#CSAM18 Day 25: We’re doing this wrong

I like Tinto’s theory because it basically describes what we should all be doing for all of our students - building community, helping students integrate into that community, and then helping them achieve their academic goals.

Basically, boiled down to one sentence: Tinto thinks that students leave higher ed for reasons beyond economic ones. His model is below. Tinto talks about community, clear goal setting, clear pathways to achieve goals, and integration into the campus community. Bascially, if we treat the act of dropping out as only an economic one, we're cheating and not holding ourselves accountable for making every other effort to make sure the student can complete their academic goals.


(from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Tintos-Model-of-Student-Retention_fig1_327020984)


Title of theory: Why students leave (ok, this isn't the actual title, but he's published a lot on this, so find a few articles you like), but his model is called Tinto's Interactionalist Theory.

Year theory was published: The first article I read about was published in 1975, I also recently found one from 2016.

Students originally studied: Tinto has studied learning communities and why students drop out

Background of the author: Vincent Tinto is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University. His BS and MS are in Physics, and his PhD is in Education and Sociology. His bios are pretty much the same across the board, they talk about his book Leaving College.

How theory can be used now: We need to understand the whole student, our whole approach to them, and only then can we understand why they leave. The communities we build, the small learning communities our students find or form, and how they integrate into those communities is so freakin' important. And if we continue to discount them, if we think we should just keep putting on programs just to get attendance data. If we think a lost student isn't our problem. We're doing higher ed wrong.

Words of warning: Economics can definitely play a role when students are struggling, don't disregard that struggle.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Tintos-Model-of-Student-Retention_fig1_327020984
http://www.nacadajournal.org/doi/pdf/10.12930/0271-9517-19.2.5
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/localed/tinto.html
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/09/26/how-improve-student-persistence-and-completion-essay
http://soe.syr.edu/about/member.aspx?fac=64

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