Teaching Unprepared Students

Strategies for Promoting Success and Retention in Higher Education

This book provides professors and their graduate teaching assistants with techniques and approaches they can use in class to help at-risk students raise their skills so that they can successfully complete their studies. The author shares proven practices that will not only engage all students in a class, but also create the conditions- while maintaining high standards and high expectations- to enable at-risk and under-prepared students to develop academically and graduate with good grades. Within the framework of identifying those students who need help, establishing a rapport with them, adopting inclusive teaching strategies, and offering appropriate guidance, the book presents the theory teachers will need, and effective classroom strategies. The author covers teaching philosophy and goals; issues of discipline and behavior; motivation and making expectations explicit; classroom climate and learning styles; developing time management and study skills; as well as the application of "universal design" strategies. The ideas presented here- that the author has successfully employed over many years- can be easily integrated into any class.