Overcoming Barriers

by Rodger Irish, Computer Science

Julie was never exposed to programming, and English was her second language.  After the first couple of assignments, it was obvious she was struggling to understand the assignments even understand some of the simple elements the class was covering.  As I could see she used broken English in her writing, I approached her and encouraged her to come to my tutorial times.

She seized this offer and came every week with determination.  I explained the assignments and made her explain to me what the assignment was asking in her own words.  Then we worked through her code.  I would point out where problems existed in the code, and had her figure out how to fix those problems.  She was catching up to the class and was enjoying programming.

Then came another barrier.  I have the students make a children’s game as their semester project because studies show that when students think a topic is interesting, they will put more effort into it.  However, Julie did not know of any games and was worried that she would do a bad job on this.  In her country, the children did not really play any table or card games.  We found an alternate project involving her hobby that would meet the same criteria and be interesting for her.

Even though Julie was now getting excellent grades on her work, she still came to tutoring every week so she could get extra practice.  Every assignment was going above the requirements, and she was doing the extra assignments at the end of the chapter.

Julie was on her way to getting a 3.0 or higher in the class; however, her husband had to take a job in another location and she left.  (She withdrew even though I was willing to find a way for her to finish the semester.)

Sometimes all it takes to help a student to be successful is to give an excuse to overcome barriers.  I did not know that this student, struggling with English, felt she would not get anything out of tutorials.  With me taking an interest and giving the invitation, she tried the tutorials and found success.  Finding a concrete reason why students struggle and telling them you can help with that specific reason might be enough to encourage action.

–ps  I received an email from this student.  She changed her major to computers and is doing well in her new state.