Symposium on Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience: First-Year Track

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Betsy O. Barefoot

John N. Gardner

Vicki McGillin

Sara Stein Koch

Felita Williams

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Getting to Know You

In groups of 4:

Introduce yourself, your institutional role and your experience in improving the beginning college experience

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In groups of 4:

Share one element of your first- year student experience that is

not working, and /or

one element of your first-year student experience that is working

Clarifying the definition of first year

John Gardner

Some things we know about the U.S. first year of higher education:�

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• It has many varieties, forms, and outcomes.
• It has a long-established tradition in U.S. higher education (1636 and beyond)
• It is constantly changing (most recently by pandemic)
• Has many traditions (white, male dominated)
• Has only been racially and gender integrated since 1964 but is now re-segregating (especially flagship R 1’s)
• Is something we create and determine to a significant extent
• Has high failure and dropout rates
• Is a marginalized, relatively low-status experience for both students and educators
• Has historic purposes which need to be rethought (make money, weed out, spare powerful people from having to deal with first year students)

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Terms Defined:

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First year (a time period, number of credits, descriptor of students)

When and where does the first year begin?

When does it end? (i.e., when do you close it out and how?)

Freshman—a noun, standing for a single student vs an adjective, now politically incorrect but still widely used descriptor. (plural, Freshmen)

Freshman Year Experience—concept coined in 1982, terminology officially revised in 1998 to “first-year experience.”

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• A philosophy about how first-year students should be treated and valued
• A “program,” intervention, initiative
• An intentional set of learning experiences offered during the first year of college.
• Initiative(s) with goal of increasing first-to-second year retention.
• A course, particularly a first-year seminar, student/college success course (this is perhaps most widely used meaning of the term)
• A conference series since 1982 organized by the University of South Carolina
• A center supporting higher educators founded in 1987 at the University of South Carolina
• A registered trademark owned by the University of South Carolina
• A set of curricular and/or co-curricular experiences for new students YOU offer at your institution

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First-Year Experience

(please note the hyphen!) meaning:

Why Does the First Year Matter?

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Because it is the time period that encompasses experiences whereby:

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• A significant percentage of students will voluntarily decide not to return
• Students make many choices/decisions that lay the foundation for the outcomes of college they will ultimately derive.
• Students acquire an influential group of peers.
• Students develop college level study habits.
• Students increase their time invested in educationally meaningful experiences.
• Students may have meaningful interactions with faculty outside of class.
• Students choose a major field of study and/or change that intended major.
• Students develop formative attitudes towards their new educational setting.
• A process of separation from pre-college aspects of life may begin in earnest.
• The student outcomes provide an important baseline of assessment.

Theoretical Underpinnings for First -Year Success

What’s Timeless, What’s New

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Betsy Barefoot, EdD

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A Simple Model for Student Success: IEO

Astin, A. W. (1977). Four critical years: Effects of college on beliefs, attitudes,

and knowledge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Input: Student life experiences, characteristics

Environment: What happens in college

Output: Value added. How are students different as they leave college?

Inputs are Numerous. Impact is Varied

• Student characteristics and life experiences

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• Remember Maslow (1943). For students to be motivated to learn, physiological and safety needs must be met- Food, shelter, sleep, absence of danger or frightening unpredictability

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• Recent research on the impact of trauma – either current or past

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The Effects of Childhood Trauma on College Completion. (2022). Natalie Lecy and Philip Osteen. Research in Higher Education, volume 63, pages 1058–1072.

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• Implications for Practice: A trauma-informed approach to higher education includes

• fostering an environment of safety
• being trustworthy and transparent
• utilizing peer support
• collaborating and working toward mutually agreed upon goals
• empowerment, voice, and choice
• consideration of cultural, historical, and gender issues

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A Focus on Your “E” - the Environment

• While inputs can be controlled or mediated to some extent, your campus environment is much easier to control.
• What kinds of environments matter most for student success?
• Intentionality – down with serendipity

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Considering the Theoretical Guideposts

• Which of these theories guide your current work?
• Institutional Fit (A Sense of Belonging) – Tinto
• Commitment/Motivation (Essential student attitudes) - Tinto
• Social and Academic Integration* (Learning Rules of the Culture) - Tinto
• Involvement* (How students act, especially out of class) - A. Astin
• Engagement* (How learning environments are designed) – Kuh

*Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Kelly Ward, Jillian Kinzie (2009). A Tangled Web of Terms: The Overlap and Unique Contribution of Involvement, Engagement, and Integration to Understanding College Student Success. Journal of College Student Development 50(4):407-428, DOI:10.1353/csd.0.0077.

• Self-Efficacy/Mindset - Bandura, Dweck
• Validation Theory - Rendon

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From the Old to the New: �Self-Efficacy and Mindset

• Self-efficacy. Original work of Albert Bandura.

Bandura, A (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psychological Review. 84 (2): 191–215.

Definition: individuals’ beliefs in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments

• Building Self-Efficacy
• Celebrate Your Success. Seek ‘mastery experiences,’ not easy wins.
• Observe Others. Peer modeling – people ‘like you.’
• Seek Positive Affirmations. Avoid those who are overly critical.
• Manage Your Thoughts and Emotions.
• Mindset. Recent work of Carol S. Dweck

Dweck, C. S. (2007). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballentine Books.

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More discussion of ‘Mindset’ later in the Symposium.

Validation Theory.

The work of Laura Rendon and others� �

• Each student wants to know –
• I matter (N. Schlossberg, 1989).
• Somebody cares about me.
• I can be a valuable member of this college community.
• What I bring to the college classroom is as valuable as what others think and know (student voice).
• The curriculum reflects who I am (inclusivity).
• What does it take to get into and complete college – what is my clear pathway toward goal achievement?

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Laura Rendon. (1994). Validating culturally diverse students: Toward a new model of learning and student development.

Innovative Higher Education. Volume 19, pages 33–51.

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Impact of Validation – It’s Not About Coddling Students

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• Belief that “I can do it”
• Belief in my inherent capacity to learn
• Being excited about learning
• Feeling that I am a part of the learning community
• Being motivated or driven
• Feeling that I am cared about as a person, not just as a student

Your Thoughts

• Which of these theoretical ideas resonates with you?

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• Which is most relevant to your institution?

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• How might you be more intentional in converting theory to practice?

When the first year begins and for whom

Vicki McGillin, PhD

Small Group Exercise

Gather in institutional teams or in groups of 2-3

Mission and the First-Year Experience

• Pull up your institutional mission statement (or select one to use in mixed teams)
• Review that statement
• Can you identify any language that would apply to the experiences of first-year students?
• Where/what language?
• How (if at all) could your mission guide your work developing a first- year experience appropriate for your students?

Consider your mission

• How are your students identified in your mission (if at all)?
• Who are your first-year students? Consider all relevant identities…
• When does the first year begin for your students?
• For all students?
• When should it begin?

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• When does your first year end?
• How does it end?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

Mindset

• Growth Mindset / Fixed Mindset
• Student mindset
• Faculty mindset

Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset

• Dweck, C.(2007) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Robinson Press

Faculty Mindset & Student Performance

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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

The first-year seminar: then and now

Betsy Barefoot, EdD

• Definition
• “a small group of first-year students, as in a college or university, engaged in study and research under a member of the faculty and meeting regularly to exchange information and hold discussions.”
• Offered since the 1880s
• Class size? ~25 or fewer students.
• Not a lecture course
• A course that examines a topic in depth
• How to be a successful college student, or a successful major in . . . . ., or a topic of the instructor’s interest
• Interaction-intensive
• Now can be offered face-to-face or online.

What is

a seminar?

The First-Year Seminar

• A different kind of teaching
• More personal
• More holistic
• More ambiguous
• May be less driven by the need to cover content than students’ needs

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• Teaching this course is not everyone’s “cup of tea.”

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• Most first-year seminars struggle for credibility because they sit outside of traditional disciplines (analogous to ‘home room’ or a ‘spare room’ in the curriculum).

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Your First-Year Seminar (Discussion)

• Structure – Credit, credit hours, required for some or all?
• Longevity – any recent changes?
• Content – common across all sections; theme based?
• Instructors – selection, training, rewards?
• Peer leaders?
• Problems – student attitudes, instructor attitudes, support from institution?

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Betsy’s Recommendations for Your Consideration

• Structure – credit, contact hours, required/voluntary
• Content
• Selection of instructors
• Peer leaders
• Providing choice
• Inclusive teaching (consult the Internet for lots of ideas)

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*Inclusive teaching should happen in any course but has a special role to play in the first-year seminar.

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Common Course Challenges

• Absence of clear goals apart from retention. Courses often try to accomplish too much.
• Student resistance: “Why should I take this course?”
• Faculty buy-in: Obtaining and sustaining faculty commitment. “Why should I teach this course?”
• Scaling: Without proper planning, a course can sink under its own weight.
• Teaching the seminar online

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What are your most significant challenges in delivering

the first-year seminar?

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Recent Changes to

The

First-Year Seminar

• Increasing flexibility of content

• More reliance on online delivery

How has your course changed in recent years?

Emerging from COVID –

How is the first year different?

How should the first-year seminar respond?

• In what ways have your students changed post COVID?
• In what ways has the institution changed post COVID?
• Suggestions for you
• More than ever, build and maintain personal relationships with your students. Be alert for the ongoing effects of fear and trauma.
• Be flexible. If flexibility isn’t your strength, cultivate it now!
• Focus on “mental mindset” – perseverance, grit, emotional intelligence, outlook, optimism vs. pessimism.
• Don’t forget a focus on time management, resource management, energy management.
• Make sure students are utilizing your services - academic advising, personal counseling, career planning
• Embrace change in courses and programs as needed.

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And Finally - Why Should a College or University Offer a First-Year Seminar?

1. First-year seminars provide the missing information (beyond the curriculum) that many, if not most, students need.
2. First-year seminars provide an immediate support group.
3. First-year seminars enable close interactions with instructors and upper-level students.
4. First-year seminars often (but not always) generate higher levels of student retention.

Prepare for concurrent sessions

Felita Williams, PhD

Attend the concurrent sessions

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Look for lessons learned and outcomes that you can replicate when you return to your institutions?

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Ask others how they will share what’s learned at the Symposium with their institutional colleagues?

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Begin a plan for how will you share with your institutional colleagues?

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Day 2

Reflection

Sara Stein Koch, PhD

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Themes

reframing the first two years

defining the first year

theory

mindset

first-year seminar

relationships & connection

peer mentorship

curriculum development (anti racist and wickedly relevant)

equity gaps & dual enrollment

student responsibility

Heard Learned Remembered

Belonging and relationships

Vicki McGillin, PhD

In

Intersecting Modes of Belonging

In

Higher

Education

What we know now about belonging

• Belonging-
• A student’s sense of belonging improves academic outcomes, increases continuing enrollment, and is protective for mental health. Belonging might have a longitudinal effect.
• Students cannot just be told they belong; they must experience belonging
• Providing a more adaptive interpretation of challenge helps students make alternative/adaptive attributions for their struggles, forestalling a potential negative impact on their sense of belonging.
• Intervention
• Acknowledge challenges are expected in transitions
• Communicate that most students experience challenges
• Communicate that belonging is a process that takes time
• Use student examples of challenges and resolutions

What we now know about relationships

• Every student must experience genuine welcome and deep care
• Every student must be inspired to learn
• Every student must develop a web of significant relationships
• Every student must explore questions of meaning and purpose

What we now know about relationships

Institutions must value:

(1) Students,

(2) The efforts faculty and staff put into relationship building,

(3) High-quality teaching,

(4) Webs of human interactions, and

(5) Engagement over prestige.

What we now know about relationships

• Mentoring conversations create space for students to be heard and to be human.
• Mentoring conversations include “nitty-gritty” guidance and knowledge.
• Mentoring conversations include “warm handoffs” that facilitate yet more relationships.
• Mentoring conversations are especially important during low moments in students’ lives.
• Mentoring conversations leave legacies.

What we now know about resilience

Resilience: “The process of, capacity for, or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances.” (Masten, Best & Garmezy, 1990)

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Role of Internal & External Protective Factors in Promoting Resilience

1. Reduce the impact of the risk factors
2. Reduce/break the negative chain reaction from exposure to stress
3. Enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy
4. Offer access to critical resources & skills (Nettles & Plack, 1994)

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Resilience develops when a vulnerable person accesses both internal (e.g. Growth Mindset/Sense of Belonging/Self-Efficacy) and external (Belonging/Relationships) protective factors

Not the first-year seminar

Felita Williams, PhD

High Impact Practices (HIPs)

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●Internships

●Learning Communities

●Service Learning

●Community Based Learning

●Undergraduate Research

●Capstone Course/Projects

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●ePortfolios

●Common Intellectual Experiences

●Diversity

●Global Learning

● Writing Intensive Courses

●Collaborative Assignments & Projects

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HIPs Key Characteristics

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Challenge and Time

Interaction and Diversity

Feedback and Reflection

Real World and Public

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University wide efforts to increase HIPs

Diversity and Global Learning

Scaling

diversity,

equity, &

inclusion

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Small Rural State College

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Think- Pair- Share

1.Share an institutional strategy that’s working at your institution with your table partners.

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2.Discuss a strategy you would like to replicate at your institution.

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3.Volunteer to share with the room.

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Envisioning an excellent first college year

John Gardner

https://www.jngi.org/foundations-of-excellence

Telling your institution’s story

John Gardner

Every Institution Has a Story. What is Yours?

This matters because it will become part of your students’ stories!

• Is it your history? Is it your traditions? Do any apply to the first year?

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• Is it how you want to be thought of today?

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• Who was your institution intended for?

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Who is it for now?

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• Who benefits from the first year of college?

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• Who gets left out/left behind?

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• Disaggregated data tells your institutional story.

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• Are you an “access” or a “success” institution?

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• Are you a “student-ready” institution?

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So, what is your institution’s

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story?

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What would you prefer that story to be?

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How could YOU rewrite that story?

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Let’s reverse design this….

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Think “What should have happened in the first year?” Students will have:

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• Made some good friends
• Found a good academic advisor and developed a relationship with this person
• Made positive strides to develop a sense of belonging
• Developed college-level study habits
• Been less bored, more engaged than in high school
• Learned where to get help and then actually sought assistance
• Found at least some courses engaging, challenging, stimulating, or satisfying
• Joined at least one co-curricular organization
• Used the Career Center and taken vocational aptitude tests
• Taken advantage of interacting with faculty outside class

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Begin with the End in Mind!

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• Had at least one “big idea” that could be construed as connecting life and purpose—e.g. What are the great moral issues of our time (and what is my role in them?)?

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• What is justice?
• Freedom vs responsibility
• Inner directed vs outer directed
• Uses and abuses of technology—who gets to decide?
• And preferably that one “big idea” will be at the level of epiphany, an insight that is so powerful it is used for life transformative decision making

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• Made progress on developing a sense of purpose, personal power, and self-efficacy.

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• Earned a GPA that will enable them to remain in good academic standing, not be on academic

probation, and meet the requirements for retaining federal financial aid and/or scholarship.

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• Improved their relationships with family

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Continued….

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• Been able to explore at least one topic or subject that they were motivated to learn about
• Perhaps have found a mentor
• Had some confirming experiences that their intended major may be a good “fit”
• Maintained or developed good personal habits regarding diet, exercise, sleep, relaxation, sexual decision making, money management, and juggling work, family, commuting, classes, and homework
• Decided that “I belong at this place at this time in my life!”

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Continued….

Working Lunch: Building a Plan for Transformation

www.jngi.org/symposium-resources

Vicki McGillin, PhD

Building your plan: Transforming the first college year

•Problem Statement

•Proposed Solution

•The Plan

• Who
• How
• What
• When
• Why – Challenges and Opportunities

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1. With whom do you most need to communicate your vision/need for change?
2. How can you empower broad based action?
3. Can you generate short term wins?
4. How do you maintain momentum? Make this part of your culture?

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Sharing the Plan

Get into institutional teams or groups of 4

Share your draft plan and/or action items

Answer questions & provide clarification

Receive feedback and adjust

Repeat

15 minutes/team

Call to Action

Contact Us

Betsy O Barefoot

barefoot@gardnerinstitute.org

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John N. Gardner

gardner@gardnerinstitute.org

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Vicki McGillin

mcgillin@gardnerinstitute.org

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Sara Stein Koch

saraj@gardnerinstitute.org

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Felita Williams

williams@gardnerinstitute.org

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References

• Canning, E. A., Muenks, K., Green, D. J., & Murphy, M. C. (2019). STEM faculty who believe ability is fixed have larger racial achievement gaps and inspire less student motivation in their classes. Science Advances, 5(2), Article eaau4734

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• Moser, J. S., Schroder, H. S., Heeter, C., Moran, T. P., & Lee, Y.-H. (2011). Mind your errors: Evidence for a neural mechanism linking growth mind-set to adaptive posterror adjustments. Psychological Science, 22, 1484–1489.
• https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611419520

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• Paunesku, D., Walton, G. M., Romero, C., Smith, E. N., Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2015). Mind-set interventions are a scalable treatment for academic underachievement. Psychological Science, 26, 784–793.
• https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615571017

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• Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., … Dweck, C. S. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573, 364–369.
• https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y

References

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

Deil-Amen, R. (2011). Socio-academic integrative moments: Rethinking academic and social integration among two-year college students in career-related programs. The Journal of Higher Education, 82(1), 54-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2011.11779085

Dudley, K., Caperton, S.A., and Smith Ritchie, N. (2020). 2012 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12) Student Records Collection Research Data File Documentation (NCES 2021-524). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved 2/27/2023 from https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid-2021524

Eccles, J. S., & Midgley, C. (1989). Stage/Environment Fit: Developmentally Appropriate Classrooms for Early Adolescence. In R. E. Ames, & Ames, C. (Eds.), Research on Motivation in Education, 3, 139-186. New York: Academic Press.

Eccles, J. S., & Roeser, R. W. (2011). Schools as developmental contexts during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 225–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00725.x

Gopalan, M., & Brady, S. T. (2020). College Students’ Sense of Belonging: A National Perspective. Educational Researcher, 49(2), 134–137. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19897622

Gopalan, M., Linden-Carmichael, A. Lanza, S. (2022). College Students’ Sense of Belonging and Mental Health Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, Journal of Adolescent Health, 70(2), 228-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.10.010

Murphy, M.C., Gopalan, M., Carter, E. R., Emerson, K. T. U., Bottoms, B. L., and Walton, G.M., (2020). A customized belonging intervention improves retention of socially disadvantaged students at a broad-access university Science Advances, 6(29). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba4677

Walton, & Cohen. (2007). A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(1), 82. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.82

Walton, G.M., & Cohen, G.L. (2011). A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students. Science, 331(6023), 1447-1451. DOI: 10.1126/science.1198364

Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-Psychological Interventions in Education They’re Not Magic. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267–301. http://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311405999

Yeager, D.S., Walton G.M., Brady, S.T., Dweck, C.S.,(2016). Teaching a lay theory before college narrows achievement gaps at scale, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, 113(24), E3341-E3348. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524360113