Toward the end of the last century, we began to witness a significant shift in the educational philosophy that guides how we as professors teach our students in our colleges and universities.  Many of us can remember a time when the predominant view of teaching and learning in higher education was embodied in statements such as “It’s the student’s right to fail.”  Professors were expected to be experts in their discipline and our task was to share that knowledge with our pupils.  The philosophy was one of exclusion.  It assumed that it was our students’ responsibility to learn.  If our students failed to do so, this then provided evidence that they were just not college material and would be better suited to pursuing a career more in line with their aptitudes.  Higher education was considered to be the privilege of a talented few.  Indeed, in 1980, only 16% of our population achieved a baccalaureate degree and only 38% of our population had taken any college classes at all.  By 2015, 33% of our adult population is a college graduate and 60% have attained at least a year of college and this increase is expected to continue.  Today, continuing one’s education beyond secondary school becomes much more of an imperative.  It is becoming not so much a privilege, but a right for our citizens to obtain at least some postsecondary education.

​

Inevitably, as more people pursue a college degree, there is greater variability in the level of academic skills, particularly math skills, our students bring to our classrooms.  To leave no student behind in the 21st century, we cannot continue with “business as usual” placing the majority of the responsibility for learning on our students.  Merely covering the material, regardless of how well or accurately we do it, is just not enough.  We must fully embrace a philosophy of inclusion where the teacher and the taught together create the teaching.  We are responsible to deliver our instruction in ways which maximize the probability that our students will learn.  And even beyond that, we are responsible to assure that our interactions with them further increase the chances that our students will do what is necessary to achieve success.  

 

To leave no student behind in the 21st century, we need to recognize that to optimize learning, the teacher and the taught must focus not only on the actual course material, but also on relationship variables, and the acquisition of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

 

Why relationship variables?  Because effective relationships enhance learning.  We are both clinical psychologists turned professors and have found that the psychotherapeutic office is, in many ways, not so different from the classroom.  In psychotherapy the most critical factor contributing to treatment success is the quality of the relationship developed with the patient.  There are a number of approaches and techniques to address a variety of mental health issues whose effectiveness are evidenced-based and clearly supported by the research.  Yet none of them are effective unless the appropriate therapeutic relationship has been built.  Research supports the fact that the same is true in any situation where learning and behavior change are the goals – such as in the classroom.

 

Why cognitive skills?  Higher education is primarily a cognitive sport.  In that sport, it is not only the accuracy of the thinking that matters.  Perhaps more important is its level. How profoundly are we engaging the material?  Are we processing the material deeply so as to achieve mastery? Are we asking questions reflecting increasing complexity?  This is essentially what is called Metacognition, an organized approach to thinking about thinking. The ability to engage in metacognition has been demonstrated as a powerfully predictive factor of success in college.  Successful students interact differently with the material than those who fail to succeed.  

 

Finally, why non-cognitive skills?  Non-cognitive skills = effective habits. Learning occurs best when they are exercised.  In particular there are 7 of these non-cognitive skills most important to achievement. These seven are: 1) self-control, 2) perseverance, 3) emotional intelligence, 4) zest/passion/energy 5) gratitude, 6) optimism, and 7) curiosity. 

​

To leave no student behind in the 21st century, we must form a relationship with each of our students, we must structure our instruction so as to increase their cognitive skills, and model as well as discuss those ever-important non-cognitive abilities. Perhaps then we can help students see learning as exploration. Like being lost in the jungle and trying to use up all the knowledge that we can gather to come up with new tricks so that we might find a way out.