Increasing Academic Rigor in First-Year Seminar Courses Christine Harrington Ph.D. Executive Director, NJ Center for Student Success www.scholarlyteaching.org
Agenda Student Academic Expectations and Experiences Current Practices: Rigor in First-Year Courses? First-Year Seminar Courses: Raising the Bar and Raising the Support 2
STUDENT ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCES 3
Prediction Time Most students walk into college expecting it to be challenging. What percentage of first year students report that that their experience matched their expectation? a. 5% b. 17% c. 48% d. 79% 4
Student Expectations Drop After Starting College (Meyer, Spencer, & French 2009) Before Starting College…. Almost everyone expected college to be a lot of work 5
Student Expectations Drop After Starting College (Meyer, Spencer, & French 2009) First Year Students Percent 70 60 60 50 40 30 Percent 17 20 10 0 Less Rigorous than Matched Expectation Expected 6
How Much Should Students Study? 7
The Orientation Message…. Plan to study 2-3 hours outside of class for every hour you are in class. http://www.collegeparents.org/members/resources/articles/ your-college-student-investing-enough-time-studying 8
So How Much Do Students Study? First-Year Student Average Student Average of Average of 17 hours 13-14 hours per week per week (at 4 year universities) https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/ http://college.usatoday.com/2014/08/18/how-much-do- periodicals/what-student-engagement-data-tell-us- you-study-apparently-17-hours-a-week-is-the-norm/ about-college-readiness 9
What We Say and What We Do… Two Different Stories 2-3 hours Not really! per class hour! (Schilling & Schilling, 1999) 10
Another Example Wyatt, Saunders, & Zelmer (2005) Interestingly…. 30 Student expectations 25 were related to grade! 20 Faculty 15 Students So…. 10 Faculty are not requiring students to 5 engage in effort they expect 0 Hours for "A" Hours for "B" 11
CURRENT PRACTICES: RIGOR IN FIRST -YEAR COURSES? 12
An Unfortunate Relationship Less likely it is used by faculty More likely an activity facilitates critical thinking Lawrence, Serdikoff, Zinn & Baker (2008) 13
A Lack of Learning at College? Roska & Anum 2011 Only 45% of college students report being asked to engage in significant reading and writing 14
Any Good News? Roska & Anum 2011 Students with professors who DO EXPECT significant reading and writing DO SPEND more time studying. 15
Students Generally Do What is Expected Kuh, Laird, & Umbach (2004) Expect Students to: Write Read Think Critically And they will! 16
The First Semester Really Matters! “What is required of students in their first semester appears to play a strong role in shaping the time investments made in academic work by students in their last semester of their senior year.” (Schilling & Schilling, 2006, 8) 17
Why Aren’t We Challenging Students? Fear of negative evaluations or student complaints Discouraged by prior attempts not resulting in desired Increased workload Lack of support by administration (Stewart & Schlegel, 2009; Lei et al., 2010; Lawrence, Serdikoff, Zinn & Baker, 2008) 18
CURRENT PRACTICES AND RECOMMENDATIONS 19
Types of First-Year Seminar Courses Extended Orientation Academic- Uniform Content Academic- Variable Content Basic Study Skills http://www.sc.edu/fye/ 20
A Brief Look at the History of the Freshman Seminar Course Extended Orientation Format 100 90 80 70 60 50 Extended Orientation Format 40 30 20 10 0 2000 2003 2006 2009 2013 Source: http://www.sc.edu/fye/research/survey_cycle/index.html Note: The samples are different so caution must be used when looking at longitudinal trends 21
The Growth of Academic Seminars 80 71 70 60.4 60 50 40 29.4 28.7 1991 30 2012 16.4 20 12.1 7 6 10 0 Extended Academic- Academic- Study Skills Orientation Uniform Variable Content Content Young & Keup (2014) http://www.sc.edu/fye/research/research_presentations/files/2014/ACPA%202014%20DGY_JKeup.pdf 22
The Current State of the Freshman Seminar Course Orientation Approximately 40% Academic- General Approximately 40% Academic- Discipline Specific Study Skills http://www.sc.edu/fye/research/surveys/survey_instruments/pdf/Executive_Summaries_2013_National_Survey_FirstYearSeminars.pdf 23
First-Year Courses are NOT all Equal (Ryan & Glenn 2004) First Semester Students Socialization Learning No Course Focused, Theme- Strategy-based (1354) based (66) (77) MORE LIKELY TO BE IN SCHOOL ONE YEAR LATER 24
Helpful for ALL Students… Good Academic Standing Academic Probation Retention from Retention from First- First-Second Year Second Year 57 100 60 84 75 50 80 66 40 60 28 30 21 40 20 Retention Retention from First- from First- 20 10 Second Year Second Year 0 0 Ryan & Glenn (2004) 25
What FYE Course Factors Matter? Porter & Swing, 2006 FYE Course Factors: • Study Skills and Academic Engagement • Campus Policies • Campus Engagement • Peer Connections • Health Education Survey Participants: 45 Institutions, 20,031 Students 26
Results…. FYE FACTORS SUCCESS • Study Skills • Higher intent and to persist Academic (even after for Engagement accounting for institution and • Health student Education characteristics) Porter & Swing, 2006 27
The Future of First-Year Seminar Increased Academic Rigor ◦ Critical Thinking ◦ Information Literacy 28
Call for Challenge is Not New Chickering and Gamson 1987 7 Principles for Undergraduate Education “Expect more and you will get more. High expectations are important for everyone -- for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated.” 29
Raise the Bar, Raise the Support 30
Setting Challenging Goals: The ABC’S Goal Setting Framework ABCS Aim High Believe in Yourself Care and Commit Specify and Self-Reflect Harrington(2016) Student Success in College: Doing What Works! 31
Depression: Is there a Downside to Challenging Goals? Reynolds & Baird (2010) • Ages 14-22 • 12,686 participants 1979 • 9,016 participants 1992 • 4,892 participants Highest Degree 32
Goal Attainment? Reynolds & Baird (2010) Percentage 60 50 40 30 Percentage 20 10 0 Fell Short of Goal Achieved Goal Exceeded Goal 33
Results… Go Ahead Challenge Your Students No evidence of “emotional cost” (depression) for unrealized goals Higher expectations were associated with lower levels of depression 34
Learning Outcomes Critical Information Thinking Literacy 35
Do Critical Thinking Exercises Work? Completing isolated “critical thinking” exercises doesn’t work 16 14 12 10 Pre-test 8 Post-test 6 4 2 0 GALT CCTST Cotter and Tarry (2009) p= .084 p = .074 36
More Involved Research Assignments Work! 9 8 7 6 5 Pre-test 4 Post-test 3 2 1 0 PsychBuster Project No project Pre-test-not significantly different Post-test-significantly different at p < .0005 Blessing and Blessing (2010) 37
Challenging Activities that Promote Productive, Critical Thinking… Summaries and critiques of articles, websites, or other • readings Debates • Case studies • Research papers or presentations • On-line or in-person discussions • Edmund (2008) 38
Information Literacy and Critical Thinking Need to be explicitly taught- must carefully craft our assignments and not leave it to chance (Hayes-Bohanan & Spievak, 2008) 39
Skills Needed “it is evident that students can find information, but have great difficulty interacting with and understanding what they are reading.” Ludovico & Wittig (2015), p. 37 40
Using Research to Increase Academic Rigor in First-Year Seminar Courses Harrington (2016) Student Success in College: Doing What Works! 2 nd Edition 41
Active Reading, Critical Thinking, and Information Literacy Active Reading Information Literacy Critical Thinking 42
Increase Rigor, Increase Support Harrington (2016) Student Success in College: Doing What Works! 2 nd Edition 43
Assessment Data: Good News- GPA Middlesex County College NJ 2.1 2.04 2.05 2.03 2.01 2 1.98 1.97 1.97 2007/2008 1.95 1.92 2010/2011 1.9 2013 1.86 2014 1.85 1.8 1.75 Cumulative GPA Term GPA 2007/2008 Not Using Research Approach 2010/2011 Using Research Approach 2013/2014 Using Consistent Resource with Research Approach 44
The Population- It’s Working Despite More Students in Lowest Developmental Courses Middlesex County College NJ 1000 863 900 800 700 600 2007/2008 500 428 368 400 2010/2011 300 200 2007/2008 63 100 1931 Students 19% RDG 009 0 RDG 009 ENG 009 2010/2011 2996 Students 29% RDG 009 45
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