The Use of Supplemental Instruction in University Classrooms as a Strategy to Enhance the Academic Performance of First-year Students

Abstract

This study explores the use of supplemental instruction (SI), a type of academic support, to enhance the performance of first-year students in universities. This study, therefore, questions the challenges associated with the use of supplemental instruction in a university and the possible solutions. Social constructivism (SC) as a theoretical framework was adopted while Participatory Research (PR) was used because of its assumption that the coming together of the concerned people in the study would give them a sense of belonging, participation in problem definition, problem assessment, implementation and evaluation. Unstructured interviews were used to collect data. The participants of the study include two first-year students, two SI coordinators, two tutors and two lecturers from the selected university. Thematic Analysis (TA) was adopted to analyse, interpret and describe the generated data; as a result its involvement in the reflected categorised objectives. The study concluded that challenges, such as the gap in communication, that is, lack of effective communication and over enrolment were the major problems confronting the implementation of SI while up-to-date evaluation and feedback and provision of educational facilities were the solutions suggested to overcome these problems.