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Student Shannon Gerry (left), a tutor at the Academic Enhancement Center, leads a study session for fellow students Rachel Hadley and Stacey Cugno. |
Academic Enhancement Center not just for struggling students
As exam week approached in December, freshman Jolene Octavius knew she needed an unbiased opinion about four completed writing assignments before handing them in. So she headed to Roosevelt Hall to seek guidance at the Academic Enhancement Center.
“Professors often recommend you come here to get your work looked at to get another perspective on what you’ve done,” said the Providence resident. “It’s also a great place to come when you’re ready to get down to work but you need someone to advise you on how best to proceed. The tutors are really friendly and give you the push you need to succeed.”
Established in the fall of 2003, the center offers peer tutors, academic skills counselors and Writing Center consultants to support the academic needs of students in all majors. But it’s not just a place for students who are struggling with their coursework.
“What we do is provide an alternative to lecture-based learning by working together in small groups,” said David Hayes, director of the center. “Lecture courses are a one-directional means of getting information. What we know about learning is that you retain more information and deepen your understanding when you elaborate on what you’re learning through explaining, questioning, and so on. So we try to create interactive opportunities for students to use the information they pick up in lectures and reading.”
In addition to individual and group tutoring, the Academic Enhancement Center offers weekly study groups for students in most of the first-year classes in math, chemistry, physics, biology, economics, psychology and others.
“We want to encourage students to come here before they get into difficulty,” Hayes said. “We want them to use us to approach their coursework in a new way, so they can develop a deeper understanding of their course materials and retain the information longer.”
To do that, staff at the center teach their tutors - all of whom are upperclassmen and graduate students - to help students understand why they don’t understand the information being taught. According to Hayes, many students arrive on campus not knowing how to study at the college level. For others, their vocabulary isn’t adequate to understand and process what the professor is saying.
“We work with students to discover their needs before problems develop,” he said. “We try to help students grow accustomed to the advantages of working together. Students who work together in study groups tend to do better. That’s the kind of atmosphere we encourage here.”
By Todd McLeish
