Student Learning Center: Helping Students Succeed

The Student Learning Center at Texas A&M provides Supplemental Instruction (SI) and tutoring free of charge to all students. In fact, one of the center’s main goals is to help them become successful students.

Because of the dedication of the center’s staff and the outstanding job they do, the center was named the recipient of the 2008 National College Learning Center Association Frank L. Christ Outstanding Learning Center Award.

The award recognizes the center’s commitment to supporting and strengthening the academic experience of students at Texas A&M by providing a variety of programs and services that promote retention and success.

The award comes as no surprise to Dean of Undergraduate Programs and Associate Provost for Academic Services J. Martyn Gunn, who says he has long been an admirer and strong advocate of the center’s programs.

These programs include tutoring for most lower-level math and science courses. Students can drop in most evenings or they can call ahead and arrange for a tutor to help them with a particular course. Shaniqua Johnson, a sophomore majoring in psychology, found the last-minute help she needed to complete a complicated math assignment. “I grabbed my supplies, went to the Student Learning Center and got immediate help. In a snap, I was done with my homework in about 20 minutes.”

Gunn adds that he is particularly a fan of the SI program, an academic assistance program designed to improve the students’ performance and increase retention. The SI program targets traditionally difficult core curriculum courses and provides regularly scheduled, out-of-class, peer-facilitated group study sessions.

“As a professor of biochemistry, I witnessed firsthand the benefits of the SI program in terms of student learning and grades,” Gunn adds.

The students who have participated in the SI program agree with Gunn. “SI was very informative. I would say it was one of the most influential parts of my getting an A,” said one political science student.

Another said, “After coming to your SI session, my test grades went up 17 points!” A history student talked about looking at history differently after the SI program and a chemistry student said the sessions helped with study skills and a chemistry student adds that the “sessions really helped me to study harder and in better ways, helping me to improve my grade in Chemistry class.”

Karon S. Mathews, the center’s executive director, says the staff at the center is dedicated to helping students succeed and work closely with them to develop lifelong learning skills. This dedication can be seen in the many academic successes of students who take advantage of the center’s courses, free tutoring and SI.

“In addition to the center’s most recent national recognition by the National College Learning Center Association, in 2004 Texas A&M’s SI program was named the Outstanding SI Program in an international competition,” she adds.

Center Director Joel McGee says that, in addition to the SI and tutoring programs, the center offers courses geared toward making students a success both now and after they graduate. These STLC courses cover areas such as the application of learning theories to college studies, critical thinking and the concepts of career planning focusing on employment trends and methods of researching and preparing for the job market.

“I could tell that my instructor cared about her students’ success not only in her class, but in all their classes,” one student commented about STLC. Others felt the course helped them learn to take effective notes and improve study skills.

“Data on grades and retention clearly indicate the STLC 101 Learning Theory course provides freshmen with a firm learning skills foundation that results in better grades and better retention compared to their peers,” Gunn notes.

Mathews says the center conducts a regional SI conference and will sponsor the second annual campus-wide Academic Peer Educator Conference (APEC) for Texas A&M students Oct. 25.

For more about the center, go to http://slc.tamu.edu/.