Session 501: Teaching First Year College Students

Date: Friday, January 10

Time: 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Location: Hall of Science T07

Presenters: Alyssa Harben (AUx Instructor & Advisor, First Year Advising), Talia Burnside (AUx Instructor & Advisor, First Year Advising), Annie Kustasz (Adjunct Professorial Lecturer, CAS | Literature) & Roshan Abraham (AUx Instructor & Advisor, First Year Advising)

Session Description:

First-year students are a unique population as they have minimal experience in a college-level classroom and represent a diversity of pre-college backgrounds. This workshop will address questions such as: How will instructors measure and respond to students’ preparedness? How do we as educators foster a sense of belonging in the classroom with equity-based teaching practices? How can instructors of first-year students communicate college-level coursework expectations without a degree of rigor that is inequitable? How can faculty scaffold courses and encourage students to grow into independent learners?

Learning Outcomes:

• Explain how first-year students’ needs differ from continuing students
• Evaluate their classroom practices and assess how those practices are setting students up for success in both current and future semesters
• Identify ways to adapt their teaching practice to account for students’ varied levels of preparedness for college-level instruction