We call this upcoming term the “Spring Semester,” even though most of the semester occurs in the dead of winter. But I think we dub it the spring term because spring is a time of re-birth and the awakening of slumbering beings. That’s what happens on a college campus this time of year. It’s a pleasure to be a part of it!
The re-birth occurs in a myriad of ways. Most importantly, students who failed to thrive in the Fall Semester must recreate themselves into the students we all know they can be. For many of our students, the transition to college was a seamless one, but there is always a population of students who need a do-over. While most of our students are basking in the glow of a successful Fall Semester, some are forced to reflect on poor choices during the past semester and consider the “what ifs.” Parents demand to know what went wrong and why. Unfortunately, more often than not, students take the easy way out and blame the professor when, in fact, the real reason is that they are the ones who need to make adjustments.
Successful students made the cosmic paradigm shift from an active teaching situation to an active learning model. In high school and grammar school, students are taught by professional educators —people who went to college for the sole purpose of learning how to be good teachers. These educators learn to teach with bells and whistles that keep students attentive and engaged. Then, students go to college where the education process is carried out by people who are experts in a particular field, but have never gone to school to learn to teach. They are high-level thinkers who rank among the best in their respective fields. Thus, the burden is on the student to make the shift from the active teaching they experienced for the first 13 years of their education to the active learning model they need to adopt to succeed in college. The responsibility for learning is now on them.
Successful students also realize that college isn’t just high school with lots of recess. Even if a professor never takes attendance, the absolute best decision for success a student can make is to go to class. Students are busy right now making all sorts of excuses to explain away the F on their report, but Mom and Dad, please know that most students who fail a class do so because their attendance was bad. You can’t learn what you aren’t present to absorb.
Students also have figured out in time for the Spring Semester that college is harder than high school. This is another tough transition for college students who found high school easy. Students who managed to get As and Bs without difficulty in high school discover that a semester sails by quickly and that it is often difficult to repair the damage that is done by forgetting to study for one little test or by never handing in one small project.
It’s also hard for new college students who are used to working independently to take advantage of the myriad of tutoring opportunities available to all students. Students tell me they will study with friends, or that they know someone who did well in this class before, but the formal structure of a real tutoring session sets the stage for learning better than anything else. Students who never needed tutoring before learn complicated material quicker and better when they work with others who have been trained in the subject matter.
The good news is that the Fall Semester is behind us. The beauty of the Spring Semester is that everyone has a clean slate. Everyone has the opportunity to fix what went wrong and to learn from their experiences. Students who under-performed need to reflect on the amount of effort they put in and realize they need to increase their efforts, their study time, their reading time and their preparation time. Students who needed help but declined the offer need to start the semester with a plan for formal assistance. And students who had an epiphany during the fall and realized that their career plans were unrealistic or unappealing need to use this Spring Semester to recreate themselves.
And we’re here to help: Freshman Studies, the Academic Resource Center, the Academic Success Center, The Career Center, Tutors in Residence, Student Support Services, Counseling Services, and Disability Support Services — a network of people whose goal is student success.
By Tracy Gottlieb, Ph.D.