1. Student Retention
From Mentor Commons

2. Student retention Keeping students in college until they graduate
Reasons students drop out
Not well prepared for college work
Getting behind/lost and giving up
Personal reasons / family life, work issues
Lack of personal connection to faculty and students
A program tried by one school “which works”
Connect with your students
Teach your students how to learn
Active learning in the classroom
Assess as you go along, both the students and yourself
Let the students teach – themselves and each other

3. Connecting with your students
Nametags the first day – to make a human connection with them
Tell students your story – who are you, why did you want to study this field?
Help students learn each other’s names
Team work, exchange names, s, form a study group
Make sure they have your contact info / URL for class web page

4. Teaching students how to learn
Students don’t know how to read a textbook
Skim, read again slowly, take to another medium, test yourself, write down questions you don’t understand to ask someone
Find out their learning styles – visual, auditory, kinesthetic
Study Guides and Strategies

5. Active Learning
Students retain 70% of the info in the first ten minutes of class but only 20% from the last ten minutes.
Don’t try to cover so much content that they are overwhelmed
Is it more important that you cover the material or that they understand the material?
Talk for 20 minutes or so, then give them something to do
Cooperative exercise with their neighbor
Think – Pair – Share with a neighbor

6. Assess students and yourself
At the end of class, ask students to write down “what’s the muddiest (most confusing) point you heard today?” or “what’s the point you want more explanation of?”
Read them by next class meeting, and address as necessary

7. Let the students teach
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand
The best way to learn something is to teach it
Have students work in teams to solve a problem
Have individual students write up tutorials about a class concept
Post best ones for studying by all students