Carnegie Mellon University Website Home Page
 
Skip navigation and jump directly to page content
Step 2: Identify Reasons

Identify possible reasons for the problem you have selected.
To find the most effective strategies, select the reason that best describes your situation, keeping in mind there may be multiple relevant reasons.

Students can’t write.

Students lack critical background skills.

Students lack discipline-specific writing skills.

Students have misconceptions about what writing involves.

Students are encountering linguistic and cultural obstacles to writing.

Students may be intimidated by writing and lack confidence in their abilities.

Students are unclear about certain parameters of the assignment or do not know how to meet them.

This site supplements our 1-on-1 teaching consultations.
CONTACT US to talk with an Eberly colleague in person!
  1. Prior knowledge can help or hinder learning. MORE >
  2. Motivation generates, directs, and sustains learning behavior. MORE >
  3. The way students organize knowledge determines how they use it. MORE >
  4. Meaningful engagement is necessary for deeper learning. MORE >
  5. Mastery involves developing component skills and knowledge, and synthesizing and applying them appropriately. MORE >
  6. Goal-directed practice and targeted feedback are critical to learning. MORE >
  7. Students must learn to monitor, evaluate and adjust their approaches to learning to become self-directed learners. MORE >
  8. Students develop holistically and their learning is affected by the social and emotional aspects of the classroom climate. MORE >

learning principles