Hello folks,
 
My apologies for raising a point at this morning's breakfast and then
having to dash off.  I had a 9:00 meeting.
 
Janet had asked me about Supplemental Instruction (SI), which is
something that EOP has done for their students over the years.  This
model is one that is used to bring the extension activities that
students need and expect to those in classes that are taught in the
large-lecture format.  
 
Learning in any discipline entails different cognitive skills than
courses in other disciplines.  Learning math, for example, requires that
a student be able to conceptualize abstract ideas and express them in
numbers.  That's very different than learning in history, where one
learns about historical events, their causation and the results thereof.
Although it is unfortunate, some students don't know how to study and
learn on their own the materials from lecture courses.  What's more,
many don't realize that the way they approach learning math is not
sufficient for they way they approach learning history.  SI is designed
to give students an opportunity to think through how they're approaching
learning in a specific course.  SI can be peer or professional-led.
 
There are a number of "formulations" of SI, some more valuable than
others, I would posit.   I am not an expert on the matter at all, but
David Arendele is a writer who has done quite a bit of research on the
SI model of instruction.  This is an article he has written that gives
an overview of how SI works:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~arend011/SIoverview94.pdf.  
 
I think of SI as akin to the recitations that some of the science
courses include. Basically, SI is a way to allow students to learn
cooperatively in smaller groups, extending what they learned in class.
SI can potentially provide some of the learning activities that students
have come to expect in their learning environments, such as in-depth
discussion, group activities, etc.  It is promising, I believe.  The
CADE staff has discussed many times how they'd like to provide SI, but
CADE had never been staffed to provide such additional services (in
addition, that is, to professional tutoring, developmental courses, and
the coordination of peer tutoring).  With its tutor training program now
in place, however, it wouldn't be completely impossible for CADE to
provide trained SI leaders for classes if the campus were to choose to
do so using peer SI leaders.
 
Incidentally, CADE does offer a course called PROF 120:  College
Learning Strategies, which, although not tied to another course as SI
is, spurs students to think about their thinking.  It compels them to
look at their approaches to learning in their various courses and plan
for how they can engage with the material in meaningful ways -- taking
into consideration the context in which college learning happens, from
the classroom to the social scene.  Students love the course (although
they usually note that it has a lot of work involved with it) because it
helps them really consider themselves as learners -- their history,
their proclivities, their weaknesses, their goals.  It carries the WS2
General Education attribute as well.
 
So, those are a few things I was thinking when I threw out the
Supplemental Instruction idea.  
 
I, too, really appreciated hearing from Steve.  The NSSE data gives us a
lot to think about with how first year courses are conducted and
perceived.
 
Amy
 
 
 

Amy Crouse-Powers

Senior Staff Assistant

Division of Graduate Studies, Continuing Education, 

Summer Sessions & Learning Support

SUNY College at Oneonta