Retention

As I was walking to the library today, it occurred to me that the same things I'm hoping to do in the Learning Community class in the Fall are also happening in this summer 102 class.

The Learning Community is designed to foster better retention by encouraging students to work with one another and to carry their thinking from one class over to another class, so coursework doesn't seem so isolated. Students in the 102 class are working well with one another which I think keeps them from feeling like they are alone in their confusion when confusion strikes. I think a goal of both classes is to show students that confusion is not necessarily a bad thing. Our best thinking happens when we are searching for a solution to a problem. Confusion means there is a problem to solve. If we're wandering along, quite complacent with everything, our brains are not doing anything; they are not actively learning. I think that "brain hurt" that happens when we are doing our best thinking sometimes discourages students.

Question asking and answering
Students tend to think, "Oh, I've got all of these questions. I must be doing something wrong." To me, all of those questions means you're probably doing everything just right. I think working in a group confirms this. It shows students they are not the only ones with questions and they get the opportunity to be both question-asker and question answerer. When questions are asked by the student of the instructor, students are only the question-asker and never the question-answerer. This may make them feel inadequate and like they only have questions and never have the answers. It also discourages seeking answers. I think when they're able to ask other students, it shows them they too have the power to have the answers. AND they have more answers already than they previously thought they had.

The Curious Researcher
The same things that will be emphasized in the Learning Community are emphasized in Bruce Ballenger's text, The Curious Researcher. First of all, let me just tell you, I love this book. I've been using Fieldworking for 102 which is about writing ethnographies, and I enjoyed that for a while, but with the Ballenger book I feel like it says everything I've always wanted to say to students about research.

It also emphasizes "real world research," where you turn to research and investigation out of interest in something rather than because of an artificial assignment that was forced on you. I think students are able to see the use in this for their school careers and beyond. That sense of purpose is vital to retention too. If they see classroom activities as pointless, they're more apt to think, "I can take this class later."

Thoughts on Retention
I'm not really sure what goes through a student's mind when considering whether or not to drop a class, as the thought never occurred to me while I was in school. I do know that many students of mine have had life just get in the way of concentration on school. I've had students who have been seriously ill and even one whose husband died. Many other students just have way too much going on and something has to give. In the decision of work vs. family vs. school, I can understand why school so often loses. What I want to know is why is it that in the decision of English vs. math vs. history vs. speech vs. whatever else, English loses? Writing is a prerequisite course!!! I could understand if the student was taking a class in his or her major area of concentration because that would be more interesting. Do the writing classes require more homework than other classes? Or a different, more foreign mode of thinking? Or are most students who drop dropping all of their classes at once and it isn't just a writing thing?

I just know that the best class I ever had for retention was not a writing course and the writing classes frequently have very high drop rates. And I've met many a student taking ENGL 102 in one of their last semesters of college because they had signed up for and dropped many of their earlier English classes, whether multiple sections of 101 or 102 or a combination.