Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Top 5 Characteristics of a Successful Student

I recently attended the MPICT Faculty Development Week conference. During a lunch session my colleagues and I sat around discussing how to address students who were not doing well in our courses. I felt the collective pain in the room, this is nothing like the teacher portrayed by Cameron Diaz in “Bad Teacher”.  I tried to think of examples of students that performed well instead of focusing on the negative. So I came up with this list. Perhaps you might want to come up with your own list or comment on mine. I am going to add this list as a PowerPoint slide to my course introduction deck.


Prepared
ex. Reads the material before the lecture

Perseverance
ex. Completes labs until they understand

Meticulous
ex. Completes every assignment
Communicates
ex. E-mails instructor or other students when befuddled
Opportunistic
ex. Looks for Internship opportunities to test their skills

3 comments:

  1. Positively reinforcing these attributes of success should lead to good results in student success. Thanks!

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  2. Percy,

    A good set of traits for student success. "Opportunistic"students always stand out. These are the ones who are getting the internships which lead to jobs. How can faculty cultivate this initiative seeking in CC students?

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  3. Enlist your advisory committee, former students and local charities to come talk classes. If they let students know about opportunities for on the job training it can inspire students to pursue internships.

    A colleague from Hawaii mentioned adding community outreach personnel to your advisory committees. They are more likely to find positions for students than ICT staffs.

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