{"id":417,"date":"2010-04-27t06:30:12","date_gmt":"2010-04-27t06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vanderbilt.edu\/cft\/?p=417"},"modified":"2010-07-29t18:24:38","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29t18:24:38","slug":"highlights-from-teaching-first-year-students-conversation-unanswered-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2010\/04\/highlights-from-teaching-first-year-students-conversation-unanswered-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"highlights from \u201cteaching first-year students\u201d conversation \u2013 unanswered questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin: 8px;\" title=\"questions\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/134\/318947873_12028f1b66_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"186\" \/>on april 1, the cft held a conversation on teaching titled  \u201c<strong>teaching  first-year students: cognitive challenges of the first year<\/strong>.\u201d \u00a0  about twenty-five faculty, staff, and graduate students participated in   the discussion.\u00a0 panelists at the session were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/provost\/areas\/christiansen.html\" target=\"_blank\">doug   christiansen<\/a> (dean of admissions), <a href=\"http:\/\/sitemason.vanderbilt.edu\/site\/fzni5y\" target=\"_blank\">susan kevra<\/a> (french, american studies), and adam list (chemistry).<\/p>\n<p>the following questions were raised in various ways during  the  discussion, but few answers to these questions were suggested.\u00a0 the questions highlight what  appear to be key challenges in helping  students make the cognitive adjustment  from learning in high school to  learning in college.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>coping  with that first c: <\/strong>first-year  students often have trouble coping with their  first lower-than-expected  test or paper grade.\u00a0  whether it\u2019s their first c or their first a-,  this experience can be a  shocking one for students used to being big  fish in small ponds, as they  say.\u00a0 what kinds of coping skills do   students need for these experiences?\u00a0 and  how can instructors help  students develop those coping skills?\u00a0 what role does student-teacher  rapport play  in these kinds of interactions?<\/li>\n<li><strong>grades  and motivation: <\/strong>more than one  faculty head of house in the session praised  first-year students in  their houses for engaging meaningfully in difficult  discussions in book  groups and other informal learning settings.\u00a0 however, participants  noted that when grades  are on the line in more formal course settings,  student motivation and  engagement often changes in unproductive ways.\u00a0   what roles do grades play in motivating students to engage in deep  learning?\u00a0 how can instructors mitigate some of the  negative  motivational effects grades have on students?<\/li>\n<li><strong>teaching  diverse students: <\/strong>first-year  students are diverse in a number of ways.\u00a0 their academic backgrounds  vary, their  academic and vocational interest vary, they come from  different regions of the  united states as well as many other countries,  and they come from a variety of  racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.\u00a0   admissions works to achieve a diverse student body, but leveraging  that  diversity in the classroom can be a challenge, particularly in  large  classes.\u00a0 how can instructors teach  diverse groups of students?\u00a0  how can they  leverage various forms of diversity as advantages in the  classroom?<\/li>\n<li><strong>large  classes: <\/strong>an overarching challenge  here is the impact of class size on how  instructors interact with their  students.\u00a0  helping students cope with difficulties, motivating  students to engage  meaningfully in learning, and instructing diverse  groups of students\u2014all of these  are more challenging in large classes.\u00a0   what strategies can instructors teaching large classes employ to deal   with these challenges?\u00a0 and what  implications does the large-class  challenge have for the kinds of courses we  offer first-year students?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>for more on teaching first-year students, see the cft\u2019s <a href=\"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/teaching-guides\/interactions\/firstyears\/\">teaching   guide on first-years<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>image: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/oberazzi\/318947873\/\">questions<\/a>&#8221; by flickr user oberazzi \/ creative commons licensed<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>on april 1, the cft held a conversation on teaching titled \u201cteaching first-year students: cognitive challenges of the first year.\u201d \u00a0 about twenty-five faculty, staff, and graduate students participated in the discussion.\u00a0 panelists at the session were doug christiansen (dean of admissions), susan kevra (french, american studies), and adam list (chemistry). the following questions were&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[27],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}