By June Morris, OSU College of Education
Leaving home and coming to college is fraught with anxiety over the many unknowns. Our first term freshmen grapple with being thrust overnight into a world where they don’t yet understand the norms that define college life. They may come to us as high school scholars, but that expertise does not guarantee the same academic success in college. Those first few months – and even the entire first year — can be a baffling, stressful, and overwhelming experience.
As this is my first year teaching full time at OSU, I feel as though my first-term freshmen and I have a few things in common. I am teaching in the College of Education after 24 years in K-12 education (primarily high school). Like my students, I too am adapting to new social circles, schedules, and demands. We share discomfort and excitement as we navigate this new environment. But comfort and complacency don’t allow us to grow.
My exposure to higher education came gradually, through part-time teaching the last 14 years at LBCC and Oregon State. For my students, navigating their first term as college freshmen was a sudden and daunting endeavor. Many new college students experience heightened social anxiety, spending more time on their screens than previous generations. (Most research estimates 3-5 hours a day, minimum, on social media or gaming.) Yet, despite being products of pandemic-era “zoom school,” they are not the digital natives that we believe them to be. They are, however, optimistic and pragmatic young adults, whose life experiences have shaped their academic and social lives quite differently than those who attended college 10 or 20 years ago. To teach them well, we need to understand the world view they bring with them to college. According to The Science of College, “Today’s entering college students are accepting and supportive of monumental changes in gender norms . . .as well as accepting and participating in same-sex relationships at a greater rate than previous generations.” This openness to new ideas lives in sharp contrast to the fact that this generation is more socially isolated than ever before. How can we help our first-year students engage with learning in this critical initial year at OSU?
A Humbling Experience
As a veteran educator, and a parent of two fairly recent OSU graduates, I really thought I had things figured out! After a few missteps I made with my two large sections of ED216 (89 and 88 students), which are filled primarily with freshmen, I have a better understanding of what resilient teaching can be. Teaching through a resiliency perspective empowers students, providing skills to combat challenges and setbacks common among our first-year students. Resilient teaching encourages us to plan for unexpected disruptions (ice storms or global pandemics, for example), but it also provides opportunities for students to build confidence and develop essential coping skills, like asking for clarification on an assignment.
My first lightbulb moment happened in Week 2. I assumed that since my high school had launched Canvas as our LMS, most students (if not all) would be familiar with how we use it to frame our assignments and activities. After several students asked questions like, “What do you mean ‘reply’ to a post?” and “Where do I submit my assignment?” I realized the problem was with me, not them. My students were struggling with the basics of Canvas navigation because I had moved too quickly into content instead of providing a tutorial on where to find assignments and submit them.
There were other assumptions I made that proved false as well, but overall, I think I do a good job of supporting students through this transitional and transformative first year. Being part of the Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community this fall gave me the opportunity to examine my teaching practices with resiliency in mind. I’ve included one practice that has proven successful and some ideas I plan to implement next term and beyond.
- For the last few years, I have created a collaborative classroom space in which students can freely ask questions within small “conversation groups” of 5-6 students. My initial thinking was that they could use the time to discuss challenging concepts in a more intimate, safer space. What I realized through this resilient teaching cohort is that students need this space to develop a routine connection with other students. In the past, I have asked them to discuss a question relevant to our day’s objectives (as a way to warm up their brains). This year, I also asked them to learn each other’s names the first week, and every week afterward I included a question designed to help them get to know each other. For example, they listened as their peers shared what was going well for them, what they were worried about as we approached midterms, and what they look forward to as we end one term and begin the next. My goal of facilitating a friendly space is that next term, when they walk into a new classroom, they may see someone they know!
- Because we know that our students can struggle with newfound freedom, absenteeism and missing assignments can be a challenge. To boost engagement, I incorporated choice in projects, that draw on ideas found in our cohort’s text, Intentional Tech by Derek Bruff. I appreciate his suggestion of leveraging student reliance on technology into multimodal assignments. As Bruff states (p.110), “When students work with new material, using different kinds of media, they are better able to learn that material.” What did this mean for my ED216 students? Instead of assigning group projects that would predictably rely on a PowerPoint presentation read verbatim to the class, my teaching colleague and I included an option for groups to choose materials and frame a question for weekly Canvas discussions. This next term, I plan to expand the choices for group projects to podcast or infographic creation. Our students may not be as tech savvy as their “digital native” moniker implies, but many are already adept at content creation on social media. Allowing them the option of being creators of content, not just passive consumers, and making their learning visible to the entire class, not just their instructor, fosters creativity. EdTech Magazine wrote in 2022 that creativity is a skill in high demand in the workplace and can lead to higher starting salaries.
College students face a variety of stressors beyond navigating new relationships and living “alone” for the first time. They might also be experiencing extreme homesickness, struggling with peer pressure or financial worries, and for some, recovering from a traumatic experience. A survey conducted in 2021 by Inside Higher Ed found that over 50% of first-year students report a “substantial increase in mental and emotional exhaustion.” Additionally, 70% of these students expect to struggle academically. It is not surprising that this study revealed that 30% of the students surveyed reported increased depression and 27% feel dangerously lonely. This data concerns me, and I want to take action!
We can be intentional about our teaching practices. Building relationships and providing creative opportunities to collaborate while learning are just a few ways in which we can help our first-year students. This first year is critical for developing necessary skills, including a resilient mindset.
References
Bruff, D. (2019). Intentional tech: Principles to guide the use of educational technology in college teaching. West Virginia University Press.
Carrasco, M. (2021, August 17). Most incoming freshmen are mentally exhausted. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/08/17/most-incoming-freshmen-are-mentally-exhausted
Herzog, P. (2020). The changing college student: Why first-year students today are different. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190934507.003.0001
Huls, A. (2022, January). Adobe Creative Cloud gives students an edge in the classroom and beyond. EdTech Magazine.
About the author: June Morris is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the College of Education. The inspiration for this blog post came from teaching two sections of ED216, a DPO course titled “Purpose of Education in Democracy.” This course is often one of the first courses freshmen take if they intend to become an educator.
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of guest posts about resilience and teaching strategies by members of the Fall ’24 Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community facilitated by CTL. The opinions expressed in guest posts are solely those of the authors.
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