Supportive Practices: Success Skills

In the Supportive practice group, instructors employ strategies to create connections with students, build community in the classroom, and foster curiosity. Teachers encourage students to apply metacognitive techniques to understand their own learning processes and help them gain comfort asking questions and making mistakes as a necessary part of learning. As students gain a sense of belonging and trust in the learning environment and in you, they should be encouraged to look objectively at their progress in the course to see if any adjustments are needed to ensure success.

The materials in this course contain embedded aids for success in statistics such as glossaries and key concepts aggregated in the summary pages for each section. Study strategies and metacognitive practices are included, and students are prompted to self-check their understanding before moving on to new sections of material. You can help students to develop a general sense of self-efficacy as a college student as well by encouraging good academic behavior and connecting them with your institution’s student services early in the term.

How to use success skills

In the first module of this course, you spent some time building a community of learners in your classroom by helping students to work together effectively in pairs and small groups. You should take some time now to reinforce foundational course expectations such as regular attendance, assignment completion, and active participation in the in-class activities or discussion boards.

Instructor guides for in-class delivery [link to these in pdf form]

• 4A Corequisite Activity Instructional Guide
• 4B Corequisite Activity Instructional Guide
• 4B Corequisite Activity Instructional Guide
• 4A Forming Connections Instructional Guide
• 4B Forming Connections Instructional Guide
• 4C Forming Connections Instructional Guide

Asynchronous Delivery  

See the synchronous delivery options above and tips below for including them in your digital spaces.

Micro-Reflection: Success Skills

Usually by this time in the course, students have developed a sense of how they interact with the materials and who they are as a student in this class. They understand their own potential for success and will know if the course feels overwhelming or if external challenges are preventing them from doing their best work. Now is a good time to reach out to struggling students and to direct students again to supports that they may have missed during the hectic first few weeks of the term. The upcoming Teaching Tips section, covering the final two sections of this module, will ask you to help students reflect on their growth thus far. You can provide a springboard for reflection by utilizing the evidence-base teaching practices of the Supportive group, which includes:

• Caring: exhibiting care in students’ success in the class by staying connected with them.
• Community-Building: using small group work in class and encouraging the establishment of peer networks
• Success Skills: helping students develop a sense of self-efficacy about being a college student.
• Curiosity: fostering curiosity in the learning environment by setting a culture where asking questions and making mistakes are a necessary part of learning

The Success Skills practice was introduced in the Teaching Tips page prior to Section 4A with specific examples for performing the practice to facilitate student learning during the Forming Connections activity. Hopefully, you had a chance to practice them in your class. If so, please use the questions below for a brief, honest, and compassionate reflection on your teaching practice.