Nuance Over Nonsense
Instruction Amplified
Teaching shouldn't be so hard! On a basic level, the teaching and learning enterprise is built upon two conditional assurances. Teachers want to know that if they teach students, then students will work to learn the material. Students want to know that if they do the...
Why Bad Thinking Happens
There are two types of academic challenges students face in college: Type I and Type II. Type I problems are challenges of effort. In these situations, students aren't very studious. They don’t show up for class. They don’t study. And they don't read. In most cases,...
Unequal Competence: The Gap Between Passing and Learning
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...
Transforming Academic Divers into Academic Strivers: Building Academic Endurance
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...
Academic Divers, Strivers and Thrivers: Metacognitive Learner Profiles
-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...
3 Essential Learning Skills that Guarantee Academic and Career Success
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,...
Eliminating Academic-Related Retention Problems (Part II): The Biggest Problem Students Face
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...
How to Eliminate Academic-Related Retention Problems: Introducing the AP3
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...
Help Students Avoid the Failure-Frustration Cycle
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....
How to Nudge Students Toward Academic Success
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....
The Impact of Integrative Thinking: Providing Superior Solutions to Complex Problems
Every institution has the capacity to solve its problems, whatever they may be. This statement may seem unimaginable, considering the magnitude of some school’s challenges. The truth is, I’ve reached this conclusion after witnessing school after school successfully...
Keisha’s Story: Developing a Higher Education State of Mind
Studying is a feeling process. When grappling with academic material, students feel their way through the information. They’re not sure if insights that stand out to them will be equally valued by their teacher. As students try to process high volumes of content,...
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