AAHE Bulletin, 1987, 39 (7), 3-7.
Respectfully
submitted,
Douglas Carroll Jeffrey
Cawlfield
Arlan DeKock, Chair Michael
Hilgers
Shari Dunn Norman Keith
Stanek