Please excuse the cross posting to those of you on both discussion lists.
"Knowing that new students will arrive on campus a little bit early,
I send them an email the week before classes begin. I welcome them to
campus, tell them about our upcoming course, and try to explain why
their responsibilities, in a college class meeting three times a week
for fifteen weeks, are different from what they were in such a class
in high school, where the same content would typically be covered in
a class meeting daily for the entire school year."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(SM) LISTSERV
"desk-top faculty development, one hundred times a year"
Over 17,500 subscribers at over 550 academic
institutions in 106 countries
Sponsored by
THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
http://ctl.stanford.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Folks:
The posting below gives some helpful advice on how to help college
freshman get started on the right foot. It is by Linda L. Walsh,
Department of Psychology, University of Northern Iowa, and is number
18 in a series of selected excerpts from the National Teaching and
Learning Forum newsletter reproduced here as part of our "Shared
Mission Partnership." NT&LF has a wealth of information on all
aspects of teaching and learning. If you are not already a
subscriber, you can check it out at [http://www.ntlf.com/] The
on-line edition of the Forum--like the printed version - offers
subscribers insight from colleagues eager to share new ways of
helping students reach the highest levels of learning. National
Teaching and Learning Forum Newsletter, September, 2003, Volume 12,
Number 5, © Copyright 1996-2003. Published by James Rhem &
Associates, Inc. (ISSN 1057-2880) All rights reserved worldwide.
Reprinted with permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.,edu
UP NEXT: Quality in Distance Education Focus on On-Line Learning
Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning
------------------------------------- 1,066 words
FIRST SEMESTER REGRETS: UNAVOIDABLE?
Linda L. Walsh, Department of Psychology
University of Northern Iowa
Every fall a new crop of recent high school graduates arrives on
campus-excited, nervous, and, I'm sure, with every intention to
succeed. Most probably receive advice about how to do well in college
from multiple sources: guidance counselors, family, older friends or
siblings, freshman orientation staff, books, and college materials.
Instructors of first year courses may make a point of discussing-in
class or in the syllabus-their expectations, the importance of doing
course readings, the hours of study that will be required, and
student responsibilities in the learning process. But for far too
many students these repeated messages just don't seem to have a
lasting effect.
Maybe it's because going to classes and studying are the most
familiar of the experiences facing new college students living away
from home for the first time. They've listened to lectures and taken
tests before; college classes may be a little harder
<http://www.ntlf.com/FTPSite/issues/v12n5/images/v12n5b.jpg> but
what's the big deal? On the other hand, they haven't yet had to live
in close quarters with a stranger, try to meet and make friends with
so many new people, manage their finances and their daily lives, and
learn how to function in a new environment without their usual social
supports.
Although I'd like to think that I have always been concerned about my
students' learning and success in higher education, I know my
interest and motivation in this area intensified as the first of my
daughters began to make plans for college. All of a sudden I saw
those in my classes in a very different way. Coincidentally, I came
across a great piece called "Transition" in the online academic
advising journal The Mentor
(http://www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/990401rm.htm), in which the author,
Randy Mitchell (James Madison University), asks those of us in front
of the classroom to "Pretend she's your daughter, or the daughter of
a friend or relative, or, at the very least, someone you care about,"
and proceeds to give suggestions on how we can all help students
negotiate the transition to college. I took many of his suggestions
to heart.
Typically my fall semester general psychology class will include at
least 160 new freshmen and just a smattering of more advanced
students. It's not a "first year seminar" by any stretch of the
imagination, but I've tried to be sensitive to the adjustment process
that first semester students are going through and have attempted to
orient them to the realities of college academics as best as I can in
a class of that size. Knowing that new students will arrive on campus
a little bit early, I send them an email the week before classes
begin. I welcome them to campus, tell them about our upcoming course,
and try to explain why their responsibilities, in a college class
meeting three times a week for fifteen weeks, are different from what
they were in such a class in high school, where the same content
would typically be covered in a class meeting daily for the entire
school year. I urge them to block out the time needed to do our
weekly readings and assignments in a study schedule and direct them
to a time-management schedule that is linked to our online syllabus.
I remind them to write every due date and commitment in a daily
planner and refer them to a link featuring guidelines on making to-do
lists. I discuss the importance of active learning and study
techniques and alert them to some upcoming assignments that require
using those techniques, again including, in our syllabus, links to
web resources on such topics as effective note-taking, concept
mapping, and predicting test questions. I don't mention every helpful
aid in that letter, but as the semester progresses I will call their
attention to additional links on evaluating study distractions,
test-taking, how multiple choice questions can measure different
levels of understanding, dealing with test anxiety, and how to go
over a graded test.
Each year I have added a little bit more to my personal "freshman
orientation," trying to reach them in a different way. For example,
thinking that older peers may hold greater sway over first semester
students, I have collected, over a number of semesters, college
success tips from the more experienced students in my classes. Their
compiled suggestions are linked to the online syllabus and I
sometimes present them in a self-running slide show in the minutes
before class starts. "These suggestions came from students who are
just a little bit older and wiser than you," I tell the class. "They
want to help you avoid mistakes that they made when they started
college."
But it still seems that many, if not most, students can only learn
from their own mistakes and not from the guidance of others. I've
been collecting data from students at the end of their first
semester, asking them about their successes, regrets, and what they
now realize about college that they wished they had known (or
believed) when they started in the fall. Sadly, over 92% of the few
hundred students I've questioned have first semester regrets or
things that they wished they had done differently. Virtually all of
the regrets expressed were academic in nature, with "not keeping up
with or not doing the reading," "not studying regularly or enough,"
"procrastinating," "cramming" and "skipping class" being the top
responses to my open-ended query. From their candid reports of grades
earned first semester, it was clear that many will re-experience
regrets as they work to overcome the damage done to their GPA in this
single semester. Many did not report any corresponding "successes" or
listed bittersweet successes like "did not drop out," "survived,"
"did not flunk out." When asked to compare how they would rate the
importance of various activities now, as compared to when they
entered college, the majority selected "Much more important" or "More
important" in the following areas: Doing course reading (83%), time
management (82%), studying often instead of cramming (82%),
procrastinating less (78%), getting help if needed (74%),
organization and planning (70%), and finding a good study location
(68%). "But we told you about the reading, the regular studying, the
importance of time management and organization!" I want to cry out to
them. Well, I'll add my data to the materials I share with the new
students in my classes this fall and try again to decrease the number
who will experience disappointment and regret come December.
Contact:
Linda L. Walsh
Department of Psychology
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0505
E-mail: walsh@uni.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR LISTSERV is a shared mission partnership with the
American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) http://www.aahe.org/
The National Teaching and Learning Forum (NT&LF) http://www.ntlf.com/
The Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL)
http://scil.stanford.edu/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: Anyone can SUBSCRIBE to Tomorrows-Professor Listserv by
addressing an e-mail message to:
<Majordomo@lists.stanford.edu>
Do NOT put anything in the SUBJECT line but in the body of the message type:
subscribe tomorrows-professor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------newfaculty-+
You have received this message because you are subscribed to this mailing list. If you wish to be removed from this list, please send an email (in PLAIN TEXT) to:
listproc@lists.wcu.edu
Leave your subject line blank and in the body of the message, type:
unsub NEWFACULTY
Or, you may choose to send an email to (a real human being): listmgr@lists.wcu.edu.
------------------------------------------------------------newfaculty--
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11/01/03 EST
