Supplemental Instruction: Critical Thinking and Academic Assistance

Abstract

More than 700 colleges and universities worldwide use Supplemental Instruction (SJ) to improve student performance in challenging college coursework. Targeting traditionally difficult coursework, SJ provides regularly scheduled, out-of-class, peerfacilitated review sessions. In this model, the collective knowledge and wisdom of successful students and of the whole group become the primary source for reconstructing the professor s lecture and for encouraging the kind of critical thinking that leads to correct answers. Students who elect to participate in SJ sessions consistently earn one-half to one full letter grade higher than nonparticipants.