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Supplemental Instruction: Whom Does It Serve?

Malm, Joakim LU ; Bryngfors, Leif LU and Mörner, Lise-Lotte LU (2011) In International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 23(3). p.282-291
Abstract
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is today a well-known academic assistance program that provides help for students in "difficult" courses. SI has repeatedly been shown to decrease the percentage of failures in the course as well as increasing course grades for students who attended SI sessions. Although SI is open for all students, its main objective is to come to terms with students' high failure rates and retention problems. And even if SI has been shown to reduce failure rates and increase re-enrollment figures, surprisingly few studies have been devoted to determine how well it benefits students with different prior academic ability. These studies tend to show that "weaker" students benefit from SI. The results for "average" and "strong"... (More)
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is today a well-known academic assistance program that provides help for students in "difficult" courses. SI has repeatedly been shown to decrease the percentage of failures in the course as well as increasing course grades for students who attended SI sessions. Although SI is open for all students, its main objective is to come to terms with students' high failure rates and retention problems. And even if SI has been shown to reduce failure rates and increase re-enrollment figures, surprisingly few studies have been devoted to determine how well it benefits students with different prior academic ability. These studies tend to show that "weaker" students benefit from SI. The results for "average" and "strong" students are not as clear. The present study focuses on the benefit of SI for "weak", "average," and "strong" first-year engineering students in a calculus course. The results show that all three groups benefit from SI and that the failure rates among students with low prior mathematics achievement who had high SI attendance are almost as low as for students with high prior mathematics achievement who do not attend SI. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.) (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
categories
Higher Education
in
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
volume
23
issue
3
pages
282 - 291
publisher
International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning
ISSN
1812-9129
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
70a6ba7a-e300-4c76-85d9-e2191662cf17 (old id 5471946)
alternative location
http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE1025.pdf
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:22:09
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:15:25
@article{70a6ba7a-e300-4c76-85d9-e2191662cf17,
  abstract     = {{Supplemental Instruction (SI) is today a well-known academic assistance program that provides help for students in "difficult" courses. SI has repeatedly been shown to decrease the percentage of failures in the course as well as increasing course grades for students who attended SI sessions. Although SI is open for all students, its main objective is to come to terms with students' high failure rates and retention problems. And even if SI has been shown to reduce failure rates and increase re-enrollment figures, surprisingly few studies have been devoted to determine how well it benefits students with different prior academic ability. These studies tend to show that "weaker" students benefit from SI. The results for "average" and "strong" students are not as clear. The present study focuses on the benefit of SI for "weak", "average," and "strong" first-year engineering students in a calculus course. The results show that all three groups benefit from SI and that the failure rates among students with low prior mathematics achievement who had high SI attendance are almost as low as for students with high prior mathematics achievement who do not attend SI. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)}},
  author       = {{Malm, Joakim and Bryngfors, Leif and Mörner, Lise-Lotte}},
  issn         = {{1812-9129}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{282--291}},
  publisher    = {{International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education}},
  title        = {{Supplemental Instruction: Whom Does It Serve?}},
  url          = {{http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE1025.pdf}},
  volume       = {{23}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}