2024-06-02
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The overall goal is to “close the DI gap.” This means that ideally speaking, there should not be any statistically significant difference of academic performance between groups of students when these groups are defined by age, race, gender, etc.
While goal achievement (or lack there of) is easy to qualify, the means to accomplish the goal is anything but known and well-defined.
Time is an invisible resource, unlike money, food, etc. As such, as a resource, it is the most challenging to allocate and manage.
The first step is to be able to estimate how much time is needed. Each lecture unit means a total of 18 hours of lectures. But each hour of lecture should also include two additional hours outside of lectures for studying, reviewing notes and doing homework. As such, the understanding of time commitment of a study plan is crucial to academic success.
Knowing how much time is needed for school related activity is only the first step. Time budgeting takes into considering commute time, work, family, down-time, etc. A historical look at how a person spends time is a good starting point.
Not all spaces are equal in an academic sense. This is especially in the case of online classes that are asynchronous. A student needs an environment that is relatively distraction-free to focus.
Structure applies to time and space, as well as people. Classic in-person classes have all three components: a class has specific students, taught by a specific instructor, meets on specific days at specific time-slots.
Structure is important because it assists time-management and space allocation. A student can join a study group that may meet right after the meeting time of a lecture. There are also spaces on campus that are quiet or insulated from distractions.
As far as scientists know, the brain has roughly three main layers.
The basal ganglia, aka the reptilian complex, is at the innermost part. This complex manages the autonomous functions, including digestive systems, blood circulation system, etc. However, the reptilian complex also responds to threat in the form of fear, flight, or fight.
The paleomammalian complex (limbic system, mammalian complex) is on top of the reptilian complex. This portion of the brain manages functions that are unique to mammals (not found in reptiles), such as feeding, rearing, and parental behavior. The mammalian complex also drives social behavior.
The neomammalian complex (neocortex) is more prominent in “higher mammals” such as most primates, dolphins, etc. This portion of the brain is associated with cognitive and abstract learning, as well as projection, modeling, and planning.
For survival, the brain is wired so that without any added effort, the mammalian complex has priority over the neocortex, and the reptilian complex has priority over the mammalian complex. This prioritization has significance in teaching and learning because both activities require the neocortex to participate.
While the verbal expression of emotions and feelings is precise, the brain has the ability to perceive how another person is feeling via facial expressions, gestures, and other non-verbal means. This ability is subconscious, most people do it without knowing it!
This means it is difficult for most people to hide how they feel. Even when these feelings are not expressed by words, others can still perceive it. Unlike words, non-verbal expressions of emotions or feelings can be vague and ambiguous, and all without any explanation. For instance, an instructor may have a frustrating, even infuriating, commute to class. The leftover anger may be expressed non-verbally. The students cannot tell whether this anger is due the class or something else.
To complicate non-verbal perception of feelings and emotions, the perceiver may have an expectation of the other person. For example, there may be an expectation of disappointment. The brain then looks for confirmation of this expectation. In this case, the other person may not even feel disappointed, but the perceiver may misinterpret the other person and mistakenly confirms the anticipated disappointment.
Racism is a prejudice based on race. Race itself is a social construct to categorize people based on traits and characteristics that are easily observable or perceivable.
To categorize, to generalize, to abstract are all cognitive functions that serve a purpose. In the absence of politics, these abilities are survival mechanisms. Noticing patterns of predators, for example, is a way to evade predation because most predators of the same kind tend to use similar strategies.
However, in the presence of politics, especially when someone has something to gain in the process, this ability to categorize and generalize can be hijacked to form unsound opinions and prejudice. Simply put, it is not uncommon to engineer prejudice and exploit the natural ability to categorize and generalize. Racism is not about survival, it is about the few who has to gain taking advantage of the masses.
Racism can be considered a special case of prejudice and discrimination. Even in regions where most people are genetically homogenous, prejudice and discrimination still happens. When skin color is no longer a differentiator, people can use other perceivable differences: religious belief, how a person dresses, ascent, etc.
The biggest problem is that the generalization is believed not only by the ones discriminating, but also often the ones being discriminated. The power of a message that is repeated over time cannot be underestimated. Brilliant people who were told repeatedly that they were unintelligent in childhood often face difficulties adjusting their self image despite success as measured by wealth, positions, etc. later in life. This is usually just a localized familial effect. A more global social effect is much more impactful.
People who have low self-esteem tend to have more anxiety (about whether they can do something or not), and that anxiety can interfere with the neocortex. The neocortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for learning and analysis.
In this cycle, even if prejudice is removed, once the cycle is started, it continues. In engineering, this is called a “positive feedback.” While there is nothing positive about this cycle, the “positive” refers to direction of the feedback relative to the input of the system.
There are several points to break the cycle.
As social beings, people often rely on the reflections from others to see themselves. This method of evaluating the self has two sources of distortions. The first distortion is from how the others see an individual. The second distortion is how the individual sees the reflection from the others. This topic is the theme of the book The Lotus Effect: Shedding Sufering and Rediscovering Your Essential Self.
To replace a self-image that is based on the reflection from others, an individual needs a different way to evaluate the self.
One way is to use an assessment tool. PathwayU is a career alignment tool that is paid for by Los Rios Community College District (for all enrolled students). There are other non-free tools.
Based on the outcome of these tools, individuals can be encouraged to recall evidence that support the strengths discovered by these tools. This encourages the internal dialog of “I know I am good at … because I have these accomplishments.” And these internal dialogs can gradually replace the internalized voices of others explicitly, or implicitly, told the individual.
A Psychology Today article discussed the power of iterations and experimentation. It is also important that a student start at a level that the student is comfortable with.
This approach can be challenging in a class, however. Different individuals may require a different amount of iterations. In a class, particularly an in-person one, there is little flexibility in terms of when the next level of topics are introduced. Even in an asynchronous online class, the semester itself is a time-frame restriction.
As a result, the iterative approach to improve study skills and habits is best supported by the Homebase and MESA. See the “Study (learning) skills and habits” section for details.
A desire to steer to more effective learning behavior is essential.
One source of this energy is a genuine interest in a subject.
Another source of steering energy is an urgent need.
Study skills are crucial to individuals who plan to work in any STEM field, or any field that requires continual learning. In fact, the ability to learn new material independently is more important in a job than it is in college due to the higher stake and more competitive environment.
Study skills and habits are learned. This is good news and bad news.
The good news is any individual can acquire study (learning) skills. With the support of instructors, peers, and institution, an individual can acquire effective study skills.
The bad news is that the learning of study skills takes time. Depending on the individual, there may be some ineffective habits to unlearn first, and that lengthens the amount of that is needed. According to researches, this can take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days. Keep in mind that these research are performed on simpler habits that require less cognitive and intellectual engagement.
In the time frame structure of a college, this presents some challenges. A typical classroom faculty member is a 168-day employee. This means an instructor works 168 days in a year. Then it is broken up into semesters (divide by two) or quarters (divide by three). It is clear that study skills cannot be taught in a single semester.
This means that to establish effective learning skills and habits, students need a resource that is not restricted to one semester. The Homebase and MESA are two resources that are not classes that may be able to provide the necessary support.