A significant number of college students in the United States face major roadblocks in their education, a lot of them would just choose to drop out because they are being required to take remedial classes courses in Math or English which many students still never pass anyway. According to Education Reform Now, one out of four students who enter college had to be enrolled in remedial during their first year which does not entirely contribute to your degree and will just extend your college years longer.
In order to address these challenges, Boston College is currently looking at a different approach to help students with average or poor academic records in high school by utilizing a unique set of learning strategies that will not require more than one three-credit class, The Washington Post reported. According to a new research, the model is proven to be translating results because majority of the students are able to graduate and complete their degree in just four years.
More than 150 low-income, underrepresented and first generation college students were tracked by the Learning to Learn office at Boston College, who were able to complete the Applications of Learning Theory course in the last decade. 95 percent of them managed to earn a degree in a span of four years.
Marcia Heiman, who developed the course as a consultant for the Learning to Learn office said that what the students learn in the course are techniques for critical thinking, note-taking, reading and test preparation. The goal is to get away with the habit of memorization, but instead, nurture skills when it comes to inquiry based learning so that students can develop interaction with the new information. She also said that the course intends to change the way the students learn because it sustains long term impact.
