Aritcle 2. University of Pittsburg, Dr. Bill McGuire, Associate Director, Student Support and Retention
Aritcle 3. WORKING by Curtis Miles
The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) was administered to three groups of United States Military Academy students in order to evaluate the changes in student performance as a result of taking a student success course (RS101). One group took the RS101 course in the Fall of 1995. A second group of students did not take RS101, but was also tested at the end of the fall term and serve as a control group. A third group delayed taking the RS101 course until the Spring 1996 term. The changes these students experienced during the Fall of 1995, before they took RS101, represent a second, own-control group. The results show that students who took the RS101 course improved their performance on several skills measured by the LASSI. The control group students did not show a similar increase. We conclude that the RS101 course produced measurable changes in skill, and the LASSI is useful in detecting such changes. Suggestions for further research with the LASSI are included.
As a regional institution, Pittsburg State University draws its students from a wide geographical area containing both medium-size cities and small rural/farming communities. As might be expected, the entering freshman population includes a broad spectrum of academic and experiential backgrounds.
Our office coordinates numerous services for freshman students, including the freshman orientation program. In early 1997 we initiated development of an assessment battery that could be used during orientation and would provide valuable information about our entering students' background and preparation. We also felt that it was important to give relevant feedback to students as they planned their first semester. Academic components of this battery included assessments for reading, writing and mathematical abilities.
But we also wanted to examine students' perceptions and expectations for the college experience, anticipating that these factors would be major contributors to students' attitudes and behaviors during the critical initial weeks of their first college semester. We selected the PEEK for this purpose because of its ease of administration, balanced approach to academic, personal and social areas, and the efficient scoring and reporting provided by the software package.
In order to check the weighting of the 30 items on the PEEK for our institution, survey forms were distributed to approximately 200 students, staff and faculty during Spring Semester, 1997. The scoring software reported response distributions for each item in this test data, making it easy for us to adjust the weighting of a few items to reflect local preferences.
The PEEK was administered to 600 of 716 participants in five full-day sessions of freshman orientation during the summer of 1997. Completed survey forms were collected and subsequently machine-scored and reported. Minor modifications made to the text of the report helped customize it for our program and institution. Completed reports were mailed to students during the week following their orientation session.
Response distributions were also compiled and converted to graphs for communication to University administration. There was generalized administrative surprise at the distributions for many items, validating the value and importance of gathering such information. New awareness of students' perceptions also stimulated many discussions about the impact of these factors on success in specific classes, and some faculty have modified their class presentations to provide clearer communication of expectations.
We also anticipate that results from the PEEK will be a useful tool for targeting potentially at-risk students. While PEEK scores that deviate significantly from the peer group (more than one standard deviation from the mean) do not, of themselves, indicate problem situations, they can be combined with ACT scores and other data to identify students needing attention.
From the 1997 data, 120 students whose PEEK subscore in one or more of the three survey areas (academics, personal or social) was less than -1.5, and a similar number with at least one subscore greater than +1.5, have been identified. We plan to use PEEK scores, ACT subscores, academic performance, academic progress, and persistence data for these students to develop an effective targeting and intrusive intervention protocol for the future.
What LASSI does for the world of the learner, WORKING does for the world of the worker: assesses their underlying behaviors and skills as a launching-pad for diagnosis, prescription, instruction, and assessment.
The latest in H&H Publishing Company's repertoire of powerful, practical assessment instruments, WORKING focuses on nine key workplace behaviors: taking responsibility, processing information, having a sense of quality, solving problems, wanting to learn, working in teams, persisting, adapting to change, and thinking in terms of systems.
Numerous national studies (e.g. SCANS, Workplace Basics, Workforce 2000) pointed to these traits as those most needed by businesses seeking to remain competitive in a dynamic 21st Century environment.
WORKING operates much like LASSI. Fifty questions answered on a five-point scale are transcribed onto the scoring sheet, tallied into the nine competencies, and then displayed on a percentile grid.
Currently the instrument is finding a welcome in colleges, in public schools, in workforce preparation programs, and among a variety of businesses and industries. Most reported uses are for diagnosis and instructional prescriptions, though at least one structured research study is under way to explore its power as a pre-post instrument for assessing instructional outcomes.
© H&H Publishing Company, Inc.
All rights reserved.
It is a violation of the law to copy any or all of this
publication without written permission of the publisher.