Student-ready critical care pedagogy: a student-centred instructional approach for struggling students

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study proposes a pedagogy to support the academic success of students from historically excluded groups (HEGs), e.g. first-generation students, low-income students, and Students of Color, who are struggling academically. We adopted a ‘student-ready’ approach (McNair et al. 2016), which foregrounds institutional responsibility for meeting the needs of students. This study took place at a large, public, research-focused institution in the US. Undergraduate students from HEGs nominated faculty who they believed supported their academic success. Nominated instructors participated in semi-structured interviews and classroom observations to share more about their teaching. Data were analysed and categorized into themes: Creating a Culture of Learning, Demonstrating Care, and Meeting Students Where They Are. These themes were then applied to create a model of Student-Ready Critical Care Pedagogy, a teaching approach for working with struggling students.

KEYWORDS:

• College teaching
• undergraduate students
• caring pedagogy
• academic success

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Ohio State University Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship. The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. This study was part of the lead author’s dissertation research. The manuscript contains unpublished material recycled from the lead author’s dissertation.