I was shocked to read that a student entering a South African institute for higher education has a 55% change of not completing his or her qualifications at contact institutes for higher education and 78% of not completing his or her studies at our largest tertiary institute for distance education. Bearing in mind that these students are adult learners - and therefore supposed to be motivated students - I would like to know how you are going about to decrease dropout rates - and increase student success.
if teachers mentor students truly as in being interested in their upward progression,and become friendly counselors ,on one on one basis,dropout rates will reduce.these days academic advisors are not passionate enough to touch students' life.There are no more real mentors in academics,and thats a big problem.These students depend only on peer s who offer them non-useful advise most times.Work on students mentorship,and see how dropout rates will reduce
Ijeoma is correct in suggesting contact retains students , But this does not need to be on a hierarchical/mentoring model . The classic retention policy tool is to organise the students into collaborative groups , with tutors assigned to keeping them on task from the start of the course . The feeling of belonging and responsibility to a group is the binder that keeps students moving through their course , be it real or online .
Timetabled online submission deadlines , collaboration , peer reviews and regular but not overly-taxing assignments bind the group/s . The availability of each group's material allows for exemplary showcasing (even competition) . If drop-out or non-collaboration weakens any one group , its students may be reallocated to other groups . Those not conforming to the requirements , after intervention/exhortation has been exhausted , may be put into a group of their own - there is no point in having them jeopardise the success of willing students .
Students also can extend ideas to the administration as well as the academia on what each can do to retain them and to help them complete their studies/course successfully. It will be a good idea to ask students for their opinions. African graduate students do not intend to leave their course incomplete, there is always a pressing social need which forces them to do so. If counselors help such students then they will definitely complete their studies.
Jaleed makes a vital point. In traditional American universities, it is the learning facilitated outside of the structured classroom that may be more or just as impactful for students, so it is important to provide support services (such as Student Affairs) that can help to address the whole person and not just the learner in the classroom.
"Integration and Sense of Belonging at School
(from above report)
The sense of belonging measures presented in Table 3.9 are derived from nine questions asked in the MDRC student survey. These questions were first devised for use in MDRC’s evaluation of a learning communities program at Kingsborough Community College.6 Students were asked to indicate if they strongly agree (1); agree (2); disagree (3); or strongly disagree (4) with the following:
1. College is an unfriendly place.
2. I do not feel that I fit in or belong in college.
3. The instructors and staff understand who I am and where I am coming from.
4. It is difficult to make good friends with other students.
5. The other students do not understand who I am and where I am coming from.
6. College has the feeling of a community, where many people share the same goals and interests.
7. Many people at college know me by name.
8. I do not feel I am part of college life.
9. I feel that I matter to the college instructors, staff, and other students.
Originally, for some questions, a higher value response indicated a greater sense of belonging, and for some questions, a higher value response indicated a lesser sense of belonging. Those latter questions were recoded to change the direction of responses. After the direction was recorded for those questions, a higher value response indicated a greater sense of belonging for all questions (Scrivener et al. (2008)). For questions 3, 6, 7, and 9: 1 became 4; 2 became 3; 3 became 2; 4 became 1.
A scale is created as the unweighted average of a student’s responses to all nine questions. Respondents had the option to skip or refuse any question in the scale; a small number of students responded to some but not all of the nine questions in the scale. If the student answered five or fewer questions in the scale, the scale was not calculated. For students who answered six or more questions in the scale, the scale was calculated as the average of that student’s responses to the questions that were answered.
The table presents the percent of students reporting a high or low sense of belonging. The low category included students whose calculated score is one or more standard deviations below the mean, indicating a lesser integration and sense of belonging. The high category included students whose calculated score is one or more standard deviations above the mean, indicating a greater integration and sense of belonging.
Finally, a factor analysis tested how well the items included in the scale measure a
common underlying construct. The factor analysis yielded a standardized Cronbach’s alpha of 0.846."
Thank you, Latacha, Jaleed, Ross, Rich, and Ijeoma, I also believe that contact with the students are necessary, that group work or social integration is important, and that the voice of the student need to be heard. But - I also believe that we do not know our customers and their needs - they are adult learners, but I do not think they are treated as such.
I completely agree, which is one of the major reasons why many large NY universities are re-examining their outdated developmental mathematics requirements of sequential algebra and precalculus and are focusing on quantitative reasoning and literacy. IT IS NOT ALGEBRA LIGHT. It's a different way to approach teaching mathematics. Our students, both young and adult, do not have a great need to learn how to "compute" or construct detailed proofs. They need and crave context, and rightfully so... I can teach them algebra while we learn how to work with Excel (guess what... it has functions, and arguments, and you can graph). I can teach exponential and logarithmic functions as the tools necessary for mathematics of finance; and applications of statistics are almost endless; and I have begun introducing modelling into my QR courses. I am a pure mathematician, and a strong supporter of "first principles"; ultimately, I am a theorist, but we are a minority, my students are not aiming for a PhD. They want to be "math-smart" as it applies to their research in other disciplines, potential career choices, future academic goals. And what is great is that those that might not have thought of a STEM career become interested and rather seduced by math and/or physics/bio/chem and end up with a double major or a different one then intended. Giving our students some GUIDED freedom is a good thing, I am still amazed at the courses they select. They often see a need in the industry that we PhDs might not. I mean, no one had heard of Data Science until a few years ago, and now it's one of the most demanded six-figure salaried jobs out there, and a pure math Phd just ain't gonna cut it....
Dear Ross, thank you for the contribution. It is wonderful to learn from others who are passionate about their learners.
Before you try to address dropout rates, it seems sensible to understand why students do drop out. What research is there into these factors? A few years ago (2010 or 2011) I attended a seminar at UKZN where findings from such a questionnaire were discussed. The researchers separated the factors into those governed by the institution and those inside the student. It seems that this question and the responses are mostly concerned with the former. But I think that in the South African context it would be foolish to ignore factors within the student, such as lack of preparation for tertiary studies and poor career counselling.
astonishing that adults drop out rate is high in south Africa higher education, to solve the problems it is essential to find out the root causes of this drop out rate. it may be due to social economic status of the parents, may be due to the lack of the motivation of the students, motivation of students can be improved through behavioral skills of the teachers and making lectures more interesting by adopting new techniques of teaching. while leadership also has a role in improving the drastic situation.
I want to support the input from Philip Rich. It is tough to get started on it, but will bring the participation and completion rates up. But it still requires a high level of faculty support and participation and that may be a block to progress. It might be a good idea to pilot at first, with committed faculty and a smaller group of students.
There are many factors combined
http://www.schoolbasedhealthcare.org/wp-content/uploads/APHA7_article_-Reducing-High-School-Dropout-Developing-Solutions-Tailored-to-Boys-and-to-Girls-3-18-13b.pdf
well i n my point of view you must have to see your policy in order to reduce the drop outs you have to revise your polices regarding assignments, exams rules etc... in my point of view droup out dost matter .... quality matters
See Communiversity..http://www.communiversitysa.org/
They have implemented a 'Quiet Time' program that helps students and teachers manage stress. Students are graduating and finding jobs.
The high dropout rate might be due to financial reasons. If the university helps generate some employment opportunities in the college campus itself like assisting researchers , establishing a learning support center for the weak achievers and giving employment to these prospective drop outs might save the situation.
The question is, how relevant is the information/instruction to the learners? What support systems are in place? What is being done to screen the students before entering the educational institute to determine the support they will need to successfully complete their course of study?
I totally agree with you, Doris Yates, but I do not believe screening students before allowing them to enter the institution is the best option. Some students play during their school careers, or are not engaged in the learning experiences. When they enter higher education, they have chosen what to study. As adult learners, they are motivated to learn, and I believe we do not cater for their learning needs. I also believe a lot of our students just need emotional support.
I agree with Christa that screening can be biased. I also agree with Doris that relevance of the courses and support systems in place are critical.
I would add that this is especially critical for female students. That is another whole issue regarding drop-out rates, which you may know are much higher at the secondary school level than college level....but this is another whole area of discussion that needs to be addressed. My work has been in Uganda, and the issues facing women there are tremendous.
Christa and Leslee:
The screening was to offer academic support for the students as they matriculate through programs not to eliminate them. Again, there needs to be relevance to the learners needs!
Doris, I was thinking about this later, and realized that's probably what you meant. And I 100% agree that screening for academic support is really valuable. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I think you are on the right track.
Dear all, thank you for the feed back. I totally agree with Doris with regard to screening in order to identify those who need additional support. That would certainly decrease dropout rates, especially if a need for emotional support can be identified. I found that many students need emotional support rather than academic support when they contact me for assistance - they just need to be assured that they are on the right track, so that they can focus on the assignments
Very much surprised to know about very high dropout in south African universities. Perhaps high study cost/ social status/ rude faculty members/ irrelevant scheme of studies/ non availability of internal quality assurance and many other factors can be the causes behind it. Please collect statistics from some HEIs with low dropout perhaps they will better guide you.
There are many reasons for the high drop out rates in South African Universities. I want to mention a few. One of the reasons is that teaching in some high schools where the students learn is very poor. Some students enter university barely literate. Other students have never used a library in their lives. Some students from schools in rural areas struggle to construct a single correct English sentence, but the language through which they are taught is English. How are these students expected to be successful ? I think such students have problems understanding what goes on in class, have problems reading questions and figuring out what they need to do. Further problems are related to lack of efficient ways of determining which candidates are suitable for University Education. Democracy in South Africa allows all and sundry to attend universities. The result has been disastrous. Historically Black Universities in particular suffer a great deal from enrolling ill prepared students who attend classes in huge numbers where there is no way that the students can get individual attention. So there is a whole lot of problems that affect students and prevent them for being able to cope with academic work.
crista i agree hat students need emotional support more than the academic support, but it is also fact that mere emotional support is not enough if you can provide full academic support to clear the concept of the students then it has a positive effect, this is also fact that when students are academically weak, the avoid to attend school. so more strong academician will more clarify the concepts, then students will be motivated and they willingly attend class and hence drop out rate will reduce.
I totally agree that many factors can contribute to high dropout rates. But, I also totally disagree with blaming the school system, social economic status, etc for high student dropouts at tertiary level. South African teachers attend the past twenty one years the same tertiary institutions, those who passed and are in practice, have being exposed to the same training and learning opportunities. Those who did not, have been required since 2001 to update their teaching skills by three educational reform initiatives (2001, 2007 & 2011). The first teachers in the world did not have any technology to support their teaching, they did not have classrooms build for this purpose, their students did not have to write examinations, nor did they have to complete assignments that bore them to death. Yet, Columbus, Bell and all those people came with mind-blowing innovations - innovations our children still find amazing. I think the time has come to stop blaming others, and to take responsibility for the students in front of us. Twenty-one years into an equal education system, where teachers were trained equally, and where the students in our classes were in the equal education system since the first day in school, we cannot bluff any more ....... We, the educators at tertiary education level, have to take responsibility for the students who paid a fortune for the opportunity to put their dreams of a bright future into our hands.
The answer lies firstly with the DBE, Christa. While almost 80% of our learners in Grade 6 remain unable to read, we are going to continue to struggle. These learners are pushed through primary and high school, with teachers marking largely for content. Ultimately, we at the universities and tertiary institutions have to take the fall-out from this mess. It's like trying to put a band-aid on a hemorrhage! The problem must be fixed at Grade R and Foundations levels. We are already 27 years+ into post-Apartheid rule, and our Government and DBE must begin to take responsibility for this situation.
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