Promoting Student Retention Through Classroom Practice

1. Promoting Student Retention Through Classroom Practice �Enhancing Student Retention: Using International Policy and Practice� Amsterdam, The Netherlands November 5-7, 2003 Vincent Tinto Syracuse University USA

2. Reflections on Past Practice Too many of our efforts to improve student retention have been �add-ons� that have remained at the margins of university life and as a consequence have done little to change the primary character of student educational experience.

3. Reflections on Past Practice To make substantial progress on retention, especially of excluded groups, we need to do more to reshape the conditions within universities in which students seek to learn and persist.

4. Conditions for Student Retention Expectations High expectations

5. Conditions for Student Retention Expectations Support Academic and social support

6. Conditions for Student Retention Expectations Support Feedback Assessment and �early warning�

7. Conditions for Student Retention Expectations Support Feedback Involvement Frequent contact with students, faculty, and staff

8. Conditions for Student Retention Expectations Support Feedback Involvement Learning Support for learning Feedback about learning Active involvement in learning

9. Focusing on the Role of Classroom Practice in Student Retention For many students classrooms are the one place, perhaps the only place, where they meet each other and the faculty and engage in learning.

10. Building Involvement in Classrooms Cooperative Learning Problem-Based learning Learning Communities Supplemental Instruction Service Learning

11. Understanding the Impact of Classroom Practice on Retention Studies of the impact of cooperative learning and learning communities on student retention

12. Understanding the Impact of Classroom Practice on Retention �You know, the more I talk to other people about our class stuff, the homework, the tests, the more I�m actually learning ... I learn more about the subject because my brain is getting more, because I�m getting more involved with the other students in the class...I�m getting more involved with the class even after class.�

13. Understanding the Impact of Classroom Practice on Retention �I think more people should be educated in this form of education�We learn not only how to interact with ourselves, but with other people of different races, different sizes, different colors, different everything�I mean it just makes it better... not only do you learn more, you learn better.�

14. Understanding the Impact of Classroom Practice on Retention