Believe it or not, students have been in class for about six weeks. If you are on a semester schedule, this means that a third of the semester is already in the books! By this time, each student is on a path toward either academic success or academic failure. But do they know which path they are traveling?
You can help students determine which path they are traveling based on the types of academic labor they are currently doing. No need to wait until midterms to kick things into gear; you can help students course correct now!
In my forthcoming book, How to Successfully Transition Students into College: From Traps to Triumph, I share examples of students entering college with an incomplete set of academic work skills. These promising students are adept at microlaboring, which is a type of mental labor that prioritizes content accumulation at the expense of conceptual understanding. These students often miss the big-picture elements of their course, regardless of how much they study. Examples of microlabor include:
- Attending class
- Taking notes
- Reviewing notes
- Highlighting notes
- Reading material
- Reviewing study guides
These are also the types of activities that in-class educators and learning assistance professionals encourage, and the types of features that show up on most of our data reports. It’s tempting to conclude that weaker students aren’t doing enough microlabor tasks. Successful students, however, unknowingly tap a higher set of labor skills: they macrolabor.
Macrolabor comprises academic work that creates coherence across courses, and it generates the type of meaningful learning that educators are seeking to ascertain through their assessments. It’s the missing mental labor that struggling students don’t do.
Students who macrolabor tend to extract more meaningful information from class, study more productively, and score much higher than their peers. The following list includes some essential macrolabor activities:
- Comparing and contrasting concepts
- Examining how class material connects to the course learning outcome(s)
- Forecasting how concepts or methods may appear in a future state
- Developing concrete metaphors for abstract material
- Assessing the informational ingredients needed to produce the learning outcome(s)
- Assessing and adjusting thinking modes to match the cognitive requirements
The bottom line is that if students do the wrong type of labor, then they won’t learn or perform well. But if they do the right types of labor, then success is certain. If you are looking for ways to determine the types of labor your students are doing, then you can use the Academic Labor Checklist to discover the missing types of labor.
Get the PDF version of this article to share with your staff, colleagues and students. Simply leave a thoughtful comment below and I’ll send you the article.
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These are interesting divisions of labor. Students often go through the motions of completing their homework without processing what they are doing and without thinking about how the assignments connect to bigger pictures. For them, what they learn in one course has nothing at all to do with any other course or any other activity. Connections are so important. Thanks for sharing this!
Love the visual tools you provide. They really help stress to the student the learning goals/processes they need to succeed.
I think the list of concrete actions speaks loudly to students. It’s something they can visualize and actually put into action. I like to share this type of research with my students. I think, but don’t know, that they are more likely to believe me and try something new if I make it clear that strategies are proven effective, not just my opinion.
This is a very important distinction to make: microlabor versus macrolabor! I would love the PDF to share in my work with students!
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts about those students that don’t even engage in the microlabor. It’s difficult to conceptualize when you don’t have any notes from class and haven’t cracked open the textbook. Sometimes, microlabor has to be the starting point, even though we all know they need to be doing SO MUCH MORE.
Morgan,
In my 20+ years of academic work, it has been rare that students aren’t doing anything in school. However, it’s more common that students were not microlaboring previously but stopped because it wasn’t working for them. I have found that they respond well when we show them why their previous actions did not work and how to work effectively.
This is an excellent article, and very timely. It’s easy for many students to get caught up in the microefforts and miss the macroefforts. I would love to share this PDF with other colleagues and peer educators.
I love how this gives frameworks for skills needing to be strengthened (or even built!) in the first place. With the college students I work with, they have more experience in the “micro labor” of academics from high school. The “macro labor” is some of the invisible, vital foundation they need but they keep trying to do “micro labor” hoping more quantity of it will help them! It reminds me of a workout plan that only focuses on area (like cardio) when we really need a strategic mix of exercises to become strong! Looking forward to PDF!
Kate,
You said it perfectly! Students are doing the best they can with the mindset and skills that got them through high school and into college. And when those don’t work, they double and triple down on their microlabor efforts. I love the workout plan analogy, being a fitness guy myself.
This is a really great way to frame the challenges I see in shallow learning and to show students the difference between those small tasks that take time and the higher order tasks that need to take place over time. Thanks for sharing this and looking forward to sharing this resource with students!
Great lists! I find the concepts provided to be helpful for students engaged in both on-campus and online learning. These views of learning add to the instructors’ frameworks for developing online courses, whether for independent study or group-based online courses. Thaks!
Hi Donna. You have hit on a great point. While the focus of the post is on helping students distinguish between micro and macro labor practices, they can also be used for faculty in course design. I often use the with the Backward Design Process model when working with faculty. They report that using them in this manner makes them more effective teachers.
I recently started teaching four classes that began weeks before I was hired. Many students are (understandably) frustrated and disengaged. I’m planning to share this article with students and ask them to choose one macrolabor practice that they would be willing to try and write a few sentences about how using that practice could improve their connection to the material. I’m also planning to construct lessons that include examples of what the different practices might look like using our course content.
Hi Erika. I love the practical approach of having students focus on one macro labor practice at time. This should yield great benefits for course discussions and for away from class academic work. Please share how things go!
I think I kind of understand the micro versus macro but would love to learn more. It reminds me of all the times as a student when I’ve been able to make all the learning connections at the very end of the semester/quarter.
Heath, you are correct. Unfortunately, many students make these connections late in the game, if at all. By then their grades have suffered irreparable damage and their learning has been stunted. This hurts them in the present course and in future courses. However, students who learn to properly sequence macro and micro labor can expedite these connections, thus enhancing their learning and performance.
I plan on sharing this with our academic coaches. Together, they and their students can talk about these kinds of labor. Are we really focusing on the right things when we study? What better types of labor may be beneficial for the type of course you are in? Thanks so much for the information.
Hi Lisa. Those are very good questions to ask. Unfortunately, students don’t ask them and many are unable to adequately answer when asked.
I work for an undergraduate research support center. I train students on how to do traditional research tasks (analysis, data collection, etc.), but I also instruct them on soft skills that can impact their research such as time management, motivation theory, self-efficacy, and more.
Being able to teach them to distinguish between micro and macro labor actions would be great for when they are creating their SMART goals and when they are doing their value reappraisal/expectancy value interventions for their research tasks.
Hi Jonathan. What kinds of SMART goals are you using? I have created a SMART goal formula based on metacognition. Students have found them really useful.
Hi Leonard, As always, your timing and information are spot on! Our post-exam #1 conversations can go a bit deeper with this. Thanks.
Lynda
Hi Lynda. The checklist does make for a great tool to get students to make connections between the types of labor required during the assessments and the labor they invested in preparation for the assessment.
I like the timing of this, since we can now be proactive with our students and use the concepts in the checklist. They still have plenty of time to apply macro concepts if they are not already doing so. Thank you!
Hi Deanna,
Yes, students must strategically blend macro and micro labor to get the best effect, kind of like a well-mixed drink. Bottoms up!
The Academic Labor Checklist is a great resource because it demystifies and is specific regarding what college students should be doing to build behaviors to support their academic successes. As a first-generation graduate myself, I wish I had had such a checklist back in the day.
Hi Karen,
Macrolabor is the “secret sauce” propels successful students’ academic work, even without them knowing they are doing it. However, when underperforming students begin practicing macrolabor, their learning and performance soars! Let me know how your students respond to the checklist.
Your timing is perfect! Thanks for sharing a great resource to use when working with students.
Report back on which micro and macro labor students do and do not use.
This information helps to reinforce the importance of building on the lower critical thinking skills of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and developing higher critical thinking skills. Utilizing these thinking skills and employing macro academic labor helps students build meaningful and deep connections in the course content.
Well said, Brenda! Best wishes in using the checklist. Report back on which micro and macro labor students do and do not use.
Hi Leonard, this is a great one! I’d like to share it with my coaching and tutoring staff!
Hi Michele,
I hope it’s a useful tool for your coaches and students!
Your content continues to be informative and helpful. I appreciate how you break down concepts into understandable “Chunks.” I look forward to sharing the PDF and to reading your book when it drops!
Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for this article. I can see the checklist being used by advisers and faculty when their advisees or students meet with faculty to discuss how to do better in their classes. Thank you!
Harriet,
Your instincts are on point. In fact, here is an observation a faculty member made after I did some work with them to create metacognitive learning outcomes, which is an essential tool for students to macrolabor well.
This is very interesting and valuable!
Another great intervention
Thanks Natalie. I’ve been very impressed by how much more effective students are when they properly sequence macrolabor and microlabor practices. They actually report enjoying the subject and material more than ever and higher performance is just a natural reward, which is how things should be:).
Absolutely!
This is great and very timely. Thanks!
Hi Amy, I hope your colleagues and students find the pdf helpful.