Kasia LeBlanc – Staff Writer
SI is not tutoring, according to Supplemental Instruction Coordinator Phyllis Currie.
What it really is, she says, is peer-driven study groups and highly successful techniques used to succeed in the most historically difficult STEM courses. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math also historically have low numbers of women students and SI can help there, too.
“We have had SI available to the students at DSC for about 15 years and all boasting high success rates,” said Currie, adding that the program was developed back in 1973 by Dr. Deanna Martin at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
“Our own recent success rates have been as as high as 100 percent in such courses as MAC2312,” she said. “Of 24 students enrolled in the class, 15 worked with SI and all 15 passed. While only three of the remaining nine that did not participate in SI passed. In the 2017-18 school year, 80 percent of students attending SI passed their science classes, an 18 percent higher pass rate than students who did not participate.
Angela Marie Dezego, a leader of a biology SI group, passionately explained that she not only teaches the facts but also how to think critically.
“The weirder, the better,” she energetically announced when asked how she goes about teaching her peers.
Participants laughed when she said this, but they agree.
“SI makes school less miserable,” said DSC student Moira Johnson.
Catherine Terpstra offered, “SI makes everything simpler than what may be taught in class.”
That was the general consensus of the classroom as well. For the course Dezego leads, students also get extra credit from their professor for attending.
In addition to students, SI is always looking for instructional leaders. In a presentation she used to recruit instructors, she notes that Si Leaders are chosen by their exceptional, demonstrated learning of STEM courses.
They are students who have already received an “A” in a difficult math or business course, such as Financial & Managerial Accounting, Finance, Economics, Statistics and Calculus for Business.
They also are role-models by demonstrating deep subject knowledge, maintaining a professional attitude and confidentiality regarding student comments and staying abreast of course standards and grading policies.
Leaders meet with professors weekly to check their understanding of current modules and to keep pace with the syllabus. To qualify for the position, they attend three hours of lecture/classroom time per week, take notes, do assigned problems and readings — just like other students in class.
Finally, they conduct three hours of SI sessions per week, engaging students in lesson plans that they have outlined and designed that emphasize weekly content, as well as upcoming test material.
For student interested in getting SI, Currie emphasized the program targets high-risk courses rather than high-risk students. High-risk courses are traditionally difficult and those targeted for the program include: MAC 1105: College Algebra; BSC 1085: Human Anatomy & Physics I; MCB 1010: Microbiology; CHM 1025: Intro to Chemistry; and BSC 1005: Survey Biology.
SI is academic support for students enrolled in difficult required courses. It is an academic assistance program that increases student performance and a peer-facilitated out-of-class study group that incorporates study skills with course content.
Those interested in becoming SI Leaders or students can contact Currie at 386-506-3356.