Creating the Path to Success in the Classroom: Teaching to Close the Graduation Gap for Minority, First-Generation, and Academically Unprepared Students

by Kathleen F. Gabriel

This is a book for all faculty who are concerned with promoting the persistence of all students whom they teach.Most recognize that faculty play a major role in student retention and success because they typically have more direct contact with students than others on campus. However, little attention has been paid to role of the faculty in this specific mission or to the corresponding characteristics of teaching, teacher-student interactions, and connection to student affairs activities that lead to students’ long-term engagement, to their academic success, and ultimately to graduation.At a time when the numbers of underrepresented students – working adults, minority, first-generation, low-income, and international students – is increasing, this book, a companion to her earlier Teaching Underprepared Students, addresses that lack of specific guidance by providing faculty with additional evidence-based instructional practices geared toward reaching all the students in their classrooms, including those from groups that traditionally have been the least successful, while maintaining high standards and expectations.Recognizing that there are no easy answers, Kathleen Gabriel offers faculty ideas that can be incorporated in, or modified to align with, faculty’s existing teaching methods. She covers topics such as creating a positive and inclusive course climate, fostering a community of learners, increasing engagement and students’ interactions, activating connections with culturally relevant material, reinforcing self-efficacy with growth mindset and mental toughness techniques, improving lectures by building in meaningful educational activities, designing reading and writing assignments for stimulating deep learning and critical thinking, and making grade and assessment choices that can promote learning.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

194 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2018

Reviews

[Nichola Gutgold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book for all faculty to read because it helps level the education playing field for vulnerable students. I read it in one sitting, and, as a professor with 25 plus years experience I recognize the successful strategies and learned some new ways to engage all students and teach better.

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathleen Gabriel's latest is timely, thorough, and highly practical (that is, if you can handle the 11-point typeface). She recommends classroom-tested practices that set a healthy climate, increase motivation, cultivate a growth mindset, advance reading and writing skills, and foster critical thinking. She stresses that if the instructor doesn't make the course relevant, use the textbook in class, involve students in active analysis and application of new ideas, set appropriate challenges, provide helpful feedback, and value diversity, students will quickly disengage. Nobody wants to spend time and energy doing a pointless or impossible task with inadequate recognition.

What makes this book so timely? Technology, for one thing. The 50-minute lecture might have worked from time to time in the good old days when students came to class with pens and notebooks, but it doesn't work at all now that they've all got a smartphone in their hand. Another thing that makes this book so timely is the changing student demographic. Many students come to college without the necessary cultural capital. If they are going to succeed in the classroom, it's up to the instructor to clue them in. "Notions such as 'They should have learned this in high school' may be true,: says Gabriel, "but this attitude does not help the students or the professors. Fortunately, there are alternatives" (p. 19).

I'm a little wary of Gabriel's emphasis on resilience and mental toughness. While I agree that both qualities contribute to student success, I'm also aware that they can easily be undermined by a host of outside factors such as financial distress, family issues, personal crises, undiagnosed learning disabilities, mental illness, feelings of alienation, and stereotype threat.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful text for thinking about how faculty can support first-generation college students in their classes. A few things I don't agree with--leaning on grit/mental toughness feels a little bootstrap-y for my tastes--but there are a lot of good ideas captured here.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This provided a lot of food for thought. Gabriel does a good job of balancing plenty of theory and outside literature while also bringing in a wide variety of practical examples and tips.