It's a supremely important concept for the teacher to consider, because students who are behind receive a lot of negative reinforcement from classes. They notice that they don't understand concepts that their fellow students find easy, their classmates are discussing material from class they've never heard of, and it makes them feel excluded and hopeless.
The best ideas and advice in this situation usually comes from students who've overcome this barrier successfully, and managed to recover despite being behind and feeling negative about it. My former student says this:
The best advice I can give is to make a plan that is not too extreme. It must have specific dates and tasks. Blogging about it helps tremendously, especially if others see it (e.g. I asked _ to take a look last year) because it encourages one to stick to the plan. Lectures are a priority in the plan as it allows the student to understand what's is happening in the lectures for the following weeks increasing confidence in ones self. I have given this same advice to one student so far _. I am more than happy to chat to the students over skype if you would like, as I said - it wouldn't be a first.
TL; DR:
1. Student needs a very detailed plan
2. Student should blog about it with constant updates
3. Make sure the tutor sees the plan + blogposts (and the student knows the tutor has seen them (maybe a comment underneath))
4. Optionally refer them to me, happy to chat over skype
The wisdom of this idea is beyond impressive. This is pure teaching insight coming from a student years younger than me. I suppose it is a testament to the strength of personal experience - wisdom comes from experience, and the best wisdom comes from those who have the most relevant experiences.
One thing I have overlooked is the importance of watching lectures - I may have overvalued watching lectures. Watching lectures doesn't promote the same sense of success that competing an exercise does. Watching a lecture is non-interactive and non-rewarding.
At around week 8 in the course (now), some of my students are continually falling behind and they are largely unsuccessful in catching up with the required work. There are multiple reasons for this:
1. Students who tend to fall behind initially are not the kind of students who would be motivated to catch up later in the course.
2. I have been absent one week of the tutorial. Replacing the tutor results in a sense of unfamiliarity and the students may have trouble getting into their normal work atmosphere. Additionally, the students may have heard that I was overseas, and possibly think that I was holidaying or something (I was interviewing for graduate jobs). Which isn't particularly motivating (regardless of whether I was holidaying), because it marginalises their own work and makes it seem less important. You have to maintain a constant connection with your students.
At the end of the course, many students commented that it was incredibly difficult to keep up with the course as well as their existing schoolwork. Man, I don't know. I guess that's what you sign up for when you overload a course that's 20km away. Maybe the coursework is made too difficult for the students.
Our lecturer is actually really talented and has a lot of good quality teaching experience. I feel like he intentionally makes the exercises very difficult and self-driven so as to not only teach the students, but also teach the students how to learn independently.
I'm not sure how I feel about this, I'll think about it more later I guess.
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