Students In Academic Difficulty Research Articles

A Programmatic Approach to Peer-Led Tutoring to Assist Students in Academic Difficulty

Objective. To evaluate a peer-led tutoring program to assist students in academic difficulty in the didactic curriculum across multiple courses using one-on-one and large group peer-led sessions, and to evaluate the academic performance and perceptions of students in this program.Methods. This study involved first-year (P1) through fourth-year (P4) pharmacy students who served as tutors and their P1 through P3 tutees. Tutoring was offered in multiple didactic courses using one-on-one and large group peer-led sessions. Didactic curriculum completion rates and perceptions of the program were assessed.Results. A total of 463 (47%) P1 through P3 student pharmacists used the one-on-one or large group peer-led tutoring services in 28 courses across four academic years. Tutored students had a lower grade distribution compared to nontutored students, suggesting a more at-risk group for academic failures and dismissals. Despite this, the didactic curriculum completion rate was comparable between the tutored and nontutored students during the study period, suggesting that the program helped reduce academic dismissals of the at-risk tutored students. On the perceptions survey, 95% of respondents felt they improved their study habits, and 92% felt more confident in their ability to succeed.Conclusion. This peer-led tutoring program appeared to be successful in providing comparable didactic curriculum completion rates of tutored students, who represented an at-risk group for academic failures and dismissals compared with nontutored students. The tutoring program structure and design may be a useful tool for other colleges of pharmacy as they seek ways to assist students.

Le schéma fléché, un outil graphique de mise à distance du biais émotif du témoignage oral auprès d’élèves en difficulté scolaire

This article examines the use of oral testimony during a teaching-learning session by problematization with students in academic difficulty. In order to overcome language difficulties, the researcher, who is also the teacher, provides the students with tools, particularly graphic tools, to construct concepts in History. The aim is to determine the role of the diagram in the critical treatment of oral testimony in the History class. To what extent is it a lever to bypass the emotional bias specific to oral testimonies in History teaching and does it facilitate the construction of a historical concept by the students?

University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

Faculty Mentorship of Health Professions Students in Academic Difficulty

AbstractMentorship has existed in the health professions disciplines for centuries. This chapter discusses the challenges of mentorship specifically tailored to students in academic difficulty.

Examination of Factors Relating to Student Performance on the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment

Objective. To examine relationships between students' demographic and academic performance factors and their scores on the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA). Methods. Students' PCOA scores and demographics (eg, age, race/ethnicity, sex), preadmission data [eg, cumulative and science grade point average (GPA), Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT)], and academic performance variables (eg, pharmacy GPA, academic standing) were analyzed for one class of third-year pharmacy students (N=159). Independent t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to compare scores by demographic variables. Pearson's r correlations were used to assess relationships between PCOA scores and age, PCAT scores, and GPA. Stepwise linear regression was conducted to determine the predictive ability of variables with significant correlations to PCOA performance. Results. Significant correlations were found between sex and PCOA scores with males scoring higher than females. Significant correlations with PCOA scores were also found for PCAT scores, pre-pharmacy science GPA, and pharmacy didactic GPA. Significant differences were found by academic standing, where students in academic difficulty who were allowed to proceed without repeating curricular content scored significantly lower on the PCOA than those who did not experience academic difficulty. Conversely, there were no statistical differences between those who repeated courses and those who never experienced academic difficulty. PCOA performance predictors in the final regression model included PCAT composite score, pharmacy GPA and sex. Conclusion. New findings included differences in PCOA scores by sex and by academic standing, a variable not previously explored in published studies. Findings have implications for remediation decisions in pharmacy curricula.

Level of and motivation for extracurricular activity are associated with academic performance in the veterinary curriculum.

The objectives of this project were to determine the number of school-sanctioned extracurricular opportunities available to veterinary students and characterize the policies of school administrations toward extracurricular involvement and academic standing. Further, we sought to describe the level of extracurricular involvement of veterinary students, determine the association between extracurricular activity involvement and academic performance, and determine the motivation for extracurricular involvement of veterinary students. Survey data were obtained from 18 associate deans of colleges of veterinary medicine regarding the number of extracurricular student organizations within their school and administrative recommendations regarding student involvement. Another survey was administered and responded to by 665 veterinary students enrolled in curricular years 1-3 at Kansas State University and Texas A&M University regarding their extracurricular involvement. Associate deans of 11 schools responded that they make formal or informal recommendations to students about extracurricular activities, workload, and academic priority (61.1%). In a multivariate model, students who participated two times per week or more had a significantly higher overall grade point average (GPA) than students participating once per week (p<.0500). Students for whom the primary reason for participation was networking or social enhancement had a significantly lower overall GPA than students for whom the primary reason was gaining new knowledge and skills (p<.0500). These results indicate that student extracurricular involvement is a consideration for administrators when counseling students in academic difficulty. Moderate levels of extracurricular involvement can contribute to the academic success of students, but students should temper their level of involvement based upon their own motivations.

Comportement et activités extra-scolaires : une étude en vie quotidienne de l’échec et de la réussite scolaire

ObjectivesIn light of its high prevalence and important consequences for future opportunities, academic failure is a major preoccupation of the French educational system. Difficulties at school are associated with later social and professional exclusion and may have an important psychological impact on students, notably concerning self-esteem. However, while the majority of research concerning academic difficulties has been conducted at school or within educational contexts, there is a growing literature demonstrating its association with extracurricular activities. The study of daily life activities poses several problems for the researcher in that students may not accurately recall specific behaviors or correctly report their frequency when assessed retrospectively over long time delays. In order to understand the daily life experiences of students outside of school, this investigation therefore used the Experience Sampling Method in order to collect information at several times throughout the day concerning the environments, activities and routines of students. Materials and methodsAll students and their parents provided written informed consent to participate. Students were selected from ten junior high schools in Southwest France, including five traditional schools and five ‘education priority’ schools based on low academic performance in the school district. Within each type of school, 65 students were selected for being in academic difficulty (defined as having scores below 50% on national evaluations of both French and Math) and 66 were selected for being in academic success (defined as having scores above 80% in these same subjects). Following recruitment into these groups, students were trained in how to complete electronic interviews for a 1-week period using a personal digital assistant (PDA). This device was then programmed to provide three signals a day after school between 6pm and 9pm, and five signals a day on the weekend between 10am and 9pm. At each signal, the PDA administered an electronic interview asking the students to describe at that given moment their geographic location, social environment, and specific activities. At the end of the 1-week period, the PDAs were returned and data were analyzed using multilevel modeling using a Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. ResultsStudents in the academic difficulty and success group did not differ by sex, maternal language, country of birth, or by type of school. However, students in the academic success group more often had fathers with higher career or professional status. Concerning daily life experiences, students in academic difficulty were more likely to be spending time in academic or commercial locations, more likely to be with domestic animals or with persons other than family and friends. These students were also more likely to be ‘doing nothing’, and less likely to be performing sustenance or leisure activities. However, students in the academic difficulty group were more likely be doing school work, and several differences were also observed in the structure of these daily life routines across days. ConclusionsUsing an ambulatory monitoring protocol, daily life activities and environments were recorded in real-time and in natural contexts among students experiencing either difficulty or success. The findings demonstrating greater passivity, fewer leisure activities, and fewer moments spent with family for students in academic difficulty may indicate that less structured or unsupervised time schedules should be examined for its potential role in academic difficulty. While students in difficulty were also more often in academic settings and likely to being doing school work, these seemingly paradoxical findings are likely to reflect the academic tutoring or other intentional strategies to cope with such difficulties. Future research should consider extracurricular activities and contexts when investigating risk and protective factors associated with academic performance.

Does self reflection and insight correlate with academic performance in medical students?

BackgroundMedical students in academic difficulty are often described as lacking insight. The Self Reflection and Insight Scale (SRIS) is a tool for measuring insight which has been validated in medical students. We investigated whether self reflection and insight scores correlate with academic performance in Year 4 medical students from a six year undergraduate medical degree, and whether self reflection and insight changes after one year of clinical training.MethodsSelf reflection and insight scores were measured in 162 students at the start of Year 4 at the University of Western Australia. Performance in end of year written and clinical exams was monitored and correlated with SRIS. Seventy of the students were surveyed again at the start of Year 5 to see if scores changed or were stable after one year of full time clinical training.ResultsWe found no correlation between self reflection or insight and academic performance in written and clinical exams. There was a significant increase in recognition of the need for self reflection in Year 5 compared with Year 4.ConclusionsWhile no correlation was found between this measure of self reflection and insight with academic performance, there was an increase in students’ recognition of the need for reflection after one year of clinical studies. This study is a valuable first step towards a potentially exciting research domain and warrants further longitudinal evaluation with larger cohorts of students using additional measures of achievement.

What Are the Discussion Topics and Usefulness of Clerkship Directorsʼ Meetings Within Medical Schools? A Report From the CDIM 2007 National Survey

To characterize meetings among clerkship directors within medical schools, specifically with regard to topics of discussion, and usefulness of the meetings. In 2007, the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine surveyed its institutional members from 114 U.S. and Canadian medical schools. Respondents were asked about the frequency of meetings among clerkship directors, the topics of discussions, whether they were precluded from discussing students in academic difficulty, and the benefits and drawbacks of discussing students' performance. Analysis included descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis of free-text responses. The response rate was 71% (81/114). The most common meeting frequencies were monthly (77%) or quarterly (15%). Topics discussed included deans' policies (91%), general announcements (90%), recommendations from clerkship directors to the dean (86%), Liaison Committee on Medical Education site visit preparation (84%), curricular input (82%), discussion of struggling students (49%), students' progress (48%), and planning for at-risk preclerkship students (22%). Some respondents (16%) were explicitly prevented from discussing student performance, for reasons of possible harm to the student (30/84; 36%), bias developing against the student (13/84; 16%), violation of privacy/lack of student confidentiality (4/84; 5%), and possible bias in grading or evaluation (8/84; 10%). Most respondents (94%) agreed there were benefits to students resulting from discussions: longitudinal tracking of concerns, designing remediation, tailoring teacher assignments, and societal obligations. Clerkship directors meet frequently to discuss curriculum, policy, and students' performance. Most internal medicine clerkship directors believe discussing students' performance helps design educational interventions that balance societal obligations with student confidentiality.

Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Northern Ontario School of Medicine

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)—New Jersey Medical School

The Dean is the chief academic officer of the medical school. Management of the educational programs is a shared responsibility of the academic departments and the Office of Education reporting to the Vice Dean. The faculty organization solicits and provides input to the Committee on Committees, which selects members for the nine standing committees that are approved by the Faculty Council (Figure 1). The Committee on Academic Programs and Policies (CAP2), a standing committee of Faculty Council, is charged with the design, evaluation, revision, approval, and oversight of the curriculum and overall educational program. CAP2 also makes recommendations to the Dean and to the Faculty Council regarding implementation of various programs. CAP2 represented by faculty, students, and administrators (ex officio) is a surrogate for the faculty at large. Members on the CAP2 are not representational of the various departments. The Dean or his designee, the Vice Dean, in concert with the CAP2 provides the strategic leadership in managing the educational programs and developing policies and procedures. The Vice Dean works closely with the academic departmental chairs, course and clerkship directors, and faculty to implement innovations in education, assessment, and evaluation as they pertain to undergraduate medical education. Two subcommittees report to the CAP2—the Preclinical and Clinical advisory subcommittees, which consist of course and clerkship directors, respectively. Subcommittees assist in achieving horizontal and vertical integration of the curriculum. A major curriculum revision was rolled out in 2004-05 (see Curriculum Renewal Process). Interdepartmental and interdisciplinary courses are managed jointly by departments and the Office of Education (OE). Office of Education

Correlates of the SAT in Minority Engineering Students

Project Preserve is a program designed to retain minority engineering students who have experienced academic difficulty (Morning & Fleming, 1994). The NASA-funded effort channeled African American and Latino engineering students who had failed their freshman year in predominantly White institutions into three schools noted for their support services for minorities, for their willingness to restructure those services, and for variation among institutional variables: Xavier University of Louisiana, California State University at Northridge, and City College of the City University of New York. The principal investigator (CM) coordinated efforts to find students in academic difficulty and to monitor their progress in the new environments where faculty mentors served as project directors providing support and guidance. The project demonstrated that by the conclusion of a 5-year program, 64% of over 100 would-be dropouts were still retained in engineering. Furthermore, there was evidence of cognitive development, bonding to faculty, and institutional bonding, as well as institutional variations in these outcomes. At a time when 67% of minority engineering students drop out (ABET, 1991; Landis, 1991), the question is, how does Project Preserve work? In a review of support programs in engineering Morning (1988) found that parity in majority and minority student retention was achieved when three program features were present: (1) attention to cognitive development, (2) close relationships with faculty and staff, and (3) a sense of community and bonding to the institution. In practice, Project Preserve attended to cognitive development by offering faculty workshops in critical thinking concepts (Whimbey & Lochhead, 1986; Resnick, 1987; Sevenair et al., 1987; Heiman & Slomianko, 1988) and providing students with Efficacy Training workshops (Howard & Hammond, 1985). Close relationships to faculty were achieved by requiring weekly faculty meetings, although there were institutional differences in the success of the bonding (see Morning & Fleming, 1994). A sense of community and bonding to the institution was fostered by requiring students to work on campus. This approach is consistent with major theories of retention that emphasize a sense of membership in the academic community, the quality of student-faculty interactions, and a student-centered campus culture (Tinto, 1975, 1987; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1977; Pantages & Creedon, 1978; Beal & Noel, 1980; Forest, 1987; Noel, 1987; Kalsner, 1991), as well as approaches to the retention of minority students in science emphasizing academic acceleration and the application of cognitive theory (Lincoln, 1979; Fullilove & Treisman, 1990; Gordon, 1986; Sims, 1992). The lingering question for Project Preserve as well as the retention literature is, to what extent is persistence due to institutional factors and to what extent to student factors? The evaluation of Project Preserve found that both student and institutional factors appear to be at work. Students were selected for the program if their test scores, academic records, and high-school courses were indicative of success in engineering. Indeed, Morning & Fleming (1994) found that Project Preserve students at entry were, compared to norms for other minority students, bright, motivated, and scientific in inclination. However, they were also test anxious, lacking in study discipline, and had been preoccupied with social life in their previous engineering schools. Institutional differences in the retention rates after two years of the program - varying from 36% to 79% to 80% - were attributed to degree of faculty involvement, with the least involvement at CCNY and the most at CSUN and Xavier University. Thus, student and institutional factors appear to interact to produce retention outcomes. The project also undertook a correlational analysis of major performance measures among students at entry with evaluation measures of academic and social adjustment further to understand the factors affecting retention. …

Assessing the first eight years of an optional five-year medical curriculum

Experience with the initial eight years (1980-1987) of a voluntary five-year medical degree program at the Boston University School of Medicine is examined. The program, called the Alternative Curriculum, permits medical students to "decompress" the first year of their medical school curriculum. The program was designed to be a parallel curricular pathway and not a remedial program. Some students in academic difficulty, however, have been enrolled in this program. The students' records and their responses to a questionnaire form the basis for this report. The students who entered the Alternative Curriculum before the start of classes or who, upon entering, were in good academic standing generally did well academically and were uniformly pleased with the time that was available to pursue other interests. Several of these students were subsequently permitted to decompress other curricular years, with uniform success. Of the students for whom the Alternative Curriculum was used as a remedial program, nearly half had left or been dismissed from school at the time of this report.

Tracking students in community colleges: The unreported challenges

AbstractThis chapter examines the efforts of Oakton College to track and communicate with students in academic difficulty.

Students' approaches to learning in an innovative medical school: a cross-sectional study.

Summary. A slightly modified version of Entwistle and Ramsden's Approaches to Studying Inventory was administered to first‐, third‐ and final‐year students in an innovative medical school (response rate 84 per cent), to see whether the Inventory's constructs also apply to medical students, to see whether they might constitute a helpful framework for counselling students in academic difficulty, and to see whether the students' responses reflected the educational philosophy of the school.The psychometric robustness of the instrument was confirmed, and its applicability to these groups of medical students was established. The instrument was not highly predictive of academic success, but seemed to offer a useful framework for student counselling. Student responses to the inventory were consistent with the school's educational philosophy.

A Research Based Approach to Students in Academic Difficulty: Characteristics and Intervention

Community college students who experience academic difficulty as measured by grade point average were compared to students not in academic difficulty on five constructs: reading ability, career decisiveness, learning styles, study habits and attitudes, and motivational factors. (ERIC ED 259 631, 13 pp, MF $.97, PC $3.54).

Academic anxiety, locus of control, and achievement in medical school.

Programs designed to assist medical students in academic difficulty typically fail to consider the importance of such factors as academic anxiety and the individual's mechanisms for coping with stress. The authors have addressed this issue by examining relationships among prior achievement, academic anxiety, locus of control, and performance in the first year of medical school. Academic anxiety not only was found to be significantly related to first year performance, but also, when combined with a measure of prior achievement, resulted in a significant increase in prediction. Additional evidence is presented which suggests that the relationship between academic anxiety and achievement may be curvilinear. Locus of control was found to correlate significantly with academic anxiety and tended to shift in a direction of greater externality during the first year of medical school. Findings are discussed within the framework of existing psychological research, and implications are presented for medical admissions, curricula, and counseling.

Counselling and academic achievement

Abstract The possible relationship between emotional difficulty and under-achievement and wastage is examined. Psychometric data is presented from a recent longitudinal study on university students which suggests that psychological and academic difficulty may be different presentations of similar core problems. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between the individual and the institution, and clinical illustrations are provided. It is concluded that psychotherapy and counselling may be the appropriate response to a proportion of students in academic difficulty.

Counselling and academic achievement

Abstract The possible relationship between emotional difficulty and under-achievement and wastage is examined. Psychometric data is presented from a recent longitudinal study on university students which suggests that psychological and academic difficulty may be different presentations of similar core problems. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between the individual and the institution, and clinical illustrations are provided. It is concluded that psychotherapy and counselling may be the appropriate response to a proportion of students in academic difficulty.

Clinical Observations on the Relationship of Academic Difficulty to Psychiatric Illness

The relationship between psychiatric disorder and academic difficulty is clearly a complex one, for some severely disturbed students perform adequately, while clinically mildly disturbed individuals may fail completely. Emotional and psychiatric factors which could be associated with academic difficulty might include both the general factor of severity of disorder, and more specific factors related to the individual's personality motivation and attitude towards achievement and to his tutors. The nature of the demands, pressures and supports presented by the institution or by individual tutors is also likely to be of importance. In a previous psychometric study of all cases of academic and psychiatric difficulty from one year's intake at Sussex University (Ryle and Lunghi, 1968) it was shown that psychiatrically disturbed students in academic difficulty differed significantly from controls on the Nufferno Stress gain measure (Furneaux, 1965) whereas psychiatric patients who were coping academically scored in the same range as the controls. This difference was maintained when psychotic patients were removed from the academic difficulty group. No other psychometric scores distinguished between these two groups. The aim of the present paper is to make a preliminary attempt at defining what clinical features are associated with academic difficulty in a population of psychiatrically disturbed students. The sample studied consists of 38 male and 52 female psychiatric patients personally cared for by the author in a University Health Service encouraging direct consultation and tutor referral of students with personality or academic difficulties. Of these, 28 men and 37 women were the subjects of the previous study referred to above, the additional cases consisting of undergraduates of earlier intakes, and of 8 postgraduate students who had been personally assessed by the author over a two-year period.