Report

Ad hoc Mentoring Committee

April 11, 2001

 

 


On November 25, 2000 our committee was created and asked "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 Missouri S&T instructors teaches with the very best of intentions and has committed themselves to help Missouri S&T 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 Missouri S&T has any interest in lowering or sacrificing our academic standards. Missouri S&T students, as much as Missouri S&T 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 Missouri S&T'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 - Missouri S&T students do not believe this principle. In fact, they will actively resist most cooperative type assignments. Missouri S&T 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. Missouri S&T 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: Missouri S&T 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 Missouri S&T 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