Minding the Practice Gap

The “practice gap” is an emerging issue in higher education and beyond. This gap, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, represents a lack of experience in social and independent life skills that teens and young adults would typically develop through everyday interactions and experiential learning.

Remote learning and social distancing during the pandemic limited opportunities for face-to-face interactions to such an extent that students starting college today don’t have many of the social skills their peers a decade ago took as granted. The pandemic disrupted social development during critical years. Once typical formative experiences like going to a sleepover camp, traveling abroad, or initiating conversations with strangers have become hurdles students must overcome as they strive to face and begin to enjoy college life’s challenges.

Another contributing factor to the practice gap is helicopter or snowplow parenting styles. Over-scaffolding students in this way inadvertently limits their ability to handle real-world challenges independently. And college-bound students are reporting higher levels of ADHD and social anxiety than their peers a decade ago. The increase is partly attributed to greater awareness and reduced stigma, leading to more diagnoses and treatment.

The practice gap shows up on college doorsteps in many forms. Students avoid their professors’ office hours, hesitating to get the clarification they need to do a good job in school. Tasks like managing deadlines, arranging meetings, or advocating for their needs can feel overwhelming. Without prior experiences to build confidence, students might opt out of activities requiring social interaction—so, no clubs, no friends, no fun. 

Focus Collegiate helps students address and ultimately bridge the practice gap. Working with mentors one-on-one, students engage in incremental challenges, like making a phone call to order their own medication refills or asking for help in similar low-stakes environments. Our Summer Cohort is uniquely tailored to practice. Many students describe the three-week intensive as being in college before actually going to college.

The support we provide is not an intervention but more of a recognition. College students with executive skills gaps have already achieved some degree of success to make it to college. We uncover and build on those successes to bridge the practice gap and increase engagement and achievement on campus and in life.