In their book At-Risk, Low Achieving Students in the Classroom, Lehr and Harris point out that there have been many terms used to characterize students who are labeled "at-risk." Some of these terms include: disadvantaged, culturally deprived, underachiever, nonachiever, low ability, slow learner, less able, low socioeconomic status, language-impaired, dropout-prone, aliented, marginal, disenfranchised, impoverished, underprivileged, low-performing, remedial.
We might think of at-risk students as low-achieving students whose poor performance hinders subsequent success and frequently leads to withdrawal from school. At-risk students typically have low self-esteem, and for school related and academic performance the situation is only excaserbated with continued failure and difficulties in school. Students who are at-risk in science class will typically show these characteristics: academic difficulty, lack of structure, inattentive, easily distracted, short attention span, excessive absenteeism, dependence, discipline problem, lack of social skills, inability to face pressure, fear of failure, and apparent lack of motivation. How can student's with these kinds of problems be helped? What can science teachers do to motivate these students to succeed in science?
There is a great deal of controversy surrounding what kinds of interventions are effective with at-risk students. The controversy focuses remedial instruction versus instruction aimed at high order thinking. Most educational programs for at-risk students stresses "small mechanical skills and rote memory and regurgitation." The reason for this emphasis is the psychological theory that many educators use to explain the "nature of at-risk" students. The prevailing theory suggests that at-risk students fail in school because of cognitive deficits, and because by-and-large, many of these students come from disadvantaged environments. This framework suggests that education should make up these deficits by providing an educational program that remediates cognition and environment. An alternative view suggests that the cognitive deficit theory is biased or misguided, and that these students are capable of learning and thinking a quite high levels, and that the educational programs that have been provided fail to take into account cultural pluralism.
Recent models for working with at-risk students go well beyond the three views just mentioned. New models empahsize "accelerated learning," teaching high order thinking skills, focusing on student learning styles, using enrichment programs rather than remedial programs.
Here are some suggestions that science teachers can use to help at-risk students.
1. Involve at-risk students in hands-on activities using concrete materials. These students, perhaps more than any group of students, need to be given the opportunities to work with real materials. Too many "activities" for the at-risk student involve the use of "worksheets," which is counterproductive vis-a-vis student learning styles.2. Empahsize high order thinking skills. We have emphasized the importance of teaching students scientific thinking skills such as observing, inferring, hypothesizing, designing experiements. At-risk students need to be involved in these kinds of activities, just as should other students. One program that lends support to emphasizing high order thinking for at-risk students is HOTS (High Order Thinking Skills) developed by Pogrow. The program is designed to improve students' cognitive abilities by involving them in computer activities and Socratic teaching using intellectually challenging activities for middle school students. The program focused on the process of thinking rather than on curriculum objectives, and the results have showns that at-risk students have high levels of intellectual and academic potential, and that achievment can be increased by focusing on thinking skills rather than the learning of facts.
3. At-risk students benefit from being members of heteogeneous groups. Cooperative learning is a crucial learning format for at-risk students. Typical remedial programs which tend to isolate at-risk students and involve them in individual learning activities (usually worksheets) counter the students real needs. These needs include being able to talk with able learners; working along side students who are successful; cooperating with other members of the class; learning social skill; learning how to ask question---learning how to learn. Cooperative learning strategies have been shown to raise the academic performance of at-risk students in heterogeneous classes.
4. Another strategy that appears to be helpful is teaching students metacognitive strategies---e.g. learning-how-to-learn strategies. In this approach students are taught how to learn by teaching them planning strategies: mind mapping, brainstorming, questioning skills.
5. Science teachers can help at-risk students by assessing their learning style and then planning activities accordingly. Consideration should be made for students who prefer kinesthetic learning, or tactile activities, for example.