Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “The Well”
My recent discoveries suggest that “good students” — those with decent skills and who work hard — enjoy consistent academic success in settings with two distinct academic conditions. Fortunately for them, many courses have these conditions. This post shares the two conditions and includes quotes from students who learned to learn when these conditions are not met. Ideally, confidence flows …
Going to college is no trivial matter, but succeeding in college is an entirely different challenge. Why does college make some students but break others? This article shares an effective strategy you can use to transform students’ struggles into successes. When students begin college, they automatically try to use the skills that got them into college to get them through …
Click image to enlarge.In the current environment of hyper-segmentation, it can seem impossible for instructors and learning center professionals to know what college students need to succeed. We seem infatuated with sub-dividing students into increasingly smaller and smaller cohorts. This myopic perspective blinds us from seeing the commonalities among students, and prevents us from finding solutions that stretch across academic …
Have you ever wondered which learning skills are indispensable for student success? I guess our answer to this question hinges upon how we define student success. When I think of student success, I imagine students whose skills cut across academic disciplines. To me, successful students don’t just pass tests; they absorb the essence of a course. Yes, they know their …
Preventing pervasive academic problems. A large share of student underperformance and failure is rooted in one specific type of academic work: constructive learning. This post uses a true story to share what constructing knowledge entails.The best way to solve a widespread problem is to identify an issue that affects the most people and solve that issue. Once you take a …
In the early 1900s, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth carefully observed thousands of bricklayers at work. The Gilbreths saw that each craftsman had developed his own peculiar way of operating. They noticed that the bricklayers did not always use the same motion as they positioned one brick after another. The Gilbreths quickly recognized that bricklaying was fraught with inefficient movements, and …
In this post, you will benefit from: Learning research suggesting most students (66%) don’t leave college for financial reasons. Discovering how and why students hide their real reasons for leaving school. Viewing an illustration of the failure-frustration cycle. Watching a short video clip of a student telling his story of escaping the failure-frustration cycle, allowing him to flourish in school. Have you ever felt …
Transition traps ultimately use students’ academic strengths as weapons against them to defeat them. Early Stage – Traps appear as ordinary challenges. Middle Stage – Transition challenges devolve into transition troubles. Late Stage – Academic apathy is substituted for academic vibrancy. It’s Wednesday, September 19, 2018. New college students are huddled around a large kidney-shaped table in the campus’s main …
Over the coming weeks, millions of new sutdents will transition to more than 5000 two-year and four-year colleges and universities throughout the United States. Several of these young people will either flunk out, drop out, stop out or perform well below their academic abilities. These students are unwittingly walking headlong into a minefield of traps. There are 6 specific traps …
Educators’ and parents’ struggles to get students to make better decisions often leads them to adopt counterproductive methods that wind up damaging relationships. This article blends research and practice to provide a more effective way for improving student success. Why shove when you can nudge?In September 2006, the City of Chicago tried a novel approach to solve a long-standing problem. …
