scholarly journals Building Learning Communities in Residential Colleges

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-68
Author(s):  
Robyn L. Muldoon ◽  
◽  
Ian Macdonald ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Regional University ◽  
Traditional Lectures ◽  
The University ◽  
Senior Students

This paper addresses the retention issues presented when large numbers of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and associated disadvantaged educational histories live together on-campus. It reports research in progress on a new approach taken at the University of New England (UNE), Australia, aimed at encouraging the growth of learning communities in colleges through the training and subsequent support of senior students charged with helping first year students negotiate the transition to successful university study. It outlines the issues faced by both the first year students and the senior students, strategies implemented, outcomes to date and plans for further change. UNE is a regional university with 5,000 on-campus students, half of whom live in seven residential colleges. It appears that for these students, traditional lectures and workshops on learning strategies and techniques are not as effective as layered, personal ‘at the elbow’ learning support in a non-threatening, social environment.

Connecting First Year Students to Formal and Informal Learning Experiences

2013 ◽  
pp. 51-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa L. Johnson ◽  
Laura Pasquini ◽  
Michelle R. Rodems
Keyword(s):  
Learning Communities ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Of Florida ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University ◽  
First Year Seminar

This case study, an honors first year seminar from the University of Florida, USA, demonstrates the benefits and challenges of these developments in education. The case expands the definition of formal, informal, and online learning communities in the context of a first year seminar.

scholarly journals Forum on Conservation

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Harry F. Recher
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Front Page ◽  
First Year ◽  
Media Report ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
The Media ◽  
The University ◽  
Beach Pollution

When Malcolm Jones and I taught first year students in Resource Management at the University of New England early in the 1990s, we set a major project based on an analysis of media coverage of environmental issues. I particularly remember a report on water pollution on Sydney?s beaches. Using column inches, size of headlines, location in the newspapers, and frequency of reporting, the report showed with considerable statistical certainty that Sydney?s ocean waters were pristine prior to the start of the swimming season (no or few reports in the papers), became increasingly polluted as summer progressed (more column inches, bigger headlines), reached its highest levels at the height of summer (front page coverage) and then returned to purity as the summer waned and people returned to work and school (no or few reports in the papers). Total nonsense of course. In those days, before the deep water outfalls, beach pollution was a year round problem for Sydney, but the media reported the pollution only in summer when the maximum number of people were likely to be at the beaches and therefore interested in beach conditions and more likely to buy papers highlighting water quality issues. The media report events, whether they are politics, conflict, carnage, sex or the environment, which sell newspapers or attract viewers and listeners to television and radio. Our term project at UNE was designed not only as an exercise in data gathering, analysis and reporting, but was part of our programme of producing media savvy graduates.

scholarly journals Rolpersepsies van dosente van eerstejaars in die natuurwetenskappe: ’n Fokus op geslagsverskille

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Jacobs ◽  
Gerrie J. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Nontraditional Students ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
South African ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
School Performance ◽  
First Generation ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Generation Status ◽  
The University

A marked increase in student enrolments in South African public universities over the last two decades, allowed substantially more ‘nontraditional’ students into the sector. These students typically have unsatisfactory levels of school performance, lack communication skills (especially in English) and mostly have first-generation status. The Faculty of Science at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) established its First Year Academy (FYA) in 2007. The FYA, a community of practice for lecturers of first-year students, promotes optimal student learning, and expects lecturers to optimise their facilitation of learning strategies. Not much is known (research-wise) about role adaptions that lecturers of first-year students (especially in science faculties) are expected (forced?) to make in such circumstances. A literature-validated Likerttype questionnaire, involving 53 first-year lecturers (almost 60% females), was subsequently administered. The survey gathered perceptions in respect of eight literature-based roles that lecturers (could or should) play when dealing with first-year students, as well as their selfappraised competence in fulfilling these roles. The Mann-Whitney U-test revealed significant differences between the perceived role importance and competence of male and female lecturers in respect of certain roles. The study revealed a significant relationship between the gender and opinions (and also behaviours) of science lecturers for first-year students at UJ. Capacity building geared at the more proficient execution of the roles of course designer, teacher, course manager and peer consultant is regarded as vital. A tailor-made professional development programme is offered by the Faculty of Science’s FYA as of 2014.

scholarly journals Some aids in adaptation of first-year students at the classical university

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Starosta ◽  
Olena Popadich
Keyword(s):  
Living Conditions ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Organizational Skills ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Stress Fatigue ◽  
The University ◽  
Senior Students

The paper deals with peculiarities of adaptation features to the educational process of first-year students and the some factors (aids) which help them overcome emerging difficulties. Among the main tasks at this stage are the development of a questionnaire and conducting an electronic questionnaire among first-year students, identifying the main difficulties and analyzing positive and negative factors of student adaptation in the higher institutions. Some mains aids have been found to help first-year students overcome emerging difficulties. They are electronic resources in libraries, living conditions in the dormitories, relationships in student groups, receiving help from parents, relatives, fellow students, senior students, etc. Using electronic questionnaires, the diagnostics of adaptation of students to the educational process in conditions of the classical university has been conducted among 200 students in 2016 and 750 students in 2018. Most students have established relationships in their student group and think that the atmosphere in their group is favorable. Students get help from parents, relatives, fellow students, senior students and teachers, and students themselves help others as well. There should be more involvement of curators and teachers in adaptation of first-year students. It has been established that the renewed social environment, new living conditions are sufficiently favorable for the successful adaptation of students to the educational process in higher education. Some difficulties in the process of adaptation of first-year students to the university have both objective nature (unfamiliar lifestyle, new learning process, new forms and methods of studies, the need to study more by themselves, etc.), as well as subjective nature (poor school preparation, stress, fatigue caused by lectures, students’ own lack of organizational skills, and laziness, poor study skills, inability to prioritize, etc.). The empirical study proves that in the university conditions there are various factors during the adaptation of first-year students.

Senior Students’ Perceptions of Entering a Research Community

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug Brent
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Research Community ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Of Calgary ◽  
The University ◽  
Senior Students ◽  
The Universe

Most of the literature on the assignment traditionally called the research paper focusses on first-year students, and often centers on what they don’t know or can’t do. This article seeks to expand the conversation to one about the skills and knowledge displayed by senior students, and about their perceptions of the universe of academic research and their place in it. It does so by means of a qualitative study of 13 senior students at the University of Calgary. Through interviews, I probe their understanding of their own research processes, how they think they learned to do what they do, and, most important, their understanding of what it means to conduct academic research.

Refining Contrapuntal Pedagogy: Reflections on Teaching Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues” to First-Year Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Grogan
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Poetic Voice ◽  
Teaching Poetry ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
The University ◽  
The Way

This article reports on and discusses the experience of a contrapuntal approach to teaching poetry, explored during 2016 and 2017 in a series of introductory poetry lectures in the English 1 course at the University of Johannesburg. Drawing together two poems—Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues”—in a week of teaching in each year provided an opportunity for a comparison that encouraged students’ observations on poetic voice, racial identity, transhistorical and transcultural human experience, trauma and empathy. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on teaching practice within the context of decoloniality and to acknowledge the need for ongoing change and review in relation to it. In describing the contrapuntal teaching and study of these poems, and the different methods employed in the respective years of teaching them, I tentatively suggest that canonical Western and contemporary postcolonial poems may reflect on each other in unique and transformative ways. I further posit that poets and poems that engage students may open the way into initially “less relevant” yet ultimately rewarding poems, while remaining important objects of study in themselves.

Criteria and indicators associated with adaptation to the educational process of first-year students at the university

2021 ◽  
pp. 87-93
Author(s):  
Evgeniya N. Popova
Keyword(s):  
Research Topic ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
First Year ◽  
Higher Education Research ◽  
Adaptation Process ◽  
Adaptive Potential ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Self Development ◽  
The University

The issue of adaptation of modern first-year students to the educational process at the university is one of the current pedagogical tasks. Successful adaptation significantly affects the quality of received education, the degree of formation of personal and professional qualities, contributes to the development of motivation, self-education, and self-development. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the criteria, indicators, and levels of adaptation of first-year students to the learning process at the university. The material for the study was the domestic scientific sources of studying the peculiarities of the adaptation process of students to educational activities in higher education. Research methods: analysis and generalization of psychological-pedagogical and educational-methodical literature on the research topic. We determine as the main criteria for the adaptation of first-year students to the university, the adaptive potential and professionally important qualities of students, consider these concepts, their structure, and their basic properties. On the basis of the analysis and generalization of the existing indicators of the implementation of the adaptive potential, we formulate the author's indicators for determining the level of its development. The degree of formation of professionally important qualities of students are low, medium, and high levels of development of emotional intelligence, negative communicative attitude, intellectual lability, and stress tolerance.

Analsis e-learning status in Palestinian universities, a case study of Palestine Technical University KadoorieTulkarm

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Heba Almbayed
Keyword(s):  
Learning System ◽  
Simple Random Sample ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Academic Level ◽  
Computer Course ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Technical University ◽  
Palestinian Universities ◽  
The University

The study aimed to analyze the reality of e-learning at Palestine Technical University-Khudouri/Tulkarem, and to identify the most important challenges facing students when using the education system, as well as to analyze the extent to which university students interact with the e-learning system, and to show the differences between the average opinions of the study sample on e-learning according to the study variables due to the nature of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was used, in order to reach practical results, and to achieve and analyze the reality of e-learning  a questionnaire consisting of (34) paragraphs was designed, where the study community consisted of (6,559) students, and a simple random sample of (522) students was taken, and the questionnaire was distributed electronically because it was not able to be distributed manually due to the prevailing conditions _ the spread of the Corona pandemic- at the time of the preparation of the study. The results of the study showed that (63.136%) of the researched believe that the reality of e-learning at the university suffers from different problems. The study indicated that (87.97%) among respondents, complaints have increased in the e-learning system after the Corona pandemic and that (81.36%) among the researchers, the infrastructure was one of the most barriers in e-learning. While (63.934%)of the researched that e-learning has a role to play in achieving Interaction among students, as the results of the study showed no differences Statistically significant to the reality of e-learning according to the gender variable, and there are no differences depending on the variable of the scientific qualification except in the field of e-learning reality, there are also no differences Statistics according to the variable of the academic level ,except for the field of Interaction with students. In the light of the results of the study, a series of recommendations were made, the most prominent of which were: 1.Include an e-learning system item in The computer course assigned as a university requirement for first-year students 2. Provide opportunities to train and develop the capabilities of all educational parties to use and apply E-learning.

scholarly journals Error Analysis of Students Essays: A Case of First Year Students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Benjamin Amoakohene
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Error Analysis ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
The University

Writing is considered as a daunting task in second language learning. It is argued by most scholars that this challenge is not only limited to second language speakers of English but even to those who speak English as their first language. Thus, the ability to communicate effectively in English by both native and non-native speakers requires intensive and specialized instruction. Due to the integral role that writing plays in students’ academic life, academic literacy has garnered considerable attention in several English-medium universities in which Ghanaian universities are no exception. It is therefore surprising that prominence is not given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). In this paper, I argue for much time and space to be given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills, a programme that seeks to train students to acquire the needed skills and competence in English for their academic and professional development. This argument is based on the findings that came out after I explored the errors in a corpus of 50 essays written by first year students of  UHAS. The findings revealed that after going through the Communicative Skills programme for two semesters, students still have serious challenges of writing error-free texts. Out of the 50 scripts that were analyzed, 1,050 errors were detected. The study further revealed that 584 (55.6%) of these errors were related to grammatical errors, 442 (42.1%) were mechanical errors and 24 (2.3%) of the errors detected were linked to the poor structuring of  sentences. Based on these findings, recommendations and implications which are significant to educators, policy makers and curriculum developers are provided. This study has implications for pedagogy and further research in error analysis. 

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