Improving Student Performance and Reducing Attrition. Audience Approved by PEP for undergraduate students in high-risk college courses. The program is nonremedial and available to all students enrolled in a targeted course. These SI Leaders schedule and conduct three or four 50-minute SI sessions per week at times indicated convenient by the majority of the enrolled students.
SI integrates learning strategies with course content.
Using the course content as a vehicle for learning skills development, SI provides opportunities to discuss the vocabulary of the discipline and complex concepts, organize course material, and practice good questioning in an assessment-free environment. Differences in performance patterns between SI and non-SI groups are evident regardless of past academic performance on their ethnicity. This is still true when differences are analyzed, despite ethnicity and prior academic achievement. The SI model is adaptable on a variety of campuses and is compatible with existing academic support programs such as learning or tutoring centers, Student Support Services, and Title III and IV programs. No special equipment is needed for implementation, although some duplication of printed material is helpful.