As a faculty member with a primary role as an academic adviser, I often encounter first-year students who have difficulty adapting to college and are at risk of dropping out. Students who come to my office hoping to withdraw from a course after the semester’s initial add/drop period are often approaching or already on academic probation.
I decided to create a half-semester freshman seminar that at-risk students could add to maintain their credit hours after withdrawing from a course in which they were struggling. It is a modified public-speaking class focused on common factors contributing to student attrition:
Students may lack awareness of how their habits and behaviors contribute to their academic difficulties.
In the seminar, they’re asked to consider how nonverbal messages such as body orientation (including where they choose to sit in the classroom), eye contact, and other factors affect learning and relationships.
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We explore optimal ways to adapt all facets of messaging to specific audiences and circumstances. In the classroom, for instance, slouching and being disengaged inhibit learning and send a negative and disrespectful message to the professor, who has put significant time and energy into preparing for the class.
Some students also don’t understand that in college, a substantial portion of their learning takes place outside of class. To foster a regular routine of study, I require outside participation by incorporating graded online quizzes for every reading assignment.
Students may engage in cognitive distortions and negative self-talk.
We examine how overgeneralization and labeling are counterproductive. For example, failing a quiz does not mean that a student is a failure. Students sometimes blame the instructor for their poor performance, or say they are just bad at a particular subject. I encourage them to assume ownership of their performance by adopting a growth mind-set. I emphasize to students that their deliberate participation in their educational process can help them build competency in any subject.
If a student is unable to succeed in a given major, he or she can fall into a personal crisis. Catastrophic thinking can actually lead to catastrophe, so I urge students to be flexible in envisioning their life path, and encourage them to use college as an opportunity to explore various options.
Students may have difficulty establishing social connections.
The seminar includes several ungraded group activities to advance interpersonal engagement. One venture that students particularly enjoy is a posing exercise in which two students stand before the class and assume randomly selected postures, and the rest of the class has to read their body language to discern what is transpiring between them.
We also explore how active listening helps people feel validated, and consider how the power of stories connects us with one another. In an activity paid for by the program, the students and I went out to a nice restaurant on the condition that they share with their classmates a story about themselves.
This experimental course presented challenges. In a class that peaked at 21 students, attendance at the first four meetings ranged from just 12 to 15. I offered makeup work for those who registered late, and ultimately I withdrew four students from the class. I had to repeatedly discuss the consequences of excessive absences.
I typically begin classes with an introductory discussion on appropriate class conduct and have to ask students only once or twice over the semester to put down their cellphones or not to nap during class. With this group, however, I felt exceptionally frustrated by the continual need to correct inappropriate student behavior.
An experimental seminar teaches some essential cognitive and behavioral skills to first-year students at risk of dropping out.
In a group exercise in which students were given interview questions and asked to conduct mock interviews to assess speech habits — word choices, use of fillers, up-speaking (or up-ending) — I asked students to take turns exchanging the roles of interviewer, interviewee, and observer. Some in the groups seemed at a loss about how to operate in this and other moderately self-directed activities.
Several students were likewise flummoxed by having to choose their own speech topics. They were apparently unfamiliar with participation beyond following explicit instruction.
At the beginning of the course, students completed a questionnaire to establish a baseline self-assessment about their experiences in college to date. On the final exam, I returned the questionnaire and asked them whether any of their answers had changed. Here are some responses:
“Yes, my answer about me sitting in the very back of the class is different now. Due to the many different arrangements of the seats throughout the course, almost everyone’s seating was changed, and I began to sit more to the front of the class as I got more comfortable.”
“I’m not as good as I thought I was at speaking in front of a class.”
“Yes, because I changed my major, I stopped going home so much and began engaging more on campus. I managed to bring myself back together and focus enough to complete this semester.”
When asked what aspects of the class students found especially helpful, responses included:
“I found the aspect of having to speak to one another to be amazing.”
“I found the lesson on up-ending very helpful. I didn’t previously realize that that was something I did.”
“The positive self talk helped me out the most. It showed me that even in bad or nervous times, I have to think positive.”
“The section we did about visual signals, like someone crossing (their) arms, makes them seem closed off. I never noticed how some of my day-to-day gestures can come off harsh.”
“Techniques to sway the subconscious mind, so you can alleviate the stress and anxiety of speaking.”
Based on this feedback, I can conclude that we met many of the course objectives. Students reported increased awareness of their behaviors and cognitive processes, and they forged collegial relationships. My hope is that some of the lessons will have staying power.
Unfortunately, collecting a critical mass of at-risk students in one classroom created an atmosphere that I found exceptionally challenging. Because of the continual need to correct inappropriate behavior, it felt more like teaching in an underperforming high school than in a university. I always try to maintain unconditional positive regard for my students, and I do like these students individually. However, I often had to force positivity in my interactions, as my frustration level was in many cases acute.
I may continue to teach this freshman seminar with a special focus on first-year retention, although I would offer it as a full-semester class to retain the average mix of first-year students, with the hope that enough students would model appropriate behavior to positively influence the rest.
In keeping students from dropping out, I could risk burning out.
My frustrations with the class affected my overall job satisfaction, so I will strive to balance my mission to promote student success with an understanding of what I can effectively achieve while maintaining my dedication and love for teaching.
Eleanor Cowen is assistant director of advising in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a lecturer in media studies there.
