Showing posts with label student performance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student performance. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Using Action Plans to Increase Performance

Action plans offer the opportunity help people think through the various challenges they face and apply some type of plan on how to overcome these difficulties. Whether discussing students, employees our yourself it is beneficial to consider the benefits of implementing action plans in a way that encourages greater insight by the person writing them. Insight sometimes leads to higher levels of performance.

In my experience in labor relations and as a professor in business I find that performance issues may not be willful but are a result of a lack of experience or understanding. For example, in labor relations I have found attendance to be a major employer concern. Through the standard grievance process employees can promise to make it to work on time but without an action plan the problem isn't likely to be resolved soon.

The same idea applies to students who consistently fail to turn their work by class deadlines. Each assignment they scramble for some excuse that will get them off the hook. The problem is not the creativity of the excuses but their processes. Understanding how chronic poor performance is part of a process of thinking is beneficial for finding solutions.

Before giving grace to poor performance consider requiring an action plan to ensure the person has some understanding on how to improve the situation. Requiring the person to develop a plan on how to change their processes helps them think through what is causing the problem and how it can be improved. They can search through their strengths and weaknesses that help them discover equitable solutions to the problem.

Most of us live our lives by patterns and reflecting on those changes needed to adjust the pattern is beneficial to sustainable performance.  An employee who has an attendance problem could discover the necessity of starting early, putting out their items the night before, and getting plenty of rest. A student who turns their work in chronically late may need to start assignments at the beginning of each week and also devote a full hour to writing each day.



Thursday, February 13, 2014

Webinar: A Campus-Wide Approach To Improving Higher Order Thinking Skills


When: Tuesday, February 25, 1:00-2:30 EST
Type: Online Webinar
Host: Innovative Educators
http://www.innovativeeducators.org/product_p/2105.htm

Overview:
One of the most exciting innovations in higher education in the past few years has been the development of High Impact Practices. Building on platforms such as service learning, internships, and other active and collaborative learning experiences, researchers such as George Kuh have articulated pedagogical guidance for making an impact on educational experiences inside and outside of the classroom. These practices have been demonstrated by decades of research to improve student learning and success. They have also been linked to the development of Higher Order Thinking Skills. In an age in which higher education is transitioning from models that stress knowledge acquisition to an emphasis on critical thinking, reasoning skills, and information literacy, these programs provide practical ways to pursue these important goals.

Kind of Learning:
-Demands that students devote considerable amounts of time and effort to purposeful tasks
-Puts students in circumstances that essentially demand they interact with faculty and peers about substantive matters
-Increases the likelihood that students will experience diversity through contact with people who are different than themselves
-Gives students frequent feedback about their performance
-Provides opportunities for students to see how subjects work in different settings, on and off the campus
-Connects students personally and professionally to others through opportunities for active, collaborative learning

In fact, students who participate in these experiences often outperform their peers who do not participate - even when these peers are better prepared academically and at significantly less risk for attrition. Participants will leave this webinar with an action plan in order to begin building high impact experiences on their campuses.

Webinar Objectives:
-Learn to apply the six attributes of effective high impact practices to a variety of curricular and co-curricular programs
-Identify strategies for collaborating with internal and external constituents to build a culture of impact
-Create models for encouraging faculty to implement high impact practices into their courses
-Leave with an action plan in order to begin building high impact experiences on their campuses