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Integrating First-Year Experience into the General Education Curriculum

Integrating First-Year Experience into the General Education Curriculum. April Chatham-Carpenter, Faculty, Communication Studies Kristin Woods, Assistant Dean of Students. A Brief History of Cornerstone. Foundations of Excellence® First-Year Council Course Development

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Integrating First-Year Experience into the General Education Curriculum

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  1. Integrating First-Year Experience into the General Education Curriculum April Chatham-Carpenter, Faculty, Communication Studies Kristin Woods, Assistant Dean of Students

  2. A Brief History of Cornerstone • Foundations of Excellence® • First-Year Council • Course Development • Connection to Liberal Arts Core • Collaboration • Between Student Affairs & Academic Affairs • Initial Faculty Buy-In

  3. What is Cornerstone? • One year long • Six credit hours Communication Civility Critical Thinking Your Success in College

  4. Faculty Involvement • Faculty Recruitment • Interdisciplinary Faculty (Dean support) • Home Departments (Dept. Head support) • Total of 8 Different Departments • Continued Faculty Buy-In • Building Relationships & Trust • Co-Leadership Model • Academic Rigor

  5. Integrated Communication Content FALL • Narrative Project: Paper & Speech • Common Read Project • Part 1:  Rhetorical Analysis • Part 2:  Annotated Bibliography • Part 3: Informative Speech • Portfolio & Presentation SPRING • Group Symposium Video Project • Part 1: Research/Planning/Analysis • Part 2: Symposium/Video • Part 3: Individual Group Evaluation Paper • Persuasive Project: Paper & Speech • Portfolio & Presentation

  6. Faculty Development • Summer Workshop – facilitated by Liberal Arts Core Director, course coordinator, & guest speakers • Weekly Meetings – led by returning faculty members • Monthly Faculty Development – led by one of team leaders, from “other” dept. than primary coordinator • Active Email Listserv – teaching ideas & lesson plans

  7. Collaboration • Registration process • Common Read programming with performing arts center, community • MAP-Works • Logging activity • Referring students to student affairs staff • Student Affairs contributions to: • “Cluster meetings” on student success topics • PTA training and development

  8. The Value of Peers Student comment: [My PTA] not only takes an interest in our in class experience but also our lives as well. She is extremely helpful and always encourages us to contact her. She has made Cornerstone a fun place to learn and a great way to start my college career. 2012-13 Cornerstone PTAs

  9. Assessment • Common Course Outcomes • Common Course Data • Major Assignments • Indirect Survey Measures • MAP-Works • SALG • NSSE • Common Rubrics

  10. SALG • Student Assessment of Learning Gains • Administered August, December, & May, 2011-12 • Data Reported here is just August-April comparisons

  11. Writing

  12. Speaking

  13. Integrated Communication

  14. Portfolio Analysis • Randomly selected portfolios • Direct Measures – Writing & Speaking Samples • Indirect Measure – Reflections on what they learned

  15. Portfolio Results Significant improvements from Fall-Spring in: • Formatting of papers (1.76  2.50/4.0) • Organization of speeches (2.77  3.33/4.0) • Language use (2.57  3.25/4.0) • Delivery (2.47  2.88/4.0) • Use of supporting materials (2.65  3.22/4.0)

  16. Student Success: Writing & Speaking What the Cornerstone students are telling us…. “Using the knowledge I learned from the cornerstone research paper made me less nervous while writing my research paper for sociology. I did contact our librarian to help me find some great research. I used the knowledge, which he taught us, to find my own information first. I believe cornerstone helped me organize what was needed for the research paper.” “In high school, I loathed giving speeches! … I would never practice in front of anyone, and I would read right off my paper. … Watching my last speech of this class, I sounded more confident in myself. I really knew what I was talking about, and I took pride in it. I used more hand movement and eye contact. … All of the impromptu speeches and activities done in class really helped me feel more comfortable in front of a group of people. Cornerstone really helped develop my speaking abilities.”

  17. Civility and Student Portfolios What the Cornerstone students are telling us…. “Over the past year I have participated in many civility activities. I have become more accepting of other people’s ideas. I am able to have a discussion with other students and professors without being offended or upset by something they said. I have learned a lot about cultures and ideas that are different from my own and can understand their point of view.” “Before coming to college, I lived in a small Iowa town full of stereotypes of those who are “different.” College has taught me that those stereotypes are false, and that diversity is a great thing. Diversity is one of my favorite aspects of college. Cornerstone specifically has also made me more appreciative of diversity. ... I have always been respectful of others, but I feel that now that the negative stereotypes are out of my mind, I am even more respectful.”

  18. Cornerstone as a Learning Community What the Cornerstone students are telling us…. “I really enjoyed the size of the class and getting to keep the same class and instructor the whole year. It helps to get comfortable with everyone in order to give honest and critical feedback.” “I enjoyed my Cornerstone class. Learned a lot and made friends along the way. It is giving me a great start to my college life.” “No other class I have where the students maintain as close of a connection with each other as the Cornerstone class.”

  19. Overall “The integrated communication that cornerstone focuses on is in my opinion a far better way to teach oral comm, writing and research, critical thinking, and understanding college in general. It was especially beneficial to be able to write a paper and then give a speech on the same topic. … It gives one the chance to critically think about their topic. … It gave me an opportunity to research fully.” “Taking a year long course like Cornerstone was very helpful to my social life. I am much closer friends to my Cornerstone classmates than I am to my other classmates in all my other single semester classes.” “When coming to UNI, I never thought that one class would have so much impact on my learning. I’ll admit that I was skeptical about Cornerstone when I first signed up for the class. With that said, I don’t regret one minute of it. I learned more in Cornerstone than I did in any of my other classes.”

  20. Challenges • Not all first-year students eligible for the course – need to use alternative model for students with some LAC requirements completed • Intensive collaboration, interdisciplinary nature of the course • Tension between academic freedom & common course content

  21. Moving Forward… • Common read around topic of “Food Matters” next year • Approximately 20-24 sections anticipated per year (for students who have not yet taken LAC Category 1A or 1B) • Course through curriculum process

  22. Our Contact Information April.Chatham-Carpenter@uni.edu Kristin.Woods@uni.edu University of Northern Iowa

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