Seminar Leader Research Articles

Watching me, watching you, watching them- the gestation and birth of a mother-infant observation seminar leader

ABSTRACT Leading mother-infant observation seminars is often imbued with anxiety and uncertainty. While there is a significant body of literature, notably by Bick (1964), Harris & Bick (2011), Magagna (1997), Saltzberger-Wittenberg (1997) and Miller et al. (1989) , which examine the endeavour and reflect on it, interested practitioners have seldom been formally trained; this was the author’s experience. The article examines the parallels between the growth and development of an effective seminar leader and the early growth and development of the human infant’s parents. There is a parallel in the lack of formal preparation and the considerable anxiety evoked. The article reflects on the seminar leader's role in containing the seminar group and individual observers as each learns from the experience of grappling with primitive, unconscious feelings, including the transference to the observer and her countertransference. Bion’s (1963) concept of container-contained is apposite here as are the notions of so-called ‘maternal’ and ‘paternal’ functions and the position of the psychoanalytic third.

Searching for a family in parent-infant observation; a reflective account of a post-graduate student and their seminar leader

ABSTRACT Parent-infant observation is an established aspect of preparation for psychoanalytic training or for enriching clinical skills. Despite the vast literature on this subject, there remains a paucity on the process of searching for a family to agree to being observed. This paper explores one post-graduate student’s experience of this task as well as a seminar leader’s reflections on working with this student and other groups of students at this stage. It is argued that each observer’s search for a family to observe can provide rich material for reflection and represent a valuable learning experience for the individual.

Introduction: Celebrating Austrian Thought—History and Mind in the Work of David S. Luft

IntroductionCelebrating Austrian Thought—History and Mind in the Work of David S. Luft Donald L. Wallace (bio), Diana Cordileone (bio), and Doug McGetchin (bio) This JAS Special Issue takes the opportunity of David S. Luft's recent retirement from teaching (after forty-six years) and his forthcoming publication The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History: From the Enlightenment to Anschluss (Bloomsbury Academic, Spring 2021) to celebrate both the field he helped direct and his own impressive contributions to the study of the Central European mind. It is also an opportunity to highlight Professor Luft's influence on his students through his commitment to mentorship, teaching, and friendship. Over his career, Professor Luft has matched research productivity with variety and depth. He wrote intellectual history monographs, articles on Central European history, and edited and translated into English two of the most important essayistic voices of modern Austria (Musil and Hofmannsthal). Luft is the author of Robert Musil and the Crisis of European Culture: 1880–1942 (U California P, 1980), Eros and Inwardness in Vienna: Weininger, Musil, Doderer (U Chicago P, 2003), and The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History: From the Enlightenment to Anschluss (Bloomsbury, 2021). He translated and edited the essays of Robert Musil and Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Precision and Soul: Essays and Addresses (with Burton Pike; U Chicago P, 1990) and Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the Austrian Idea (Purdue UP, 2011). In terms of professional service, David Luft remains an important leader in the promotion of Central European and Austrian history: President MALCA 2010–2012 (Vice President 2009); President Austrian Studies Association [End Page xvii] 2012–2014; Executive Secretary, Society for Austrian and Habsburg History, 2006–2009. Member, Executive Committee of the Society for Austrian and Habsburg History, 2005–2008. He served on editorial boards for the Austrian History Yearbook, 2006–2009, The German Quarterly, 2006–2012, and The Journal of Austrian Studies, 2007-present. He has worked closely with scholars in Vienna through multiple Fulbright grants, and in 2019 he was elected to the European Academy. Professor Luft was also a revered and well-loved classroom lecturer and seminar leader, consistently receiving awards for excellence in teaching; more importantly, however, he developed his students into teachers through his example of preparedness, clarity, and energy. Finally, he excelled at being a mentor, as evidenced by the contribution of his students here and continued guidance and collaboration with them. Over his career he worked on dozens of dissertation committees and directed sixteen completed PhDs. Many of Luft's students went on to impact the field of German and Austrian history through both research publications and teaching careers.1 The essays gathered here go a long way in expressing what David Luft represents in the scholarship of Austrian intellectual history. However, I think it is necessary and useful to expand on that topic. What is in a name? It is the question that I asked as I reviewed David Luft's career and considered how to define his work and his influence. I had hopes of finding a single term by which to frame or define his career. But, as the contributions to this Special Issue demonstrate, Luft's career and influence are too multivalent to be packed into a single term: intellectual historian, translator, biographer, essayist, teacher, to name just a few. Thus, I endeavor in this essay to characterize his basic intellectual impulses, to describe the world and the thinkers to which he gravitates, and to illuminate the questions he asks and the questions he inspires his students to ask about the intellectual and humanistic life of German Central Europe. One sees clearly in a retrospective examination of Luft's career that Robert Musil is the foundational intellectual influence. The reason for this may not be as obvious; from my perspective, Musil and Luft share the intellectual project of trying to understand human existence through a rational model; however, their investigations question rationalism qua positivism and attempt to balance intellectual activity by exposing both its spiritual and scientific values. As Luft himself has suggested, it is a scholarly career defined by the challenge of translating "geistig." [End Page xviii] Of course, the characteristics of his methodology and his...

13.F. Skills building seminar: “There is never a dull moment in science”. Designing engaging responsible conduct in research courses

Abstract Background The 1954 Nobel Laureate for physics Max Born said: “There is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our roads behind us as we proceed. We do not find sign-posts at cross-roads, but our own scouts erect them, to help the rest.” Science is a quest with many uncertainties. Society demands from scientists that they pursue this quest in an responsible way. Responsible conduct in science (RCR) is/ought to be on every researchers' agenda. The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (https://allea.org/code-of-conduct/) for example is the reference document for research integrity for all EU-funded research projects and as a model for organisations and researchers across Europe. RCR however is not only about referring to a code, it is also about acting on it, and raising awareness. Education is pivotal. Two pitfalls definitely need to be avoided in teaching RCR: 1. making it a highly theoretical endeavor that in most cases will not result in the internalization of the principles of RCR; 2. limiting the teaching to a small staff, thus not involving a large group of researchers as role models. Therefore, it is necessary to design RCR courses in which students feel challenged to discover the underlying principles and moral issues in responsible research themselves whilst at the same time sharing this discovery with their role models. For senior researchers (role models, teachers) the challenge is not to impose rules and regulations but to foster an environment in which junior researchers feel free to discuss the decisions and questions they have in upholding principles of responsible research. Very often, senior researchers are unaware of the dilemma's young researchers encounter. Consequently, courses in RCR can remain highly theoretical. Objectives In this skills building seminar, both junior and senior researchers will be offered an engaging and interactive method for starting effective RCR education. Aim 1 experiencing collaborative designing of RCR education Aim 2 Empowering junior and senior researchers in addressing RCR. Method Participants will be introduced to the “7 minutes - 7 people = RCR education programme” as developed by the seminar leader. Programme Short introduction: DIY RCR education (15 minutes)Interactive session: Acquiring the skill of “7 minutes - 7 people = RCR education programme” (35 minutes)Experiences, successes and limitations of this method (20 minutes)Discussion - wrap up -lessons learned (20 minutes) Key messages The driving force of Responsible Conduct in Research courses is taking the process of discovery of junior researchers as starting point. The seminar will teach students (junior researchers) and teachers (senior researchers) how to draft a challenging programme for RCR-education in 30 minutes.

The experience of (tele) infant observation during the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020–December 2020)

ABSTRACT In this paper, the author shares her experience of the use of telecommunication during the Covid-19 pandemic in teaching infant observation in Greece. She offers an account of the changes, difficulties, reservations and concerns regarding the use of telecommunication in infant observation. During the ten months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the seminars on infant observation had to adapt twice to complete lockdowns. As a result, the observations in the natural setting of the baby’s home changed and became tele-observations. The difficulties of teaching infant observation during this period, as well as the anxieties they induced in both the seminar leader and the observers, are described. Feelings about concepts such as loss, absence, separation, distance and closeness were felt in a much stronger way in the countertransference during this period. It was seen as important that prior to online infant observation, observations in the home had preceded. On the other hand, it seemed that both types of observations could act together, in a supplementary mode with each other.

Developing professional identity through group experiential learning: A Group-Analytic experiential training approach for use with postgraduate clinical psychology students

This article describes a Group-Analytic, experiential and non-directive training approach taken with postgraduate clinical psychology students in training. Based on median/large group settings, it is aimed at promoting the development of psychology students’ professional identities. It uses a particular form of experiential learning beyond the rational and cognitive aspects of traditional didactic teaching in order to stimulate students’ own involvement in the integration of their thoughts, feelings and attitudes. From a Group-Analytic perspective, the group is conceived of as an organic entity. The convenor takes up a less intrusive and non-directive role in comparison to a traditional seminar leader. The learning outcomes that may be obtained with this group model are outlined in a description of group process below, and through the content analysis of verbalizations of students who participated in the twelve-session experiential group. The results confirm the usefulness of the Group-Analytic experiential training approach, highlighting the construction of professional self-awareness, achieved through students exploring their own relationship modalities in an intersubjective learning space.

From being a student to becoming an infant observation young seminar leader with nursery teachers

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a newly qualified child psychotherapist’s first experience of teaching, using an application of Esther Bick’s infant observation method, with nursery school teachers observing in their own workplace. The seminar leader describes learning form the experience of running the seminar with supervisory support. The teacher group’s increasing ability to observe the young children and the ‘child in their mind’ is linked with developments in the new teacher’s thinking about the task of teaching and the importance of noting her own emotional reaction. She is also acutely aware of her own recent learning as an observer herself. The teaching involves listening with feeling and encouraging the observers to develop by presenting their observations for reflection, encouraging more detail and reflection as time goes by. The new seminar leader’s anxiety about emulating her own observation teachers, and her growing understanding of the powerful forces of unconscious projection which can be utilised to understand more of the young child’s experience, enhances the observer- teachers’ capacity to notice and reflect on what they see.

The group as a psycho-educational medium for the teaching of anti-racist practice on social work trainings

This article discusses the anxieties that lead to resistance to anti-racist and culturally sensitive reflection and engagement on social work trainings. It briefly discusses a culturally diverse social work training and the anxieties described by the students that hindered the integration of the teaching of race and culture during the training. The article then contrasts this with another more successful training experience on another social work course at a different university with a similar level of cultural diversity by the use of the group as a psycho-educational method to manage the student’s defences and avoidance of the difficult and painful knowledge required to enhance reflexivity when it comes to issues of race. It discusses how the role and skills of the seminar leader can manage the student’s defences through the use of group dynamic processes and concepts as psycho-educational tools; thereby deepening the observational and reflective skills of the social work students during their training in preparation for their future work within diverse settings and in line with the social work competencies and regulation requirements.

Taming the MOOS: Massive Online Open Seminars in Religion

ABSTRACTOnline education faces many challenges, and the entry of massive online open courses (MOOCs) into the mix poses many more. MOOCs follow standard progressions of academic inquiry, require both coursework and assessment, and often carry credit. Most MOOCs are in scientific and practical fields, with very few in the humanities or social sciences. As the professional debate about online education continues, MOOCs present unique opportunities for educational institutions and for individual professors. The many pedagogical issues relative to their planning and execution include the management and structure of discussion board activity and seminar leader presence. The author here presents the questions attendant to and the results of a noncredit bearing massive online open seminar (MOOS) restricted to a specific topic within religious studies. More than 300 persons from five continents registered for the seminar and 292 remained throughout.

The experience of infant observation in difficult situations: retaining the ability to observe

Students, in the course of undertaking an infant observation and learning infant observation skills, sometimes find themselves in difficult or painful family situations. When their observations are discussed within a seminar group, the group dynamics are likely to be affected by the emotional charge to which members are exposed. This article tries to explore the dynamics of the infant observation seminar in relation to such situations. It also discusses the fundamental importance of the seminar leader in such circumstances. A particular and unusual experience is used to show how difficult material may easily evoke feelings, phantasies and infantile desires that are shared within the ‘group mind’. This may lead to the activation of defences against psychic pain in the group mind, just as it can in the mind of an individual. The paper goes on to develop the author's emphasis on the importance for the seminar leader of being able to maintain an ‘analytic function of the mind’ in order to better understand what is happening in the group. This state of mind affords the seminar leader the opportunity to contain the feelings in the group's mind, so that something is transformed and the group can return to its primary task, to be curious and to learn from (the observational) experience.

Inquiries of the body: Novice questions and the instructable observability of endodontic scenes

This study explores questions posed by students in response to live video broadcasts of dental treatments. The aim of the study is to show and discuss the reflexive relationship between the questions, what they were occasioned by and how they are responded to. Procedures and anatomical features, that for the seminar leader are unproblematically seen in endodontic terms, repeatedly present problems for the students. Visible but unrecognized shifts in the dentist’s work, for instance, provide occasions for questions of the form ‘What is he doing now?’. In the midst of an ongoing procedure, questions tend to be formulated as noticings that elicit instruction either about some detail of the dentist’s actions or about what a generic ‘one should’ or ‘should not do’, what ‘frequently’ happens and so on. It is shown, however, that the movement between specific here-and-now features on the one hand and more general issues on the other characterizes the entire scope of the relevant material, particularly because the seminar leaders’ answers tend to place even minute details within more general endodontic considerations.

The Teachers Institute Approach to Professional Development

The core activity of a Teachers Institute takes place in seminars. Each seminar is led by a faculty member from a participating university or college, with up to a dozen Fellows, teachers from participating school districts. Local seminars will meet on a regular schedule, typically for two hours or more at one time, over a period of months. In New Haven, seminars meet in 12 two-hour sessions, running from March through early July. The National Initiative also runs seminars, for teachers from all participating districts. These National Seminars have preliminary meetings in early May, and their main work is done in a two-week Intensive Session in mid-July.The distinguishing feature of a Teachers Institute is that, rather than provide evidence of mastery of the seminar topic by examination or other means internal to the seminar, the primary obligation of each seminar Fellow is to write a curriculum unit based on the seminar. This structure obviates questions as to what seminar material is mastered by a fellow, and also the question of whether the seminar affects classroom practice: it automatically does.The Teachers Institute approach is based on a cooperative partnership between a college or university and a school district. (It is possible to have multiple partners on either side of the partnership, but for simplicity we will ignore that possibility here.) Faculty members from the higher education partner contribute their subject matter expertise by offering seminars in relevant topics, and teachers contribute their classroom expertise to create sequences of lessons that incorporate the insights afforded by the seminar. Fellows in a given seminar will typically represent all grade levels, from the primary grades through high school. It follows that seminar themes must be educationally robust: they must have potential for enriching instruction for students of all ages. Seminars can be built around recent advances in a field, especially in science or technology. They may also be built around enduring issues: important perspectives that may escape attention in standard courses, or fundamental ideas that are relatively neglected in existing curricula. The seminars offered in the National Initiative in 2011 were:The Art of Reading PeopleLove and Politics in the SonnetThe Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible HeritageChemistry of Everyday ThingsGreat Ideas of Primary MathematicsOrgans and Artificial OrgansI have been the main leader of seminars in mathematics for the National Initiative for the past several years. The seminars I have offered in previous years areThe Art and Craft of Word ProblemsEstimationThe Mathematics of WallpaperA strong feature of a Teachers Institute is the key role played by teachers in all activities. Seminar topics are offered by faculty, but the decisions as to which seminars will run is in the hands of a committee of Teacher Representatives, who canvas their colleagues throughout the district as to which of the proposed topics have the most potential to raise the level of instruction. After seminars are selected, the same committee accepts and vets applications to participate in the selected seminars, and determines seminar membership. Each seminar also has one Fellow who serves as coordinator, ensuring good communication between the Seminar Leader and the Fellows, and especially, that the complex task of unit writing proceeds on schedule, with each Fellow having adequate guidance and support.In this spirit, the seminars themselves are highly collegial affairs, with regular participation from all Fellows as well as the Seminar Leader. In particular, seminars include time for Fellows to share with each other their plans for their units, and to provide feedback and mutual support for their projects. Discussions initiated during seminar time may well lead to further exchanges between Fellows outside of seminar meetings. …

Infant observation and the Tavistock model of teaching and learning: continuity and change

This paper reviews the changing context of infant observation from the teaching perspective. It considers the benefits of infant observation (Bick's method) as set out by Martha Harris in 1976, and the challenges and opportunities posed to infant observation seminar leaders. These include the widening cultural, educational and social background of observers, the choice of family and the broader definition of what constitutes an ordinary family. The clinical context of public sector psychotherapy and its increasing emphasis on evidence-based work is also considered as a factor bearing on the seminar leader's capacities.

The seminar leader as ‘a new baby’: teaching observation for the first time

Every infant observation marks a beginning, most dramatically for the observed child and family, as well as for the observer, taking up an unfamiliar role. Sometimes, however, the seminar leader is also a ‘new baby’ teaching observational studies for the first time. The journal interviewed three tutors who recently started as seminar leaders in infant observation on the Psychoanalytical Observational Studies course based at the Tavistock Centre in London. Students on this course are expected to undertake a full two-year observation as well as a shorter young child observation. They attend weekly seminars usually made up of about five participants where a write up of a visit is considered in detail. Suzan Sayder began teaching at the Tavistock last year (October 2010) Tanya Leonard and Julie Klingert-Hall have both taught infant observation for two years in Liverpool. All three are child and adolescent psychotherapists.

NATO’s role in the Strategic Concept debate: Watchdog, fire-fighter, neighbour or seminar leader?

This article argues that traditional Westphalian powers are increasingly pressured to move beyond Westphalia towards institutionalization of security cooperation and a broader definition of referent objects of security. Focusing on the case of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it notes that the Alliance is severely torn between traditional constructions of ‘the self’ and a need for change. Exploring how NATO handles this dilemma, the article examines how the Alliance articulated its constitutive story during the strategic concept process of 2009–10. Four roles are crystallized from the reading of the narrative: the fire-fighter, the watchdog, the good neighbour and the seminar leader. It is argued that NATO will be able to meet the exigencies of the post-Westphalian world more or less effectively depending on how it develops in each of these roles. The article concludes that NATO largely remains Westphalian in its four roles, but the launching of the seminar leader role indicates that it may be preparing a farewell to Westphalia. NATO is a composite actor and tensions between academic, global reformist and traditionalist regional story-lines will prevail. Nevertheless, the globalized threat environment is likely eventually to force NATO to fully recognize the need for a more post-Westphalian approach to security.

Interactive First-year Engineering Seminar Series

Six years ago, a Seminar Series was implemented in the Engineering Strategies and Practice course for first-year engineering at the University of Toronto. The learning objectives of the seminar series are to teach students communication as an engineer, independent learning, and systems thinking. Additionally the seminar series creates a forum for faculty, and other professional mentors, to imbue a passion for learning in a more intimate environment than is normally associated with first-year courses. The interactive seminar series has proven popular with both the students and the 40+ volunteer seminar leaders recruited from academia, industry, the local community, and non-profit organizations. These seminar leaders mentor their students through a discussion of the technical, social, environmental, economic, legal, ethical, political, and/or human factors associated with an engineering-related topic of the seminar leader's choosing. The past, present, and future of the seminar series will be discussed in this paper. By measure of self-reported growth the learning objectives are being met and as such the seminar series is considered a success. It is predicted to continue, with goals of continuous improvement, for years to come.

Promises of Peace and Passion: Enthusing the Readers of Self-Help

Promises of Peace and Passion: Enthusing the Readers of Self-Help

MO‐D‐350‐01: Professional Comportment: Professional Is as Professional Does

Medical Physics is an odd specialty in the constellation of healthcare providers and allied health professionals. We hold the distinction of being the only exclusively non‐physician specialty that is certified by a Medical Specialty Board in the US, consistent with our unique role as independent thinkers in the clinical decision‐making and provision of care. At the same time, there has been more of an ingathering than a pathway for those entering the field, and our education and training has been, to be kind, systematically ad hoc. Many if not most of us spend our education and training years communing closely with machinery into the wee hours and spend precious little business‐hour time in a clinic learning under the wing of professional role models how to act, and how to interact in the healthcare workplace. We largely enter practice with nowhere near adequate preparation or “people skills” to take on the leadership role that our work demands.Sometimes we act badly.In this session we will explore several aspects of what it means to comport oneself professionally. Certainly it means to do one's technical work independently with a degree of craftsmanship and skill, cognizant of the impact that each decision has on patients who rely on our services. It means treating our colleagues and co‐workers with respect, no doubt. But beyond that, the perception of an individual as a professional — and by extension, of Medical Physics as a profession rather than a trade — hinges on those nebulous‐seeming skills of leadership and sagacity that seem to be the very antithesis of the analytic skills we learned in school.Respect in the workplace as a professional is not an object that comes wrapped in a diploma or certificate, nor is it the least bit determined by Medicare reimbursement policy. Professional stature is something that we each build or fail to build for ourselves every day by the way we act toward other people. Professionalism is political, not analytical.We've assembled a distinguished panel to speak to the topic of professional comportment from a variety of perspectives and will be providing ample time for questions and comments from the audience.James Purdy, PhD is Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, where he has been since 2004. Prior to that he spent 31 years at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis where he rose to the rank of Professor and served as both Director of the Radiation Physics Division and Associate Director of the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology's Radiation Oncology Center. Dr. Purdy is a Fellow of the AAPM, ACMP, and ACR, and was one of the inaugural group selected to become an ASTRO Fellow in 2006. He was recipient of the 1996 ACMP Marvin M.D. Williams Professional Achievement Award and the 1997 AAPM William D. Coolidge Award. He was awarded the 2000 ASTRO Gold Medal and the 2002 ACR Gold Medal. He will share with us some about his long professional experience working effectively as a Medical Physicist within the medical establishment.Peggy Landrum, PhD, RN is Associate Clinical Professor in College of Nursing at Texas Woman's University where she participates in the training of health care professionals. She is, among other distinctions, a trainer in a technique called “Motivational Interviewing” (MI) which is a formal approach to working with people to resolve their ambivalence about making behavioral changes that they know are good for them but they resist nonetheless. MI is a useful technique for providers in many healthcare settings such as psychotherapy, substance abuse therapy, medical management compliance, etc. and can also have a role in the workplace as a tool of change agency.Sam Keen, PhD, ThM is a freelance thinker, lecturer, seminar leader, consultant, and author. His career has included decades in academia teaching Philosophy and Religion, as well as 20 years as a Contributing Editor of Psychology Today. He is distinguished by having been a sage of the “Men's Movement” who brought a great deal of value to that moment's zeitgeist without making it a career. His work is about asking the questions, and he is pleased to note that he has been an amateur at everything he has done professionally. He has taken some interest over time in the question of what it means to be “professional,” particularly in healthcare. That in addition to the constant question of what it means to live a human life fully.George W. Sherouse, PhD, is President and Chief Medical Physicist of Sherouse Systems, Inc., a North Carolina based boutique Medical Physics service company. He is a popular lecturer and contributor to the public discourse, speaking frequently on the important distinction between “gadfly” and “curmudgeon.” He strives to comport himself professionally and has learned much from many failures.

The leader in midlife

PurposeThis paper aims to frame and open up a new, often hidden conversation that leaders often have privately … namely which way to go in the second half of life to legitimize the need to build the “self‐leadership” topic into leadership development models and programs.Design/methodology/approachThe author is a coach and seminar leader who has spoken to over 100,000 people in over 50 corporations. The message is gleaned from that work plus his own studies, formal and informal of adult development.FindingsThe key concept is how to sustain productivity and commitment over a ten year career. When this topic is discussed openly and legitimately in organizational settings, it engenders “natural productivity”. When it is hidden, contracted, or not discussed, it engenders burnout, fatigue and lack of commitment.Originality/valueProvides a viewpoint on leadership development.

Early splitting and projective identification

In this paper, starting from the idea of the relationship between maternal and paternal functions in the processing of experience, the author takes as the object of her thinking an account of a particular observation and its discussion in an observation seminar group. Using the example of early splitting and projective identification, which she first delineates in terms of Klein's (1946) seminal paper, ‘Notes on some schizoid mechanisms,’ she reflects on this process in the observation, the group and in the mind of the teacher. The seminar leader is also involved, she suggests, in an ongoing process. She needs to exercise caution in the fine balancing of her own maternal containing and paternal explicating processes, in order to facilitate rather than foreclose on the learning which can take place in the experiential group setting. The author exemplifies this in a particular narrative of teaching and learning which occurred within a single seminar, halfway through the first year of the students’ experience.