Helping a Low-Performing Student
Determining the Cause of Low Performance
- Ask about the student’s perception of his or her performance.
- Question the student to determine any knowledge deficits.
- Observe the student closely to look for areas where performance is not satisfactory.
Possible Performance Problems and Solutions
Knowledge Deficits (cognitive domain)
Possible Solutions
- Assign readings or research
- Request written or oral reports
- Create written or oral quizzes
Skill/Performance Deficits (psychomotor domain)
Possible Solutions
- Clinical instructor demonstration/student observation
- Student practice with the clinical instructor and/or a tech as the patient
- Break the skill into component parts with practice on the problem areas.
- Practice the whole skill when student performance is satisfactory on each part.
- Use a variety of practice methods to teach the skill:
- Student places his/her hands over the hands of the clinical instructor (hand-over-hand practice) while the clinical instructor performs a procedure on a real patient
- Clinical instructor and student perform procedure on a patient and compare results
- Patient feedback after clinical instructor and student perform the same procedure on the patient
Clinical Reasoning Deficits
Possible Solutions
- Guided questioning
- Paper cases
- Assignments (preplanning for patient encounters with written and/or oral review by the clinical instructor)
- Discussion of patients and/or plan of care prior to patient encounters
- Simpler cases and/or working together with the clinical instructor to solve problems
Professional Behavior or Attitude Deficits (affective domain)
Use these tools to define unacceptable behaviors:
Possible Solutions
- Reflective journals on the effect of the inappropriate behavior
- Letter of apology
- Written assignments
- Case studies/ethical problem-solving exercises
Communicate with the Academic Program
Call or email the academic program for notification, assistance and requests for information:
- Jimmy Villers 325-942-2547 James.Villers@angelo.edu
Notify the program about:
- Newly identified problems
- Unsuccessful attempts to correct performance issues
- Consistent or uncorrected safety issues
- Insufficient preparation for the setting
- Unethical behavior
- Serious rule and/or legal violations that could result in the student’s immediate removal from the site
Seek assistance for:
- Strategies for problem resolution
- Confirmation of appropriate problem management
- Resources for managing performance issues
Request information on:
- Policies and/or procedures of the university and/or the physical therapy program
- Curriculum
- Academic performance
- Legal issues (billing, supervision, documentation, etc.)
- Problem diagnosis
- Paperwork
- Student assessment
- Expert opinion