Engaging First-Year Students: Fostering Meaningful Learning Pathways

1. Teaching first-year students Mark Potter Director, Center for Faculty Development mpotte10@mscd.edu

2. Introductions • Please introduce yourselves to 2 other people in the room whom you do not already know. • Share your interest in teaching in the FYS program. • At least 11 of you are here with your “linked” faculty partner. Take this opportunity to meet him/her if you haven’t already done so.

3. Workshop Objectives • Understanding who our first-year students are is a first step to developing meaningful learning experiences for them. Participants in this workshop will • Become familiar with the profile of students entering the FYS program. • Apply knowledge about undergraduate intellectual development and learning styles to their FYS course designs. • Evaluate and determine appropriate course objectives and learning activities. • See handout.

4. Who are our students, and what are their needs?

5. Discussion • In pairs, discuss the description of college freshmen from the Higher Education Research Institute (“Chronicle” article). • What findings from the study stand out to you? • How do you think Metro students might compare to national findings?

6. Metro Student Profile • Some features of Metro Students • Freshmen headcount was 6,813 in Fall 2008 (31.4% of total Metro student headcount) • Median age: 20-24 years • Ca. 40% of students are over 25 years of age • 93.3% of students are from the 7-county region • 24.7% are ethnic minorities, with Hispanics making up the largest minority group • Ca. 43% of newly admitted students are transitioning from high school (Source: OIR Fall 2008 Census)

7. Metro FYS Students • First-year first-time students • Traditional aged • Transitioning from high school • Ca. 75% are self-selected, motivated by: • The chance to connect • The promise of guaranteed enrollment • Class size • ??? • 59 Metro Summer Scholars students

8. Students as Learners • Brainstorm: • What do we know about learning styles? • What initial conclusions can we draw about our course design?

9. Students as Learners • From what we know about the conditions for academic success, students learn best when they • Are actively involved. • Have an opportunity to function in different learning activities consistent with their learning styles. • Believe that their instructors are both invested in their learning and care about them. • Receive frequent feedback on their performance. Source: Upcraft and Crissman, 1999, In Hunter & Skipper, Solid Foundations: Building success for first-year seminars.

10. Students as Learners • Perry’s research on student development • Read the brief description of dualism in Erickson, et al., pp. 22-24. • How well does this description align with our perceptions of Metro students? • What are some implications for how we teach?

11. Students as Learners • Witkin’s categories of field independent and field sensitive • Read the brief description, pp. 36-37. • What sorts of learning activities correspond to the two categories?

12. Students as Learners • VARK learning skills inventory http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp • Some suggestions: • Answer the questionnaire yourself while you are designing your course. • Incorporate the questionnaire into your course and discuss with students the meaning of their findings.

13. My VARK Results

14. Discussion • First Year Success Program Objectives • Sheila Thompson, Director of Student Learning Assessment

15. Lunch—Bon appetit

16. Course Learning Objectives • What can we do to align our course learning objectives with the program objectives? • Don’t feel constrained by the objectives defined in the regular syllabus; we can supplement them especially with non-content objectives. • Take a fresh look at your own values: • What skills, abilities, knowledge and attributes do you feel it important for students to develop? • What are the necessary components to create significant learning experiences? • Consider FYS program objectives, including importance of co-curricular activities. • Consider drafting learning objectives that are integrated across linked sections.

17. Learning Objectives: Tools and Resources • Teaching Goals Inventory • 52 questions rating the importance you place on particular learning outcomes. • Allows you to identify and articulate those that are most important to you. • Goal clusters include: • Higher-order thinking skills • Basic academic success skills • Discipline-specific knowledge and skills • Liberal arts and academic values • Work and career preparation • Personal development

18. Learning Objectives: Tools and Resources • Fink’s taxonomy of “Significant Learning Experiences” www.significantlearning.org • Significant learning is that which brings change to the learner. (No change, no significant learning). • 6 categories of significant learning: • Foundational knowledge • Application • Integration • Human Dimension • Caring • Learning how to learn

19. Fink’s Significant Learning

20. Exercise • Write a draft of one new course learning objective that is about something other than covering content. • You may work with your paired instructor, if present. • Discuss with your neighbor. • Is it feasible to build a bank of learning objectives are particularly relevant to FYS courses and that apply across sections?

21. Learning Activities • Question to discuss: What role should lecture play in FYS courses? • In pairs, create a pro-con-caveat grid to explore this question:

22. Learning Activities

23. Activity and Discussion • From cards that will be distributed, discuss specific learning activity: • Have you used this learning activity in the past? What was your experience? • Would you be comfortable using this learning activity in the future? Why, or why not? • What do you anticipate might be the challenges to using this learning activity?

24. Minute Paper Activity • What was the most important thing you learned in this session (afternoon)? • What question(s) remain uppermost in your mind as we conclude this session? • (Write your responses anonymously on a slip of paper that you can hand in).

25. fin