Keeping them till they graduate
Retention of students raises complex questions
Nearly half the students at university — not just Concordia, but most universities — don’t graduate.
Terry Too presented that stark fact to an audience of faculty members and academic support staff at a workshop given Dec. 1 by the university’s Centre for Teaching and Learning Services.
As Associate Registrar, Too has the data. He can tell you how many attended for only one term, how many came and went, and how many have been attending for years without getting a diploma.
Telling you why is more complicated. The reasons are various, complex and interrelated: academic difficulty, family and financial problems, shifting priorities, changing circumstances, failures of the system.
Many students are plowing gloomily through a program that was not their first, nor their second, nor even their third choice. Some go through their entire university career without ever having a course or a professor they like.
Linda Dyer, a successful teacher in the John Molson School of Business, illustrated this complexity with three case histories.
“Vanessa” has a family and a full-time job. She’s in trouble because of too much stress outside the classroom, and core courses that are too far in her past to remember adequately.
“Pablo” has trouble with English in a course that requires heavy reading. He stays at the back of the room, talking with friends in his native language, and never visits his teacher during her office hours.
“Daniel” is still working on his PhD, but he’s losing motivation. He has gone through three supervisors through no fault of his own, and now has a job that interests him more than his thesis.
Dyer’s recipe for success is to get to know each student — she gets their photos and memorizes their names — and invites them to visit her office.
“I try to learn their stories and find reasons to like each and every one,” she said. “It becomes a challenge to develop a personal relationship.” She’s almost an entertainer: “I like them to be enthralled.”
Not for her mean-spirited jokes about looking to the left and right and knowing one of you won’t pass. “That can lead to cynicism.”
Robert Oppenheimer, Director of the Centre for Mature Students, said when his staff contacted students who are at risk, they found the following reasons: They didn’t feel connected, weren’t interested in the material, never planned on finishing a degree or had real problems that distracted them.
Instructional Librarian Patrick Labelle warned against assum-ing that all students are tech-savvy. Many lack knowledge and confidence, and a single general course in library technology is of limited value. He’d like to see information research integrated into the curriculum.
One of the key complaints of participants in the workshop was the near-impossibility of teaching students with widely different needs. Some roll their eyes when the teacher explains research methods; others ask, “What’s a footnote?”
“Multilevel teaching is a primary challenge,” admitted CTLS Director Olivia Rovinescu.
Leo Bissonnette, Director of the Office for Students with Disabilities, said many of his constituents do well academically. However, disabilities, in this context, are self-identified. In other words, only the students who step up to the plate and ask for his help are counted.
Undiagnosed learning disabilities are something else, and an assessment is expensive. “We’ve had students come in at the end of term in crisis,” Bissonnette said. “By then it’s too late.”
On the other hand, some failing students claim to be disabled when they’re not. The university has become adept at screening out false claims and helping those with genuine disabilities — but they have to ask for the help in time.
Nancy Acemian teaches in Computer Science. She focuses on the crucial first day of class, setting a mood, going through the course outline and setting up a buddy system for support.
“Ask a lot of questions, probe, use metaphors to help them remember,” she said. “I get bored with my own voice. I give them exercises, but not the answers. We work those out in class.
“I watch for the light to go on. That’s what drives me.”
Acemian used herself as an example of a student who took a long time to get her graduate degree. Her lifeline was a professor who encouraged her even through three studyless years when she was just trying to get her life on track.
“Sometimes all it takes is one person,” she said. That’s an awesome responsibility for a teacher.