Tutorial Plus Helps Students Learn How to Learn

When Kate Ferraro ’12 was a first-year student at Grinnell, she got off to a rocky start in her classes. The study skills she had used in high school weren’t working anymore. She knew something needed to change — but how?

Today, Ferraro helps current students who are stressing about schoolwork. She works in the College’s Office of Academic Advising, where she is the interim assistant dean of academic success and learning specialist. Ferraro teams up with colleague Belinda Backous, who serves as interim registrar and assistant dean for academic success. 

Together, they help Grinnell students learn how to study and grasp new material more effectively.

Ferraro is always upfront with students about her own challenges as a new college student. 

“Kindness and empathy drove us to do this,” she says. “First year can be really hard, and that’s okay.” 

Thinking About Thinking

Together, Backous and Ferraro have developed coursework and resources to help students learn how to learn — or metacognition, as it’s known in academic circles. Ferraro defines metacognition in its simplest sense as “thinking about thinking.”

Sometimes, the ways we have always studied are not as effective as they could be, Ferraro explains. It’s common for college students who were successful in high school to feel humbled after failing their first college midterm or getting a disappointing grade on a paper, despite working harder than ever before.

“It can be really jarring and discouraging,” Ferraro says.

The truth is, there is a better way to study, she says. And she and Backous are helping Grinnell students learn how to learn — but better.

A Camcorder and an Idea

Each fall, Backous and Ferraro take their message to as many First-Year Tutorial sections as they can. They cover a lot of information — for example, what are the three stages of learning? Why is sleep so important? Where does emotional regulation come into play? The goal is to arm the students with an introduction to a range of study skills. 

They also teach a half-semester, two-credit class, Scholars’ Seminar, that explores the scholarship of metacognition. “We wish everybody could take this class,” Backous says. But that’s not possible, so they went looking for another way to achieve their goal. 

Then inspiration struck from an unlikely source: TikTok. Why not meet students where they are? With that in mind, they created a series of five, 10-minute videos made up of short segments that students could watch anytime of the night or day, whenever they needed help and support.

They call the series of videos “Tutorial Plus.”

The first video covers development, metacognition, and mindset; the next is about how learning works. Subsequent videos cover reading problem sets, exam prep, and writing. 

“We want to provide people with some foundational content during their first year,” Backous says. 

Ferraro agrees and adds, “Our hope is that this makes this … fundamental learning development information available on campus in a way that it hasn’t been before. When we think about that metacognitive equity gap, this is our attempt to fill it a little bit.”

Backous says neither of them had experience making videos before they took on this project. “We just did it,” she says. “We had the creative energy and the bandwidth and the desire.”

Helping Students Succeed

Helping first-year students improve their study styles can boost student success and retention, Backous says. 

And, Ferraro adds, “I know this might seem like a stretch, but I really do think of this as part of the College’s social justice mission.” Their work helps every student thrive, no matter what their prior educational experience has been.

Students should never feel ashamed about needing help, Ferraro says. She wants students who feel anxiety or imposter syndrome, especially those who are underrepresented on campus, to know — you’re not alone. In fact, it’s appropriate and timely to develop your approach to learning at this point in your academic career.

It’s part of a transformational change at the College, Backous says. The field of learning development has evolved in the past 15 years, she explains. Applying this new knowledge to the way Grinnell operates can help advance equity for all students.

“It’s for everybody,” Backous explains. “Everybody is developing as a learner here. Every single student, in some way, shape, or form, is part of that process.”