User:Mbaugher/Deanna C. Martin

Deanna C. Martin is the developer of Supplemental Instruction (SI) and a leader in diffusing SI worldwide. SI is also called "Peer-Assisted Study Sessions," "PASS" or "SI-PASS." It is a student-based instruction model that has proven for many to be an effective means to reduce course and college attrition among students of all backgrounds. One study on its effectiveness concluded that Supplemental Instruction "participation led to higher course grades and retention. The strongest relationships were often observed for underrepresented racial minority students and for students who attended at least five SI sessions." From her first grant in 1973, Martin has pursued educational equity in colleges and universities by helping to establish hundreds of programs to reduce attrition among all groups of students.

Supplemental Instruction
"In the half-century after World War II, higher education in the United States triumphed. Few industries grew as fast, gained as much prestige, or affected the lives of so many people." State universities, particularly urban institutions such as University of Missouri - Kansas City, experienced a "dramatic change in the demographics of the student body and a sudden rise in student attrition." Martin put the onus of the failure on the academy rather than on the student:  She stated her belief "that people fail because, and only because, the administrative structure of the university system is hostile to them." To eliminate or reduce failure, Martin's strategy is to focus on classes with high attrition rather than on "unprepared" students: "SI focuses on historically difficult courses. Historically difficult courses often share the following characteristics: large amounts of weekly readings from both difficult textbooks and secondary library reference works, infrequent examinations that focus on higher cognitive levels of Bloom's taxonomy (Bloom, 1982), voluntary and unrecorded class attendance, and large classes in which each student has little opportunity for interaction with the professor or the other students."

In her Supplemental Instruction design, Martin used a student (or peer) review session following each class lecture. The group discussion is led by a trained individual, but usually not a professor, or lecturer, or person credentialed in the field: The trained SI leader is typically a "student leader, having previously studied that subject, earned high marks, and received the approval of the course professor." The SI leader is trained to not lecture but to lead discussions among students; in Martin's programs, SI leaders were also trained in study skills to pass on to members of the group and to model study behavior in the context of a for-credit course rather than in isolation. "'Supplemental Instruction developed from a deep level of dissatisfaction that grew out of our relatively unsuccessful attempts to teach study skills in isolation from course content to minority, first-generation, and other high-risk college students. SI grew out of the conviction that reasoning and study skills must be integrated with course content, not isolated from it. This 'single process' approach allows students to construct their own conceptual frameworks for understanding what to learn and how to learn it.'"

Educational Philosophy
Martin's Supplemental Instruction design was practical: "Evaluation of the SI program was specifically designed with the intention of measuring the impact of the program on student performance and retention rates." A successful SI program, therefore, is one that measurably reduces attrition and improves grades in high-attrition courses. In the realm of educational theory, however, Karplus and Piaget influenced Martin's work, particularly work in a Kansas City, Missouri high school, a feeder secondary school to her university, UMKC. "'Recent evidence suggests that 50 percent of entering college freshmen have not attained reasoning skills at the formal (abstract) operational level described by Piaget and Inhelder. Students who appear to operate at the concrete (nonabstract) level consistently have difficulty processing unfamiliar information when it is presented through the abstract media of lecture and text. Their questions about material are often detail-oriented and superficial. Rarely do they ask or answer questions that require inference, synthesis, or application. They can operate at more advanced levels once they have mastered a concept, but they require regular instruction that either anchors the concept directly in the student's previous experience or provides a concrete experience with data from which the concept may be drawn.'"Martin and Arendale listed three theories related to the Supplemental Instruction strategy: Jean Piaget and Constructivism, Edgar Date's Cone of Experience, and Vincent Tinto's Model of Student Retention. A core idea in SI is the insufficiency of the institution in providing educational equity and the need for supplemental measures to overcome those shortcomings. In particular, the post WWII higher-education system in the US did not adapt to student diversity: "Instead of limiting the student clientele to the affluent top 20 percent of high school graduates, the university now offered admission to a much more culturally and academically diverse population." Martin blamed the teaching on the college and university attrition rates: "'I believe people fail because lectures are parceled out in 50- and 75-minute segments. That as educators, we have confused 'broadcasting' or 'transmitting' information with teaching; that we reward memorization over understanding; and that we do little to attempt to capture and manage our most valuable resource on the campus: the students' study time. For underprepared students, this step is essential. In fact, if you can capture and manage the students' study time, they not only pass, they excel. That is what our VSI program is all about.'"

Video Supplemental Instruction (VSI)
Adoption of home video products increased rapidly through the 1980s with the penetration of video players in US homes. In the 1980s, Martin and Robert A. Blanc applied video to the Supplemental Instruction sessions for students who hadn't previously benefited from SI, such as student athletes. They were the first to describe Video Supplemental Instruction:"'In VSI courses, instructors record their lectures on video tape and enroll students in a video section of the same course that they teach live on campus. For students in the VSI section, a trained facilitator uses the taped lectures to regulate the flow of information to the learner. The lectures are stopped and started as needed, allowing the facilitator to verify that students have comprehended one idea before moving on to the next. Students develop essential reading, learning, and study skills concurrently as they master the academic content material and earn top grades in core curriculum subjects commonly taken during the first year of college.'"In VSI, the SI leader regulates the flow of "the videotaped lecture. In doing so, stop when necessary to permit students to clarify something the professor has said or simply to assure that the students are tracking the progress of the presentation. (This technique is derived from that used by John Madden, commentator on football for CBS network television ..."

There are many different uses of VSI: Rural Missouri high schools used VSI for Advanced Placement courses with their teachers certified as VSI leaders; many SI medical-board reviews that covered basic sciences switched to VSI, and board-preparation programs need only pre-taped lectures and a trained VSI leader; in South Africa, one study predicted that "students who will probably benefit most from this intervention, are students with a minimum level of pre-knowledge in Mathematics and who study in a consistent and responsible manner." And at engineering-school VSI sessions in Australia, "the recorded lectures were projected onto a screen in the classroom and students could indicate whenever they wanted the lecture paused." Video Supplemental Instruction has taken Supplemental Instruction to new students, new courses, and new places on the planet.

International Diffusion
Today, SI and VSI are used around the world. Well before that, however, SI needed to win adoption in its home country, the United States. According to Arendale, a "meeting in Washington, D.C. during 1978 was pivotal for eventual national and international dissemination of the SI model, and this led to UMKC submitting its data to the US Department of Education's National Diffusion Network ... UMKC submitted data from its own program and also several other colleges that had implemented pilot SI program as well. UMKC has collected SI research data from nearly 300 institutions in 7,500 classes with a combined enrollment of nearly a half million students." In 1981, Martin's Supplemental Instruction work was accepted by NDN as an "Exemplary Program" in education. As reported in the Kansas City Star newspaper, Dr. Martin's SI "became the first of the nation's 250 such programs to receive national validation by the U.S. Department of Education, according to Gary E. Widmar, UMKC's vice chancellor for student affairs. As a result, it will be distributing summaries of its program to colleges across the country, Mr. Widmar said." After the Department of Education deemed Supplemental Instruction as "suitable for replication," SI and Deanna Martin gained national attention. And SI gained widespread adoption by colleges and universities in the U.S. in the 1980s reaching 150 colleges and universities nationwide by 1990.

SI and VSI diffusion worldwide began in the early 1990's: "'The first European SI-PASS programme was established at Kingston University in England in 1991, two decades after it was introduced at the University of Missouri Kansas City in USA. Three years later, SI-PASS was adopted in Engineering and Science at Lund University, Sweden, as a way to raise the quality in education. Thereafter, SI-PASS has steadily grown, primarily in northern Europe. At present, there are some 75 Higher Education Institutes in twelve countries with SI-PASS schemes (Belgium, Cyprus, England, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey and Wales). However, with supervisors trained recently from Denmark and Spain it is likely that an expansion will happen in the near future.'"In Europe and Asia, "Supplemental Instruction" is often referred to as "Peer Assisted Study Sessions" (PASS) or "SI-PASS" today:  The name "Supplemental Instruction" had run into  homologation issues in some nations and regions: "'SI had to be carefully positioned so as not to seem to compete with the professional tutors. Deanna Martin met with national education labor representatives to clarify the role of the SI program and how it enabled students to be more prepared for the tutorial services and class lectures. Even after these informal negotiations were resolved to the satisfaction to all parties, the name of the program was still potentially confusing.'"Whereas, Martin and Robert Blanc helped to establish "SI" and "VSI" programs in South Africa, these programs were often renamed to "Peer Assisted" in Australia.  Given its rapid uptake in the English-speaking parts of the world, South Africa, and Western Europe, it seems that Supplemental Instruction (PAL, PASS or SI-PASS) arrived on the world educational scene when it   was needed. SI collaborators, however, also attribute the international success of SI to the vision of the founders: "'Early on, SI’s founders decided that the SI model should be modified by its users rather than its creators. Martin and Blanc ... argue that SI should be 'fluid rather than rigid, dynamic rather than static.''"Glen Jacobs followed Deanna Martin as Director of the Center for Academic Development, and in this capacity, he founded the International Center for Supplemental Instruction.

Publications
Martin, D. C. (1977). The Learning Center:  A Comprehensive Model for Colleges and Universities. Grand Rapids MI: Acquinas College, ERIC ED 162 294. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED162294.

Martin, D. C. (1980). Learning Centers in Professional Schools. Examining the Scope of Learning Centers (pp. 69-79). San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass.

Martin, D. C., & Blanc, R. (1981). The Learning Center’s Role in Retention: Integrating Student Support Services with Departmental Instruction. The Journal of Developmental and Remedial Education, 4(3), 2-4, 21-23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945160.

Martin, D. C., Blanc, R., & DeBuhr, L. (1982). Supplemental Instruction:  A Model for Increasing Student Performance and Persistence. How to Succeed with Academically Underprepared Students: A Catalog of Successful Practices (pp. 75-79). Iowa City IA: ACT National Center for the Advancement of Educational Practices.

Blanc, R., DeBuhr, L., & Martin, D. C. (1983). Breaking the Attrition Cycle: the Effects of Supplemental Instruction on Undergraduate Performance and Attrition. Journal of Higher Education, 54(1), 80-89.

Blanc, R., & Martin, D. C. (1984). An Evaluation of a Preparation Program for Medical Students Who Previously Failed Part 1 of the NBME Examinations. Journal of Medical Education, 59, 667-669.

Lubin, B., Martin, D. C., Blanc, R., & Bootzin, R. R. (1984). Study Guide and Readings for Abnormal Psychology, Current Perspectives, 3rd Edition. New York: Random House.

Martin, D. C., & Arendale, D. (1984). Editors’ Note. New Directions in Teaching and Learning, 60, 1-2

Martin, D. C., & Blanc, R. (1984). Improving Reading Comprehension through Reciprocal Questioning Techniques. Lifelong Learning, 7(4), 29-31.

Martin, D. C. (1985). Multiple Services on Request: Kansas City’s Metropolitan Area Schools Project. New Directions in Teaching and Learning, 24, 101-109.

Martin, D. C., Mocker, D. W., & Brown, N. C. (1986). Joining Forces for Urban Youth: The NASULGC Urban University/Urban School Collaborative Program, a Final Report. ERIC ED 296043: National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.

Martin, D. C., & Gravina, M. (1990). Serving Students Where They Fail:  In Class. Threshholds in Education, 16(3), 26, 28-30.

Martin, D. C., Hall, P., & Arendale, D. (1991). Academic Success for Inner City Youth:  The Positive Effects of Supplemental Instruction with an Urban High School. Proceedings of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges Conference (p. ??). Washington DC: National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. ERIC ED 396611.

Martin, D. C., &   Arendale, D. (1992). Supplemental Instruction: Improving First-year Student Success in High Risk Courses. Columbia SC: National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition. ERIC ED 396611

Martin, D. C., &  Arendale, D. (1993). Supplemental Instruction and Video-based Supplemental Instruction. Powerful Partnerships: A Shared Responsibility for Learning (pp. 6-7). Washington DC: American Association for Higher Education.

Martin, D. C., &  Arendale, D. (1993). Supplemental Instruction in the First College Year. Supplemental Instruction: Improving First-Year Student Success in High Risk Courses (2 ed., pp. 11-18). Columbia SC: National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition.

Martin, D. C., &  Arendale, D. (1993). Foundation and Theoretical Framework for Supplemental Instruction. Supplemental Instruction: Improving First-Year Student Success in High Risk Courses (pp. 41-50). Columbia SC: National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition.

Martin, D. C., Hall, P., &  Arendale, D. (1993). Use of Supplemental Instruction at an Urban High School. Supplemental Instruction: Improving First-Year Student Success in High Risk Courses (2nd ed., pp. 31-33). Columbia SC: National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition. ERIC ED 396611.

Martin, D. C., Blanc, R., &  Arendale, D. (1994). Mentorship in the Classroom. Teaching Excellence, 6(1), 1-2.

Martin, D. C., & Blanc, R. (1994). Video-based Supplemental Instruction: A Pathway to Mastery and Persistence. Supplemental Instruction: Increasing Achievement and Retention (pp. 83-92). San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass.

Blanc, R., & Martin, D. C. (1994). Supplemental Instruction: Increasing Student Performance and Persistence in Difficult Academic Courses. academic medicine, 69(6), 452-454.

Mocker, D. W., Martin, D. C., & Brown, N. C. (1988). Lessons Learned from Collaboration. Urban Education, 23, 42-50.

Martin, D. C., & Blanc, R. (1994). Supplemental Instruction: An Organic Model in Transition. Helping Students Learn from Each Other: Supplemental Education (pp. 91–94). Birmingham, UK: Staff and Educational Development Association.

Martin, D. C., & Arendale, D. (1994). Review of Research Concerning the Effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Other Institutions from Across the United States. Kansas City MO: Center for Supplemental Instruction.

Martin, D. C. (1994). Video-based Supplemental Instruction:  An Alternative to Remedial Courses. The National Forum on New Student Athletes (pp. 33-34). Columbia SC: The National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition.

Martin, D. C., Blanc, R., & Arendale, D. (1994). Mentorship in the Classroom: Making the Implicit Explicit. Teaching Excellence, 6(1), 1-2.

Blair, K. (Director). (1994). Video-based Supplemental Instruction Panel Discussion [Motion picture]. USA: Center for Supplemental Instruction, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Martin, D. C., Blanc, R., & Arendale, D. (1996). Supplemental Instruction: Supporting the Classroom Experience. The Community College: Opportunity and Access for America’s First Year Students (pp. 123-133). Columbia SC: The National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition.

Martin, D. C., Lorton, M., Blanc, R., & Evans, C. (1996). Supplemental Instruction: Helping Students Help Each Other. Enabling Student Learning: Systems and Strategies (pp. 97-101). Birmingham UK: Kogan Page Publishers.

Martin, D. C., Arendale, D., & Widmar, G. (1998). Creating Communities for Learning. Bridges to Student Success: Exemplary Programs (pp. 27-33). Washington DC: National Association for Student Personnel Administrators.

Martin, D. C., & Blanc, R. (2001). Video-based Supplemental Instruction. Journal of Developmental Education, 24(3), 12-19.

Martin, D. C. (2005). SI: Past, Present and Future. ''SI-VBET National Newsletter (pp. 8-12). Port Elizabeth, South Africa: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.''

Martin, D. C. (2008). Forward. The Australasian Journal of Peer Learning,1(1) (pp. 3-5).