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Online Instructional Resources
Teaching Methods: Teaching First-Year Students
Introduction
General Resources
The first year of college is critical to both student retention and success
in the following years. The links and resources below provide an overview of
today's first-year students and suggest strategies for helping them make the
transition from high school to college.
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Best Practices for Teaching First-year Undergraduates (Carnegie
Mellon University).
This online booklet discusses the special needs of first year students and then
presents best practices compiled from experienced faculty who have used them
successfully with first-year students. Includes guidelines for recognizing and
responding to students who may be experiencing difficulties.
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/resources/PublicationsArchives/InternalReports/BestPractices-1stYears.pdf
Teaching First Year Students (Flinders University, Adelaide,
Australia).
Describes the challenges of teaching first year students and presents specific
strategies for planning for and dealing with these issues in the classroom.
Contains additional resources and handouts for students. Although this is an
Australian site, the students and the challenges they present appear very much
like those in the U.S.
http://www.flinders.edu.au/teach/t4l/teaching/firstindex.php
National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, NRCFYE (University of South Carolina).
The Center’s mission is “to support and advance efforts to improve student learning and transitions into and through higher education.” Resources include publications, conferences, institutes, an electronic newsletter, and access to online materials and syllabi to support the first year experience and beyond. A rich and varied comprehensive resource.
http://sc.edu/fye/
"Changing Institutional Culture for First-Year Students and Those
Who Teach Them," Raymond Smith (Indiana University Bloomington).
In About Campus, March-April 2003, pp.3-8.
In the 1990's Indiana University Bloomington began an initiative to enhance
the first-year experience for students in order to improve retention. This article
describes the initiative and the ensuing far-reaching administrative changes
and curricular reforms.
http://media.wiley.com/assets/143/09/jrnls_ABC_JB_smith801.pdf
Teaching College Freshmen (Radford University, Faculty Development
Center).
This is a summary of "Chapter 1: From High School to College" in Bette
La Sere Erickson and Diane Weltner Strommer's Teaching College Freshmen, Jossey-Bass,
1991. The summary describes and explains differences seen by the authors between
former and present incoming students, including changes in attitudes, values,
and goals.
http://www.radford.edu/~cte-web/mjtr/freshmen.html
“Knowing Your Students Better: A Key to Involving First-Year
Students,” Joseph Fenty. (University of Michigan Center for Research
on Learning and Teaching, Occasional Paper #9, 1997). Adobe Acrobat/PDF.
Presents the results of the CIRP New Student Survey at the University of Michigan
from 1993-1995, and describes 8 things faculty can do to involve first year
students in the academic experience and help them attain their educational and
personal goals.
http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no9.pdf
Teaching First-Year Students (University of Washington, Center for Instructional Development and Research).
Links to several of the Center’s bulletins on aspects of teaching college freshmen plus seven online articles related to teaching first-year students.
http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/resources/firstyeartools.html
Resources for First-Year Engagement Plans (Penn State University).
Although the site was created to assist Penn State’s numerous campuses, the individual plans for small campuses, examples of program good practices, and numerous links to related resources might be useful to other colleges and universities as well.
http://senate.psu.edu/FYE/fye.htm
First Year Inquiry (North Carolina State University).
Models and materials from NC State’s first year program.
http://www.ncsu.edu/firstyearinquiry/index.html
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