{"id":1867,"date":"2017-10-19T23:56:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T23:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/fsem\/?p=722"},"modified":"2017-10-19T23:56:07","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T23:56:07","slug":"making-it-ok-to-ask-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/2017\/10\/19\/making-it-ok-to-ask-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Making It OK to Ask for Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Big Grade<\/strong><\/p>\n

By about this point in the semester, freshmen may be starting to feel like they belong in college. Then they get back their first big grade. For some, it\u2019s a lot lower than they\u2019re used to seeing.<\/p>\n

I talked about this pattern with a former dean of first-year students at a liberal-arts college that I visited last week, right around the time that students were taking midterms. \u201cStudents who end up at a top-level liberal-arts college tend to be at the top of the academic food chain in their high-school environment,\u201d he says. They may have a vague sense that their new classmates were also standouts, he says, but \u201cthe reality of what that looks like doesn\u2019t hit them until this point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Realizing that the study habits that got students into college might not be enough for them to succeed there is a pivotal moment. The way they \u2014 and their college \u2014 react to this early academic feedback can set the tone for the rest of their time on campus.<\/p>\n

The power of the first big grade is a well-known phenomenon that plays out at colleges of all kinds, says Natasha Jankowski, director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. And most colleges are doing something about it, she adds. The problem? In the bulk of cases, colleges have an early-warning system that kicks into gear \u2014 encouraging students to meet with an adviser, for instance \u2014 after they receive midterm grades. By then, the semester is halfway over, and only so much recovery is possible.<\/p>\n

But there are things that colleges \u2014 and even individual professors \u2014 can do proactively, Ms. Jankowski says. Professors can prepare students for the kind of evaluation they\u2019ll face by giving quizzes or providing \u201ca sample of a well-written paper\u201d or a rubric of how they\u2019ll be graded.<\/p>\n

It also helps, Ms. Jankowski says, if students talk with other students \u2014 particularly upperclassmen who can reflect on their own transition to college, and perhaps encourage freshmen that they need not go it alone. \u201cA lot of times, for high-achieving students, there\u2019s this stigma of, I shouldn\u2019t need the help,\u201d Ms. Jankowski says. A college can combat that, she says, by creating a culture in which seeking help is \u201cjust part of the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you help students acclimate to college-level work? Has your college found ways to ease the stigma of asking for help? Email me at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com, and your response may appear in a future newsletter.<\/p>\n

Students Crave Conversation<\/em>
\nA recent Twitter thread by Adele Perry, a history professor at the University of Manitoba, caught our eye. \u201cIt’s time for my annual reminder that students ask questions that are answered in the syllabus because they want to talk to you,\u201d it began.<\/p>\n

Frequently-heard faculty gripes about such questions are missing the point, Ms. Perry suggests. Sometimes, students aren\u2019t even interested in the answer. Their question is merely a pretext for what they really want: a conversation.<\/p>\n

That got us thinking about higher ed\u2019s main mechanism for student-professor conversations: office hours. Over the years, The Chronicle has run columns arguing that professors should require students to attend office hours, a behavior correlated with academic performance; and asserting that since faculty can \u2014 and do \u2014 respond to students around the clock over email, office hours are obsolete.<\/p>\n

Are office hours a good way to ensure that students get the kind of connection with professors that Ms. Perry reminds us they may need? If so, how do you structure them to be effective? If not, what do you do instead? Write me at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com, and your comments may be included in a future newsletter.<\/p>\n

The Common Curriculum<\/em>
\nThe American Council of Trustees and Alumni recently released its annual analysis of colleges’ curricular rigor, concluding that in many cases, it\u2019s lacking.<\/p>\n

The council’s notion of rigor hinges on a particular definition: whether or not an institution\u2019s general-education curriculum requires students to take courses in seven subjects \u2014 composition, literature, (intermediate-level) foreign language, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and natural science. It is these subjects, the council wrote, that create a common intellectual framework and help students “meet the essentials of educated citizenship.”<\/p>\n

As in years past, more than two thirds of the over 1,100 colleges in the survey failed to require four or more core subjects. There were just 24 that required six of these subjects. One of them was the U.S. Military Academy.<\/p>\n

As it happens, we asked readers of this newsletter a few weeks ago to share with us whether their institutions were taking a fresh look at their core curriculum. Among the respondents was Christopher T. Mayer, associate dean for strategy, policy, and assessment at West Point.<\/p>\n

The 24-to-27-course core curriculum there \u201crequires a philosophy major to take a three-course core engineering sequence and a mechanical engineering major to take the core philosophy course,\u201d he wrote. As a result, he said, cadets learn about each discipline’s content and mode of inquiry.<\/p>\n

West Point is also unusual in other ways, Mr. Mayer wrote. All the students live on campus and share the same core physical and military curricula. \u201cThus,\u201d he wrote, \u201ccadets not only have a common academic experience, but also a common physical and military experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, West Point revised its core curriculum a few years ago to allow cadets to have a bit more choice. They can select their third science course, or their foreign language, and which engineering sequence they want to take.<\/p>\n

Cadets might sometimes grumble, Mr. Mayer wrote, but they\u2019re there on full scholarship and tend to lack the consumerist mind-set common to other students. \u201cBecause their life is so regimented in other ways,\u201d he wrote, \u201cmost are fine with the structure provided by the core.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming Attraction<\/em>
\nNext week, The Chronicle will release a special supplement looking at innovative teachers. You will be able to read about 10 of them \u2014 devoted faculty members from diverse fields and types of institutions whose approaches can be adapted to other classrooms. They are the kinds of instructors who constantly revise their teaching to find what works and who deeply want to connect with their students. Look for their stories on chronicle.com starting on Monday.<\/p>\n

As always, please feel free to share thoughts or suggestions with us (beckie.supiano@chronicle.com, beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com, and dan.berrett@chronicle.com). If you\u2019ve been forwarded this email and would like to sign up to receive it, please do so here.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Beckie and Dan<\/p>\n

Published at\u00a0https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/Teaching-Newsletter-Making-It\/241495<\/em>
\nCopyright \u00a9 2017 The Chronicle of Higher Education
\n1255 Twenty-Third St., N.W.
\nWashington, D.C. 20037<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Big Grade By about this point in the semester, freshmen may be starting to feel like they belong in college. Then they get back their first big grade. For some, it\u2019s a lot lower than they\u2019re used to seeing. I talked about this pattern with a former dean of first-year students at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-showcase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}