First Year Experience and Trends in General Education: Challenges created by Structure, Values and A

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First Year Experience andTrends in General
EducationChallenges created by
Structure,Values and AssessmentBrady J.
Deaton, Provost and Executive Vice
ChancellorUniversity of Missouri-Columbia
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First Year Experience

• Acculturation to Campus Life
• Academic Success
• Intellectual Curiosity
• Mature Pathways to Personal Growth

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General Tools

• Advising
• Mentoring
• Involvement
• Friendships

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Goals of FIGs

• Assist in the transition of first-year students
  by making the campus psychologically small
• Provide academic role-models (both a faculty
  member and a student)
• Encourage Peer to Peer Learning
• Create a seamless college experience between the
  classroom and residence hall
• Help students make meaning of their undergraduate
  experience

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Freshman Interest Group

• Participants are co-enrolled in 3 general
  education courses around a particular theme
• They take a 1-credit College 101 course
  co-taught by an undergraduate Peer Advisor and
  co-facilitator (faculty/staff)
• Limited to 20 students per FIG
• Live together on same res hall floor
• Primary Emphasis on Fall Semester (may take up to
  2 courses with FIG members second semester).

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Peer Advisor (PA)

• Upper-level student
• Strong academic ability (minimum 3.0 GPA, 3.6
  average)
• Same academic interest as the FIG
• Good interpersonal skills
• Lives on the floor with students (has some
  responsibilities in the residence hall)
• Teaches College 101 courses along w/faculty
  (actually does most teaching)
• Compensated similarly to traditional Resident
  Assistant position

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Faculty co-facilitator

• Volunteer or selectively recruited
• May teach one of the three classes in FIG
• Assists with proseminar
• Small development stipend of 250
• 70 tenured or tenure-track faculty
• Some staff co-facilitators (almost exclusively
  academic staff)

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3 General Education Courses

• Utilize existing courses primarily use large
  lecture courses
• Students are co-enrolled in same sections so that
  they can attend class together and study together
• Courses typically apply to all majors/areas of
  study
• Course space is held in the spring prior to
  registration

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College 101 Course

• Pass/Fail course
• Taught by P.A. (under guidance of Co-fac)
• College survival skills (time mgt., registration)
• University resources (library, learning center)
• Field experiences of academic nature or related
  to FIG theme (i.e. Journalism FIG visiting KOMU,
  Meteorology FIG touring National Weather Center).
• Attempt integration of 3 courses
• Reflect on college and/or transitional
  experiences

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FIGs for Fall 2003

• 84 FIGs accommodating approximately 1300 students
• Themes include Engineering, Journalism, Business,
  Life Sciences, Education, Agriculture,
  Music/Arts, etc. Several general interest FIGs
  are designed for deciding students
• High demand majors have multiple FIGs (i.e.
  Journalism will have 19 different FIGs this year)

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FIG Growth
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Overview of Assessment

• FIG students have scored significantly higher
  than other FTC students on both the CSEQ and the
  NSSE
• They have been retained about 5 more than
  non-FIG students
• They perform better academically than non-FIG
  students
• Residence life satisfaction surveys have shown
  that they have a more positive overall experience
  compared to non-FIG students
• Students in FIGs are more sensitive to diversity
  issues (NASPA Journal, Summer 2002)
• There is some research which indicates that
  students in these types of learning communities
  binge drink less

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National Survey of Student Engagement

• Provide support to succeed academically
• LC 3.06 Traditional 2.69
• Entire educational experience
• LC 3.24 Traditional 2.99
• Start over at same institution
• LC 3.40 Traditional 3.14

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Freshman Survey Data(CSEQ)

• Factor FIGs Non-FIG FTC
• Faculty-Student Interaction 2.50 2.00
• Academic Integration 2.79 2.72
• Social Integration 2.98 2.89
• Perceived Quality 3.22 3.18
• Institutional Commitment 3.12 3.01
• Intent to Persist 3.84 3.75

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The role, structure, and importance of general
education at individual institutions continues to
be an area of heated debate.(General Education
Survey 2000, p.25)
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Gen Ed Resurgence

• Late 1980s marked a resurgent interest in
  general education
• 1986 Bruno Schmidt, President of Yale
  University, emphasized in his inaugural address
  the development of moral purpose as the
  fundamental goal of undergraduate education.
• (AAC, p.53)

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The Charge

• All baccalaureate graduates of the University
  of Missouri should have a sound intellectual
  foundation in the liberal arts and sciences which
  provides the ability to

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• Reason and think clearly
• Write and speak coherently
• Understand important issues confronting society
• Understand the importance of international
  affairs in an increasingly interdependent global
  environment

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• Understand our culture and history
• Appreciate the fine arts and humanities
• Understand the major scientific and technological
  influences in society
• Board of Curators, 1986

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Most Gen Ed programs are combinations of three
basic models

• Distributional
• Thematic
• Goals and outcomes

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MU Gen Ed Achitecture

• is a basic distributional model,
• a compromise between a core curriculum and an
  open-ended free-elective system designed to
  produce explicit educational outcomes

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MU Successes

• The Architecture Concept
• The MRP requirement
• Two Writing Intensive (WI) courses
• The capstone class

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• The buy-in of a decentralized campus
• The Hesburgh Award of Excellence in Undergraduate
  Education
• Constant fiddling to improve not static

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Two opportunities that are parallel experiences
and supported by Gen Ed

• Support for Multicultural Initiatives and
  International Experiences
• Service Learning

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The challenges

• Confusion and poor communication from constant
  fiddling
• The demise of clusters
• Undergraduate seminar

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• Information and computer proficiency once
  general, now the responsibility of the major
• Oral communication and multicultural requirements
• The resolution of a state mandate for a Gen Ed
  transfer block with a negative faculty vote

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AACU Survey Results(n 567)

• Avg Gen Ed requirement is 37.6 of baccalaureate
  or 45.1 semester credits
• Median is 40 or 47.8 credit hours
• In 1967 Gen Ed mean was 43.1
• Declined in the 1970s
• Increased again in 1980s

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Inherent Conflicts

• Specific foundation work for discipline vs broad
  general knowledge
• Degree completion goal vs more courses
• Accreditation organizations vs additional hours
  for graduation

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• Student experimentation and experience vs secure
  plans for major
• Transfer requirements the class struggle
• The ownership of Gen Ed Arts and Science vs
  others
• The sufficiency of faculty/course in specific
  areas
• The priority of resources Gen Ed vs the major or
  graduate program

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Summary from Gen Ed 2000

• The advance of general education remains stymied
  by the organization and values of the academy
  itself

• Tradition of faculty autonomy
• Preferences of students and faculty for
  specialized study over broad aims of general and
  liberal learning
• Protection of turf by administrators and faculty
  alike

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Proposals usually fail because of

• Insurmountable organizational barriers
• Flawed change strategies
• Inadequate implementation processes

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Challenges

• Flexibility Needed for a Changing Society
• Standardized guidelines vs Individual tailoring
• More older, experienced students
• Returned Peace Corps Volunteers with language and
  cultural experiences
• Role of Advisors to tailor requirements
• Gen Ed Components of Technical Courses

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Challenges

• Conveying to students the value and practicality
  of learning outside their major
• Connecting work in arts and sciences with
  professional studies
• Securing adequate resources
• Creating new structures to support
  cross-disciplinary programs

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Challenges

• Recruiting faculty with values, experience and
  commitment
• Supporting and developing faculty to work in a
  core
• Strategies for faculty to work with colleagues in
  other departments

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Challenges

• Slippage in connecting learning goals to
  curricula and courses
• Coherence of academic experience is an elusive
  goal
• Assessment of complex learning goals remains
  aspiration rather than a reality

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Assessment

• When general education programs are planned, it
  is curious how little students are consulted or
  made a focus of observation in determining
  feasibility.
• (Association of American Colleges, p. 52)

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Assessment Challenges for First Year Experience

• Absence of effective experimental design
• Control groups with matched demographics
• Most results marred by self-selection of students
• Random selection of aspirants can be undertaken
  for new, experimental programs

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• Longitudinal follow-up requires commitment and
  investment
• Evaluative knowledge base must be cumulative,
  lending itself to hypothesis testing

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Assessment Challenges for Gen Ed

• The Haunting Question
• Did Gen Ed program help you
• achieve 7 outcomes?

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• Survey Alumni Recursive Model
• Changing demographics
• Program changes
• Feedback loops
• Survey Employers
• Convenience samples of recruiters

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References

• Association of American Colleges and
  Universities, The Status of General Education in
  the Year 2000 Summary of a National Survey,
  AACU, Washington, D.C., 2001.
• Association of American Colleges, A New Vitality
  in General Education Task Group in General
  Education, Washington, D.C., 1988.
• Journal of Gen Ed (various issues), Penn State
  University Press.

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Residual GPA
Residual GPA is the actual GPA minus a predicted
GPA (which is calculated based on ACT scores and
high school rank)