Learning curves
Many students struggle in general education classes, but help is available, according to Tiffany Tolman, peer advisor for the Academic Resource Center.
Some of the most commonly failed classes within the last 13 years at USU include Math 1010, Math 1050 and PSY 1010.
“PSY 1010 is a difficult course for a few reasons,” said Scott Bates, associate professor of psychology. “The first is that students expect the material to be easy. After all, psychology is perceived as ‘common sense.’ The reality is that psychology is a social science with many counter-intuitive results. The content is seen as easy. The content is not easy. Second, it is a very diverse course with content ranging from neuroscience and brain function to social interactions, to the nature of intelligence, to the social-scientific method. The field is broad, and so is the course.”
Christopher Corcoran, assistant department head for the mathematics and statistics department, said Math 1010 and 1050 are failed because the Quantitative Literacy requirement at USU is fairly narrow in what students can take. He said they are required as prerequisites, so students have to take them.
“Math 1010 and 1050 are heavily enrolled,” Corcoran said. “There are 600 students taking Math 1050 every semester.”
He said about 4 percent of the student body as a whole takes Math 1050 each semester, and 8 percent of credit hours over an average student’s academic career are in the mathematics and statistics department.
Linda Skabelund, head of the math advising office, helps students to get into classes they need and want.
“You go to any state university and you will be taking Math 1010 and 1050 unless you have an AP score or high placement score,” Skabelund said.
Corcoran said the advising office was created was to help students with QL requirements and math for their majors. He said another tool used to help students get into the right math class is the math placement exam.
“We figured that if you took the exam and took the class that you placed into that students had a higher success in that class,” Corcoran said. “The placement exam overall saves students a lot of money.”
Math 1010 at the college level is remedial, Corcoran said. He said it comes with the assumption that students have already mastered it and is provided by the university as a service.
“We try to provide the best instructors for 1010 so students can succeed,” Corcoran said. “Students who fail Math 1050 are at risk of failing over again.”
He said that is a concern for USU.
“It is something the department thinks a lot about,” Corcoran said. “The university takes Quantitative Literacy very seriously.”
Students fail f
or many reasons, Tolman said.
“(It) could be personal reasons, they don’t know how to study, not motivated because they are here for the wrong reasons or have test anxiety,” Tolman said. “If you had a group of ten students they wouldn’t fail for the same reason.”
The biggest predictor of a student’s failure is not showing up to class, Corcoran said.
“If they miss a couple of days, they don’t communicate with their instructor and give up,” he said. “If they stay on top of it and contact their instructor, they can work with their instructor and at the least get an incomplete. A lot fail because they drop out and don’t tell anyone.”
Corcoran said he would be interested to see the statistics showing if there is a correlation between those who fail and their class attendance. He said he suspects there is one. He said students who attend each day should feel confident.
“If they come everyday and take all the tests, they should succeed,” Corcoran said. “Sometimes it’s a matter of time. 90 percent of being successful is showing up and turning things in.”
He said over the last 10 to 15 years, more resources have been created to help students.
“Students who are struggling need to ask for help,” Skabelund said.
People at the university are very invested in student success, but many students don’t understand what resources they have access to, Corcoran said.
“We have workshops twice a week all semester,” Tolman said. “Most failed classes have SI (Supplemental Instruction), and that’s why we have SI. They are the classes most populated.”
Tolman said another resource for students struggling with classes are specialists in the ARC. She said she is the one who figures out where students are failing and then picks a specialist.
She said it varies how many times students meet with specialists. She said some meet with her and decide they don’t need to meet with a specialists, while others meet with specialists as many as 12 times.
The ARC has learning specialists over different areas, Toman said. Dennis Kohler is over math and statistics, Su Lin Nelson is over test anxiety and Debi Jensen is over SI and reading.
“Take advantage of SI and program tutoring,” Tolman said. “Take advantage of what is available.”
She said PSY 1730 is a seven-week class that the learning specialists teach, which teaches everything students would learn if they went to the ARC in a more in-depth manner. She said it’s worth three credits and lasts an hour and a half to two hours. She said it is recommended for freshman, nontraditional students or those who are just struggling.
– marissa.neeley@aggiemail.usu.edu