According to Chang, London, and Foster (2019), there is a need to reconceptualize student success. Rather than solely focus on academic progress, they suggest a more holistic approach that encompasses student-driven programming, attention to the need for a sense of belonging, and adding department or classroom constructs, such as peer tutoring services. Cuseo’s (n.d.) research on student success noted the importance of recognizing student success outcomes as well as success promoting principles. Student retention, education attainment, academic achievement, student advancement, and holistic development are all integral in the big picture of student success outcomes. Principles related to these outcomes include student retention, student learning, and personal development. Reconceptualizing student success factors into both outcomes and principles then begs the question, how do we achieve student success? The following are Cuseo’s recommended processes:

  • Personal validation (i.e., students want to feel welcomed and recognized as individuals)
  • Self-efficacy (i.e., students want to believe their individual effort matters)
  • Sense of purpose (i.e., students want to find meaning and relevance to personal goals)
  • Active involvement (i.e., encourage students to want to invest time and energy in and out of the classroom)
  • Reflective thinking (i.e., active involvement requires attention processes and reflective thinking requires consolidating processes- together these will help students integrate learning into their long-term memory)
  • Social integration (i.e., learning is a social process; collaboration, dialogue, and constructivism engage students and help form connections to content)
  • Self-awareness (i.e., students need to self-regulate their learning behaviors and engage in meta-cognition)

Food for thought: given the aforementioned processes that lead to student success, what specific teaching methods and practices do you use to address the processes above or which specific processes do you want to learn more about from your colleagues and the available literature?

References:

 Chang, E., London, R. A., & Foster, S. S. (2019). Reimagining student success: Equity-oriented responses to traditional notions of success. Innovative Higher Education 44 (6), 481-496.

 Cuseo, J. (n.d.). Student success: Definition, outcomes, principles and practices. Excerpt from The Big Picture Newsletter. National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, University of South Carolina.