Student Success

About the Book

STUDENT SUCCESS VALIDATES WHAT WE TEACHERS DO. Yet, not all students succeed. Many give up helplessly, reaching – unnecessarily – the end of their ropes. We teachers spent years honing our craft, figuring out ways to reach out, to connect, and to positively affect the lives of our students, not only while in college, but well beyond the often-treacherous college years. Paving the students' path toward a thriving university life and a rewarding career, therefore, gives meaning to what we do for a living. The art of learning has indeed transformed. Both the Internet and distinct generational preferences of our students have introduced new paradigms in post secondary education. Whereas years ago, the teacher and the local university library were the main repositories of knowledge, today's students can use the Internet - indeed the libraries of the entire planet – to instantly locate the information they need, often effortlessly from the comfort of a couch! What the students want is not mere information; they need – and demand – practical knowledge and how information is applied. To be a successful teacher, one must constantly experiment with new and more effective learning strategies that combine best practices in learning. In this book, the authors have assembled numerous strategies and techniques for academic success. We have emptied our bags of tricks onto these pages. We have witnessed how these strategies rejuvenate our students' university experience. By authoring this book, we pass on to you – our student – the intricacies of the art of learning. From the role of motivation to memory retention to the ins and outs of connecting with your teachers, we have provided not only what is needed to succeed academically, but also the evidence for our recommendations. We offer you this book not only for us to make sense of our professional lives, but also for you to make sense of yours.

About the Author

Terry Terry D. Anderson, PhD, has experience that includes teaching more than 8,000 adults for over 3 decades in the areas of communication, student success, problem management and organizational leadership full time in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C. He has also served as an adjunct instructor or professor at the California Command College, the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Trinity Western University, Union Institute of Sacramento, the University of British Columbia, and in 2002-2003 taught Executive Coaching at the graduate level in the School of Business at Royal Roads University. Dr. Anderson has personally authored and published over a dozen assessments, training and development tools and books (including Transforming Leadership, 1998 and Every Officer Is A Leader 2006), some of which have been translated into Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Hungarian, French and Spanish, and are being used in nine countries. His Personal Style Indicator and related publications have benefited over a million people. Dr. Anderson lives in Blaine, Washington, and still teaches student success at the University of the Fraser Valley, in Abbotsford, British Columbia, is married, has two sons, three step-daughters, and 5 grandchildren. He plays classical and flamenco guitar, travels, and sings in a Masterworks Choir in his spare time. Sia Sia Samimi, MA, has been a faculty and leader in post secondary education for more than 25 years. He has taught topics ranging from computer networks to software programming to project management and leadership. As the Chair of the second largest program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Sia’s foray in leadership in post secondary made student success the central theme of his leadership, research and teaching focus. Having received his mechanical engineering degree from Lyon, France and later a computer science degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, in 2004, Sia set out to find out what attributes set outstanding teachers apart from other teachers. His Master’s thesis, a qualitative and quantitative study comparing the views of students and teachers about teaching excellence, won the Royal Roads university’s Chancellor Award for applied research and practical implication. Shortly after its completion, Sia’s thesis was picked up by a major publisher and is now available in bookstores and online. The large study of outstanding teaching resulted in an epiphany for Sia: that to excel in teaching and learning, “effective feedback exchange” is an imperative and at the core of student success in post secondary education. For that reason, Sia, with the support from NAIT and staff, developed a pioneering online tool to facilitate seamless learning communities. Dubbed CoFE (Collaborative Feedback Exchange), the software has been effectively used among hundreds of students and is now contributing to a major project at NAIT. With a passion for Latin, jazz and world music, Sia is also an instrumental recording artist whose songs are sold in stores and on-line. His first CD, Dedications, was nominated for the Best Instrumental Recording Artist of the Year in 1999. Sia lives in Edmonton, Alberta and is married and has a stepdaughter.