TEACHSOC: First Year Courses

[Robert Hironimus-Wendt]

Hi Folks   I had to leave town this weekend, so was unable to respond to the brief discussion regarding the purpose / rationale for first year courses. My own perspective is a bit different from the previous comments, having worked with and supervised a first year seminar program at a small liberal arts institution for about 7 to 10 years, prior to taking my current position.   In the context of that small liberal arts, we created a first year seminar course in the fall semester (20 or so students per section), and had that same cohort enroll in the same first semester English section. The Seminar was an interdisciplinary, three credit, required for graduation course. The primary topic depended upon what the instructors wanted to teach. For example, my sections were always focused on childhood poverty. In most cases, the seminar was considered a credited course within the major, although it did not replace the introductory course – it was simply a free elective within the major. In this way, the integrity of the major was retained. The seminar was not however, simple another course within the major (e.g., course proliferation was frowned upon). The seminar actually had four foci, or substantive content domains, that we felt high school graduates needed to learn if they were to be successful at the college level.   The first content area was critical thinking skills. Regardless of who taught each section, we wanted faculty to explore with students different “ways of knowing.” In my class, we compared authoritarian vs. rational vs. scientific modes of determining the truth value of beliefs. We also focused upon value statements regarding poverty, the poor, etc.   Second, each section of the course was intended to include a substantial experiential learning component. For those who know me, service learning was a dominant theme in my courses, but in fact, I learned all I know about service learning from observing and evaluating the service learning practices of many colleagues who explored this pedagogy across several disciplines. Alternatively, some folks used differ forms of experiential learning that would not be considered service learning, but did immerse their students in the local community in some way (a focus on our curriculum was upon civic responsibility).   Third, we wanted our students to have a formal setting through which they could come to better understand issues of student life. However, we did not rely upon 30 – 60 professors to teach this component. Instead, we had 2 “SOS“ (student orientation staff) members attached to each section (typically chosen by the individual faculty but not always). These advance students were trained extensively in the summer, and received three credits for what might otherwise be considered a leadership course. The expectations upon the SOS staff both fixed, and fluid. There were six topics that they were required to teach, such as drug and alcohol awareness issues, safe relationships, etc. I used mine within the class, and required them to be there on Monday and Friday (one on each day). They freely addressed student issues as necessary (e.g., homesickness), and sometimes asked me to leave the room.   The fourth focus was upon content domain (e.g., Childhood Poverty). We read books like Kozol’s Amazing Grace, and Kotlowitz’s There Are No Children Here. We also read some sociological stuff (e.g., Schwalbe’s Sociologically Examined Life). However, my focus here was on using the “how can I know” emphasis of the core curriculum, to examine both sociology, and poverty. I wanted my students at the end of the semester not to be experts on sociology, nor even “ready” to take sociology courses. I wanted them to know how to learn, how to find answers, how to articulate their own moral standpoints effectively, and how to succeed in other courses. I wanted them to know how to deal with the dramatic diversity of faculty perceptions on what is expected from students, etc.   As Maxine has noted, one element in this approach to the core curriculum was upon student retention. Hence, we saw value in creating strong cohorts by having these students take two classes together, rather than just the first year seminar. Our belief was that is we simply created one course for first year students, from the students’ perspectives it would just be one of those “drudgery” courses that all first year student were “forced” to take. In the English course, the faculty focused upon critical reading and critical writing skills. Often, the two faculty members (e.g., seminar and English) worked together. For example, my colleagues knew what my students were reading, and framed their reading and writing assignments around my course content. Our retention rates did go up dramatically from first to second year.   In hindsight, I really think the model we developed at that small liberal arts was pretty solid. Of course there was faculty resistance, and there were logistical issues (particularly for the registrar and provost, but also for departments). But it seemed to really work well for our students to have some structure set aside to help high school students transition into college students. I have seen other models (including one here at Western) that I do not think are as likely to succeed, if the focus in on learning how to learn.   Peace to all, Robert   Robert J. Hironimus-Wendt, Ph.D. Sociology and Anthropology Western Illinois University 1 University Circle Macomb, IL 61455-1390 phone: (309) 298-1081 fax: (309) 298-1857 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   "It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If   you don't use your power for positive change, you   are indeed part of the problem, helping to keep   things the way they are."     -Coretta Scott King --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to teachsoc@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---