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Supplemental Instruction Program
The Supplemental Instruction (SI) model of student academic assistance helps students in historically difficult classes master course content while they develop and integrate learning and study strategies. The goals of SI are to improve student grades, reduce the attrition rate within those courses, and increase the graduation rates of students. Supplemental Instruction (SI) focuses on tough courses, not struggling students; thus, there is no remedial stigma attached to SI participants. SI serves students throughout the semester rather than when they run into difficulties. SI was developed in 1973 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) by Deanna C. Martin, Ph.D., in an effort to reduce attrition of minority students in the health science schools. In 1981, the SI Program became one of the few post-secondary programs to be designated by the U.S. Department of Education as an Exemplary Educational Program. SI is active at 500 institutions in the US and at over 100 other institutions in 12 other countries. Currently, the Center for Supplemental Instruction at UMKC conducts intensive workshops on how to implement SI on local campuses.
A key element of SI is the SI leader. These are students who have excelled in a targeted class in the past. These paid students are trained in proactive learning and study strategies, then attend lectures, take notes, and do the assigned reading. Each week, SI leaders conduct review sessions that help students integrate course content and learning/study strategies. The SI leader is trained to share his/her learning strategies with the other students in the SI sessions, facilitating this process through a variety of techniques geared toward improving student thinking, reasoning, analyzing, organizing, and problem solving skills. Research shows that students who attend SI sessions regularly average one-half to one full letter grade higher than their classmates who choose not to attend. SI participants also have significantly higher graduation rates.
Generally, we offer SI support for the following courses:
- Biol 210, 215, 351 and 352
- Chem 201 and 202
- Math 125 and 160
- Physics 205 and 206
- Psych 360
