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Overview of the Student Success Curriculum for Instructors and Schools

The Student Success Guide was developed to provide support to students beginning massage school. Schools know that new massage students often start classes filled with enthusiasm and the energy to succeed. Those with good study habits are able to maintain their motivation even when classes are challenging. But many capable adult students experience frustration, and even failure, in school. This is not because they lack ability, but because they do not have adequate study skills. The Student Success Guide uses goal-setting exercises, charts, graphic organizers, and personal assessments to help students learn the skills they need to achieve their academic goals.

The Student Success Curriculum is available for schools’ use with the Student Success Guide to make this material easy to bring into a classroom. The curriculum is designed to provide everything the school needs to use the Student Success Guide in a variety of settings (see details in the next section). Each topic is set up as a stand-alone teaching kit so that topics can be mixed and matched to best fit the needs of each school. Each teaching kit includes:

• Introduction: A brief introduction to set the stage for the topic and clarify the goals of the lesson.
• Time Frames: This section helps instructors determine how long it will take to teach the material in a particular topic. It also provides suggestions for ways to combine multiple topics within a single class session.
• Strategies: This section outlines the types of learning strategies that are used in the lesson.
• Instructor Preparation: This section gives direction to instructors for the most efficient way to prepare to teach the topic.
• Resources: This section provides a list of additional resources the instructor might read to support an understanding of the topic. These resources might also be offered to students who want more information.
• Supplies and Equipment: a comprehensive list of the supplies and equipment needed to teach each topic is provided.
• Learning Objectives: Learning objectives are provided to describe the basic skills a student should acquire during the class session.
• Activities: In most topics, one or two activities are provided to ensure the class stays interactive and interesting.
• Self-Assessments: Directions are given to help instructors incorporate the worksheets included in the Student Success Guide with the day’s lesson. These worksheets are an important part of helping students develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
• Lecture Outline: The lecture outline provides a written plan of the PowerPoint presentation. The information provided in the PowerPoint presentation and lecture outline follows the Student Success Guide to ensure curriculum continuity. Instructors prepare by reviewing the written outline side by side with the PowerPoint slides and reading the associated materials in the Student Success Guide.
• PowerPoint Presentation: PowerPoint slides are prepared for each lecture to ensure that lectures remain visually stimulating. The PowerPoint sides can be shown with an LCD projector and laptop or printed onto transparencies for overheads.
• Tips: Throughout the teaching kit, tips provide ideas for ways instructors can follow up with students to ensure they are using their new success skills. Tips also offer fun ways to integrate the material with other classroom activities.
• Homework: When appropriate, a homework assignment is included in the teaching kit, and should be used at the discretion of the instructor.
• Milestones Checklist: Milestones indicate when a student lives or owns the material. The Milestones Checklists are not used during the class in which the topic is taught. They should be used two weeks or one month later, when students have had time to incorporate their new understanding. Students can see if they now own and live the material or if they learned it but didn’t implement it. Each checklist can be used just once or used multiple times to check on progress as determined by the instructor. The student may also use the milestones checklists as a self-assessment.

Why and How to Use the Student Success Curriculum

Educators know that students often begin a massage program completely unprepared for the academic nature of massage training. Students come to massage school with education gaps from high school or from a prolonged absence from an educational environment. Some students do not have the life skills they need to be successful and their interactions with their classmates and instructors are less than optimal. By providing this information at the beginning of a program or throughout a program, schools help students prepare for massage school and achieve success in their studies.

This preparation also has positive benefits for the school and its instructors. Schools find that students demonstrate more persistence when they have the skills they need to be successful. This persistence results in lower attrition rates and higher overall retention. In the competitive school marketplace, retaining enrolled students is important for the financial status of the school business. This preparation also cuts down on student frustration and fears, leading to more positive and productive classrooms. Instructors who teach this curriculum tend to become more aware of classroom dynamics and learning styles. This awareness leads to faster and more appropriate instructor intervention when necessary.

There are a number of ways that schools can integrate the Student Success Curriculum into their current program.

1. Student Success Workshop: Teach the Student Success Curriculum as a one-day (Saturday) or two-day (Saturday and part of Sunday) workshop for new students before the start date of the program. This material could be partnered with an “experience massage” segment where students actually get on the massage tables and learn some effleurage and petrissage strokes. Adding the massage segment ensures that students understand that they will be giving and receiving massage to and from people they don’t know very well—something that often shocks new students.
2. Orientation: Well-developed orientations help students fill in academic readiness gaps, bond with peers, anticipate and prepare for challenges, and fit into the school’s culture. It’s difficult to meet these requirements with a one-day orientation. Instead, campuses are encouraged to include an orientation segment in every class the first week of school, or to hold an orientation week to smooth the students’ transition into the training program. Good orientations include an overview; social integration, study skills, and time management segments; a visioning exercise; and an introduction to the rules, regulations, and culture of the campus. The Student Success Curriculum provides these segments in an easy to use format for solid orientations.
3. Jump-Start Program: Some schools are adopting “Jump Start” or “Master Student” programs for their massage schools. These programs occur the first week of the school program during students’ regularly assigned class times and are integrated with orientation. This arrangement allows time for the student to fully integrate into student life before the “heavy lifting” courses, like Kinesiology or Anatomy and Physiology, begin.
4. Tutoring Program: The Student Success Curriculum brings structure and focus to a tutoring program. It’s easy to integrate topics or parts of topics into one study session or into lunchtime support classes students can attend at set points during the program year.
5. Space throughout the Program as Part of the Main Curriculum: In some situations it works well to space out topics and teach them directly before a new skill set is needed. For example, an instructor might cover the Exam Taking topic in the review class before the first exam. Alternately, an instructor might teach the Note Taking topic right before giving the first lecture. This way the success skills directly relate to the task at hand, adding meaning for students.

Additional Support from ABMP

The Student Success Curriculum is provided free to schools where all students sign up for student membership. It can also be accessed if the school teaches a jump start program or student success weekend workshop. In this case the students attending these events must sign up for ABMP Student membership. Contact your school liaison for more information or for directions on how to download these materials.

School Liaisons:

Melanie Gourley
Melanie@abmp.com
800-458-2267, ext.626
303-679-7626
Region: California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Kathy Laskye
Kathy@abmp.com
800-458-2267, ext.649
303-679-7649
Region: Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.

Taffie Lewis
Taffie@abmp.com
800-458-2267, ext.629
303-679-7629
Region: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming.

Jennifer Argenbright
Jennifer@abmp.com
800-458-2267, ext. 636
303-679-7636
Region: Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Virgin Islands, and Washington.