Bringing Educational Relevancy to the First-Year College Experience by Bearing Witness to Social Problems

An environmental learning community (LC) is presented as a working model that brings relevancy of higher education to first-year college students. The LC includes two primarily lecture courses—one in biology, one in economics—that have been specifically designed to focus on environmental issues from different perspectives. These courses share the same, first-year students. Each student researches an aspect of a particular environmental/health issue in Toms River, New Jersey, where there is a groundwater pollution problem that may be associated with a childhood cancer cluster found there. As part of their research, the students are taken to Toms River, Trenton, New Jersey, and Manhattan, where they listen to, and interview cancer victims, community activists, corporate officials, attorneys, developers, state and federal regulators, and others connected in some way with the Toms River environmental/human health situation. The students tour a Superfund site in Toms River, as well as a water analysis facility used by state officials in Trenton. The LC also includes a third course that is not taught using a traditional lecture format, but instead is student interactive, and allows for discussion and reflection regarding the environmental theme and the experiential component of the Toms River Project. The effectiveness of the LC with and without the Toms River Project was analyzed using the same survey questions in 1998 (without the Toms River Project), and 1999 (with the project). This LC was also compared with the other LCs presented during those years as part of the Wagner College First-Year Program. Results clearly show that the LC dramatically improved from 1998 to 1999. The 1999 environmental LC also stood out favorably when compared with the other LCs. We conclude that, when the experiential component of a learning community is relevant to the theme of the LC, is project-based, and involves faculty, the experience improves student interest, brings importance to the lecture material, stimulates critical thinking, and increases student understanding of civic responsibility.

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The Study Skills of First Year Education Students and Their Academic Performance

IAMURE International Journal of Education ◽

10.7718/iamure.ije.v6i1.494 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

MARIA NANCY Q. CADOSALES

Keyword(s):

Academic Performance ◽

Study Skills ◽

College Of Education ◽

First Year ◽

Note Taking ◽

Chi Square ◽

First Year Students ◽

College Life ◽

First Year College ◽

First Year College Students

First year students take time to adjust to college life. A number of priorities are considered in order to survive in the tertiary level. One of which is complying with the academic requirements. The study described the study skills of the first year students in the College of Education, La Salle University, Ozamiz City, Philippines. The framework used in identifying the study skills of the first year students was adopted from Lucas and Corpuz (2007:4).These study skills were correlated to the students’ academic performance using Kendall’s Tau B, Chi-square, and Multiple Regression tests. There were 128 first year students who were taken as respondents of the study. The study reveals that the first year students have the skills in organizing and planning their work, preparing assignments or projects, and note-taking and reading. The students’ skills in organizing and planning one’s work; working with others and utilizing resources and feedback; note-taking and reading; and preparing an assignment/project correlate with their grades. The best predictor of students’ academic performance is note-taking and reading. First year college students need to develop the habit of studying their lessons, reading, and taking down notes to improve their academic performance.Keywords: Education, study skills, academic performance, descriptive design, Philippines

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Do First-Year College Students' Expectations Align with their First-Year Experiences?

NASPA Journal ◽

10.2202/0027-6014.1470 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Joshua S. Smith ◽

Ellen C Wertlieb

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Transition To College ◽

First Year ◽

Academic Expectations ◽

Social Expectations ◽

First Year Students ◽

Grade Point ◽

First Year College ◽

First Year College Students ◽

First Year Experiences

First-year college students expectations about "what college is like" do not always align with their actual experiences. This study examined 31 first-year students social and academic expectations and compared those expectations with students' experiences at the middle and end of their first year of college. Paired t tests revealed that students' academic and social expectations did not align with their first-year experiences. Academic and social expectations/experiences were not statistically significant predictors of first-year academic achievement. However, students with unrealistic high social or academic expectations had lower first-year grade point averages (GPAs) than students with average or below-average expectations. Recommendations for increasing high school and college collaboration to assist students with the transition to college are included.

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Assisting students to identify sources: an investigation

Library Review ◽

10.1108/lr-07-2013-0100 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 63 (8/9) ◽

pp. 624-636 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Allison Faix

Keyword(s):

Evaluation Process ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Content Type ◽

First Year College ◽

Different Types ◽

Literacy Course ◽

First Year College Students ◽

Types Of Information ◽

Writing Instructors

Purpose – This study aims to look at three classes of first-year students enrolled in an Information Literacy course and examines the difficulties these students encountered when attempting to identify different types of information. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, 41 annotated bibliography assignments, in which students were required to state which type of source they had chosen and why were examined and trends in the misidentification of sources were analysed. Findings – Students in the study misidentified half of the sources they used, and struggled equally when identifying sources they located through library databases and the Internet. Trends in the misidentification of these sources were analysed, leading to recommendations for assisting students with learning how to identify sources. Research limitations and implications – Although the sample size of this study was small, further research into how students identify different types of information would help librarians develop further strategies for teaching source identification as a first step in the source evaluation process. Originality/value – Librarians and writing instructors often collaborate to help first-year college students learn how to evaluate the sources they use in research projects, but often overlook making sure these students can first correctly identify the different types of information they are evaluating.

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Creating a Successful Transition for Working-Class First-Year Students

Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention ◽

10.24926/jcotr.v20i1.2820 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Krista M. Soria

Keyword(s):

Working Class ◽

Campus Climate ◽

Research University ◽

Upper Class ◽

First Year ◽

Student Orientation ◽

First Year Students ◽

First Year College ◽

First Year College Students ◽

Public Research Universities

This study explored differences between working-class and middle/upper-class first-year college students enrolled at large, public research universities. Results from administering the Student Experience in the Research University survey at 11 universities in 2010 (n = 23,331) suggest that working-class first-year students reported a less welcoming campus climate, lower academic engagement, higher academic disengagement, and fewer academic interactions with classmates compared with middle/upper-class students. Recommendations for first-year transition programs and new student orientation practitioners are discussed.

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Three-Wave Longitudinal Survey on the Relationship between Neuroticism and Depressive Symptoms of First-Year College Students: Addictive Use of Social Media as a Moderated Mediator

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17176074 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (17) ◽

pp. 6074

Author(s):

Weiqi Mu ◽

Dongyun Zhu ◽

Yanhong Wang ◽

Fugui Li ◽

Liyuan Ye ◽

...

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Social Media ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

First Year ◽

Psychological Resilience ◽

First Year Students ◽

First Year College ◽

First Year College Students ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

The Relationship

First-year college students’ adaptation problems and related mental health have attracted researchers’ attention. The current research focuses on the depressive symptoms of first-year college students and aims to explore the relationship between the neuroticism trait and depressive symptoms, the mediating effect of addictive use of social media, and the moderating effect of psychological resilience. Three-wave longitudinal data from 1128 first-year students at a university in Fujian Province, China, were collected within three months of their enrollment. PROCESS macro for SPSS with bootstrapping was used to test the model. Results showed that the prevalence of moderate to severe severity of depressive symptoms in first-year students was 10.28% (T1) and 11.17% (T3). Addictive use of social media (T2) plays a moderated mediator role in the relationship between neuroticism (T1) and depressive symptoms (T3) of first-year students. Specifically, a low neuroticism individual does not necessarily have a less addictive use of social media. Psychological resilience (T1) moderated the above mediation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Female First-Year Students Preceptions of Orientation Programs

Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention ◽

10.24926/jcotr.v8i1.2516 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Beverly G. Dyer ◽

Daniel P. Nadler ◽

Michael T. Miller

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Transition To College ◽

Female College Students ◽

First Year ◽

Orientation Programs ◽

First Year Students ◽

First Year College ◽

Cas Standards ◽

First Year College Students

Female college students experience unique dimensions to their transition to college. Traditional orientation programming has begun to address the needs of female students, but these efforts have typically not provided the holistic attention deserving of this population. The current report was a case study of 605 female first-year college students, their perceptions of an orientation program based on the CAS Standards, and the differences between Multi-Ethnic and Caucasian females.

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Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their First-Year College Experiences

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph182211822 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (22) ◽

pp. 11822

Author(s):

Stefania D. Petcu ◽

Dalun Zhang ◽

Yi-Fan Li

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

First Year College ◽

Students With Autism ◽

Spectrum Disorders ◽

First Year College Students ◽

Using Data

Using data from the 2019 CIRP Freshman Survey and the Your First College Year (YFCY) from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, this study explores the differences between the characteristics and behaviors of the first-year students with autism spectrum disorders (17) and those of students with learning disabilities (102). The findings indicate that the characteristics of these two groups of first-year college students were similar except for gender, ethnicity, first college generation, and parents’ income. Compared with first-year college students with LD, students with ASD were less likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors, use health services and the writing center.

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Exploring First-Year College Students’ Cultural Competence

Journal of Transformative Education ◽

10.1177/1541344616686552 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 241-263 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

D. Scott Tharp

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Cultural Competence ◽

Transformational Learning ◽

Lesson Plan ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

First Year College ◽

Core Concepts ◽

Diverse World ◽

First Year College Students

The development of college students’ cultural competence is important in an increasingly diverse world. This exploratory, qualitative, action research study examined how 158 first-year students understood and applied core concepts after participating in a standardized diversity and social justice lesson plan designed using transformative education principles. Three student affairs staff conducted content analysis on credit-bearing reflection papers submitted after participation in the lesson plan. Data were manually coded and collectively analyzed revealing themes regarding students’ abilities to accurately discuss multiple core concepts, demonstrate internalized responsibility, and indicate self-growth, all of which were related to students’ conceptual understanding and intrapersonal application of concepts. Implications are discussed for designing curricular and cocurricular diversity initiatives that utilize a multiplicity of concepts and social identities, promote intrapersonal development, and explore systems of privilege and oppression as part of the transformational learning process.

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Survey Response and its Relationship to Educational Outcomes among First-Year College Students

Journal of College Student Retention Research Theory & Practice ◽

10.2190/61b3-ktkc-wcre-rh1n ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 413-423 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sherry A. Woosley

Keyword(s):

Educational Outcomes ◽

Survey Response ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Grade Point ◽

First Semester ◽

First Year College ◽

Percentile Rank ◽

Second Year ◽

First Year College Students

This study focused on survey response, which was defined simply as the completion of a survey. It examined connections between survey response and college student characteristics. It also investigated whether survey response predicted educational outcomes, including retention. The study focused on a cohort of first-year students at a mid-size, 4-year public university. Eighty percent of the students responded to a survey administered during their first semester. Survey response was linked with high school percentile rank and sex. Survey response was also a significant predictor of first semester grade point average and retention to the second year. The findings suggest that survey non-response may be an early warning indicator for first-year students. Also, the findings suggest that research based on surveys may be overlooking a sub-population (non-responders) that could affect the validity of those models.

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Getting a “quick fix”: First-year college students’ use of Wikipedia

First Monday ◽

10.5210/fm.v20i10.5401 ◽

2015 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

John C. Garrison

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Liberal Arts ◽

College Faculty ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

First Semester ◽

First Year College ◽

Balanced Approach ◽

Liberal Arts Students ◽

First Year College Students

College students use Wikipedia frequently, despite educators’ highly divided opinions about it, and so it is important to understand how and why they are using it. This study followed a first-year class of undergraduate, liberal arts students over the course of their first semester to see how they used, were influenced about, and rated Wikipedia. Data was collected via two surveys of the first-year class, as well as focus groups and a survey of college faculty. This study found that first-year students are uncertain about the variety of ways to use information sources like Wikipedia, and that a direct and balanced approach to this area from instructors may lead to better outcomes than strict prohibition or silence.

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