Clearing the Hurdles: Concrete Steps To Helping Students Overcome Academic Struggles

Abstract

Abstract:The students who arrive to our college classrooms are in many ways a mystery. They come from different places, with unique experiences and varied abilities. They have skills, strengths, and struggles we cannot know from examining a list of names on a roster. And we must teach them all. Nonetheless, there are some things we do know about them. We know that they are, for the most part, adolescents, and we know that the adolescent brain is a complicated machine. Although we tend to think that with adolescence comes challenges that impede classroom success—for example, unpredictable moods and poor time management—the adolescent brain does not need to be an impediment. Rather, by understanding some of the unique features of that brain, we can garner tangible and meaningful ways to prepare for what we do know about our students.