Transition Of First-year Students Research Articles

A caring approach to the first-year university student experience

This paper presents a case study of a revised approach towards orientation and welcome for commencing students at a research-intensive university in Australia. First-year students, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, face a range of challenges during their transition to university. This paper describes how we have translated research into practice by taking an evidence-based approach, designed in collaboration with students, and informed by three key aspects in student experience literature: engaging students, building an inclusive community, and fostering a sense of belonging. The approach is informed by key principles of care ethics theory, highlighting the importance of care as a concept in the design of first-year experience initiatives. The case study includes quantitative and qualitative data from admission and attendance rates and a student survey (n=1052). Student survey data is analysed through a reflexive thematic analysis approach using both inductive and deductive coding. The findings and discussion outline the key success outcomes of the approach both in relation to engagement, community, and sense of belonging and how these contribute towards supporting first-year student transition. Areas for future research are suggested.

Capturing Peer-To-Peer Mentoring Advice: A Podcast Series for First-Year Law Students

This practice report provides an overview of a podcast series designed to support first-year student transition to university and promote wellbeing and belonging. The podcast was established in 2017 in a compulsory first year law subject (Legal Institutions and Methods) at La Trobe University, Australia. The podcasts record interviews with students who have recently completed the subject and are designed to (a) give interviewees an opportunity to reflect on their experiences and (b) provide advice to future commencing law students (i.e., their peers). The podcast is a form of peer-to-peer mentoring that requires a relatively small investment of resources and provides on-demand support to students as they commence their law studies. The concept is readily adaptable to other disciplines.

Entering Higher Professional Education: Unveiling First-Year Students' Key Academic Experiences and Their Occurrence Over Time.

To date, little understanding exists of how first-year students in professionally oriented higher-education (HE) programs (i.e., those that provide vocational education to prepare students for a particular occupation) experience their academic transition process. In the present study, we first argued how the constructs of academic adjustment and academic integration can provide complementary perspectives on the academic transition of first-year students in (professional) HE. Next, we examined what first-year students in professional HE contexts perceive to be the most important experiences associated with their academic transition process in the first semester of their first year of higher education (FYHE). To this end, we adopted the fundamentals of the critical incident technique and asked 104 students in a Flemish (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) university college (which offers professional HE programs, such as nursing) to complete “reflective logs” with open questions at the start of the second semester of their FYHE, wherein they reflected on three critical academic experiences during their first semester. An inductive, cross-case content analysis of the collected narratives showed that students reported on nine themes of academic experiences, which relate to five adjustment themes (dealing with the organization of the study program, organizing study work, committing to the study, following class and taking notes, and processing learning content outside class) and four integration themes (feeling competent, feeling stressed, feeling prepared, and feeling supported). Further analyses showed that although some of the nine themes of academic experiences appear to be more important at different times in the first semester, they all seem to be meaningful throughout the whole semester.

First-Year Student Transition at the University of the Free State during Covid‑19: Challenges and Insights

First-year seminars and university induction programmes are embedded with academic and social skills required by students to transition into their first year of study. The first-year seminar at the Universityof the Free State is a credit-bearing module called UFS101, and is a prerequisite for degree completion. Students are assessed through summative assessment opportunities throughout the year. In 2020, the UFS101 module embarked on new territory by condensing the contact time for the first semester into a week-long summer school. Furthermore, the summer school was presented a week prior to the start of university, with repeat sessions during the first week of class, and during the March holiday. However, due to national lockdown regulations as a result of Covid-19, a part of the cohort had to self-study the content via an interactive online study guide. This created four distinct groups of students: those who attended face-to-face classes, some face-to-face classes and some self-study, self-study only, and students who could not access the content. In order to measure their transition into university, a questionnaire was distributed to the students, and the results were stratified according to one of the aforementioned categories. Unique similarities and differences were observed in the findings. The results depict that effective content design is at the heartbeat of student transition, but that other factors such as face-to-face interaction with students, and access to resources assist with the transition into university. This study highlighted the need to explore the challenges students experience within their first six months at university, and substantiates that this type of exploration should be routinely conducted to assist with the understanding and implementation of first-year student support.

Learning Culture: First-Year Student Transition, Institutional Culture, and the Bubble of Trial Adulthood

The transition from high school to college involves a number of social, cultural, and psychological forces. Research rarely considers the ways in which institutional culture is transmitted to students during students’ first year of college. This qualitative research study fills this gap in the literature by reporting the findings of 62 one-on-one interviews that considered how students made sense of their transition to higher education. Using institutional culture as a framework, data was analyzed through interpretative thematic analysis strategies. Data analysis revealed several key themes that depict the techniques students employed during their first year that enabled their recreation and performance of the peer norms of the university’s culture. Through immersion, trial and error, and mimicking peer behavior, participants navigated what they called the bubble of trial adulthood. This paper draws several implications for practice and conclusions from the data.

The Transition of First-Year Students with Learning Disabilities

The Transition of First-Year Students with Learning Disabilities

Evaluating Empowerment Language During the First-Year Student Transition

Orientation programs can construct communication pieces that, using language balance, help students begin to define the institutional environment, their role within it, and the experiences they will have before and after enrollment. Additionally, orientation can host conversations about appropriate terms and phrases, as well as ways to define the institution and students themselves. Orientation can also begin a conversation about the institutional lexicon and whether the usage of words is delivering contradictory, confusing, or over-emphasized messages.

Sense of Place and First-Year Student Transition: Fostering Capacity Through Outdoor Orientation Experiences

To address feelings of “placelessness” and “not belonging,” many colleges and universities have implemented outdoor orientation programs developed to assist students with the transition from home. Outdoor orientation programs, in which students participate in some form of adventure activity away from campus (usually in a wilderness or naturalized setting), have been utilized by a growing number of colleges and universities (Bell, Gass, Nafziger, & Starbuck, 2014). This study investigated how an outdoor orientation experience impacted students’ connection to the natural world, and if these experiences built transitional skills and relational capacity that assisted their shift to university life. The study entailed a quantitative analysis of sense of place and a qualitative analysis of students’ self-reported trip experiences with regard to the influence of place, transition to university, and developing connections with others. Results suggest that participants developed a sense of place that positively influenced their connections to others and assisted in building transitional capacity.Subscribe to JOREL

Developing academic literacy through self-regulated online learning

This study explores the self-regulated learning (SRL) experiences of international students in developing English language academic literacy essential for successful transition to university. The participants in this study were a small, diverse group of first year undergraduate students who sought academic support from the Academic Skills Centre at an Australian university. They were given the opportunity to independently access an online program, Study Skills Success, over the duration of one semester to develop their academic literacy in English. Data for this study were collected from a pre- and post-program questionnaire, interviews, a focus group discussion, and reflective online learning logs. These sources gathered information regarding the participants’ motivation and attitudes, their online learning experiences and strategy use, and the perceived benefits of SRL online. The findings from this study have implications for supporting the transition of first year students to university by developing essential academic skills through independent online learning.

The potential of peer assisted learning as a tool for facilitating social and academic integration

Research into the transition of first year students in higher education (HE) confirms that student integration into the academic community is a primary condition for student success (Borglum & Kubala, 2000; Tinto & Pusser, 2006; Tovar, Simon & Lee, 2009; Stebleton, Soria & Huesman, 2014). It is also crucial that it is combined with peer support if students are going to settle into university life (Hamshire, Jack, Prowse, & Wibberley, 2015a). This article seeks to explore the potential value and purposes of peer assisted learning (PAL) as a tool to increase the social and academic integration of first year university students. Focus group interviews (n=16) were conducted between the spring and autumn of 2013 with first-year students (n=93) enrolled in the Faculty of Educational Sciences (Psychology and Educational sciences) at the Free University of Brussels. By using the method of appreciative inquiry (AI), respondents suggested that peer-assisted learning methods are important tools for enhancing social and academic integration. In this sense, tutoring and mentoring need to address specific criteria on at least two organisational dimensions (Topping & Ehly, 2001): (a) objectives of the subject and (b) contact installation. This article aims to prompt further discussion on the potential, value and purposes of peer-assisted learning programmes for integration.

A House Divided? Examining Persistence for On-Campus STEM and Non-STEM Students

Improving student persistence, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, continues to be at the forefront of national educational policy discussions. Living in university housing, with its focus specifically on assisting students in transition, has consistently been positively related to student persistence. Using institutional data and data from a first-year student transition study from all the first-year first-time residential students from Fall 2008 through Fall 2012 ( N = 17,850), this study examined the relationship between student characteristics and experiences and retention for STEM and non-STEM students who live in on-campus housing. Results illustrate that experiences that contribute to retention differ between STEM and non-STEM students. Noncognitive factors related to academic self-efficacy, academic adjustment, and degree aspiration positively affect residential students’ persistence in STEM. Academic performance was a significant factor in institutional persistence for STEM and non-STEM students. Implications for future and practice are discussed.

Creative adaptations: integrating Feldenkrais principles in contemporary dance technique to facilitate the transition into tertiary dance education

As conservatoire-style dance teaching has traditionally utilised a hierarchical approach through which the student must conform to the ideal requirements of the conventional technique, current discourse is beginning to question how dance training can develop technical acuity without stifling students' ability to engage creatively. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the field of somatics and its relationship to tertiary dance training due to the understanding that this approach supports creative autonomy by radically repositioning the student's relationship to embodied learning, skill acquisition, enquiry and performance. This research addresses an observable disjuncture between the skills of dancers graduating from tertiary training and Australian dance industry needs, which increasingly demand the co-creative input of the dancer in choreographic practice. Drawing from Action Research, this paper will discuss a project which introduces somatic learning approaches, primarily from Feldenkrais Method and Hanna Somatics, to first-year dance students in their transition into tertiary education. This paper acknowledges previous research undertaken, most specifically the Somdance Manual by the University of Western Sydney, while directing focus to the first-year student transition from private dance studio training into the pre-professional arena.

The development of performance measures through an activity based benchmarking project across an international network of academic libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline the findings from the initial stages of an activity-based benchmarking project developed across an international network of academic libraries. Through working on a shared response to the question: “if we enable and support the academic endeavour how do we measure our effectiveness?” the network of libraries is using the formal mechanism of benchmarking as a means of continuous improvement. Design/methodology/approach – Actual improvements as a result of benchmarking are known to arise from considering and looking at processes, tools and techniques rather than from simply comparing and reviewing measurements of activity. The establishment of the Matariki Network of Universities provided the opportunity to begin work on international benchmarking amongst the member libraries. The project is a collaborative exercise involving comparisons across the libraries on a selected number of services and activities that are similar across the institutions and are representative of overall library service provision. In this first stage of the project the focus is on support for teaching and learning, specifically activities and programmes that support the transition of first-year students into university life. To simplify the process the libraries have shared details in relation to specific cohorts of students. In order to achieve this, participating libraries used an online collaborative workspace to respond to a series of questions. These responses were analysed to identify common themes, highlight exemplars and select further topics for discussion. Findings – Acknowledging the challenge of international collaboration, processes and mechanisms were developed. It was important to establish a shared language with a set of agreed terms and definitions. Similarly, taking time for each partner to contribute to the project has been valuable. Consideration of each of the libraries responses to the survey questions reveals a diverse number of activities and practices that represent a strong commitment to the needs of students. Drawing on institutional strategic direction and policy, each library allocates substantial resourcing to these activities and practices. The exercise within the benchmarking project produced a valuable set of data for each library to review and learn from. In terms of managing the project, findings are consistent with those reported in the administration of other benchmarking projects. The libraries are in the early stages of developing a series of common international performance measures. It is evident that learning more detail about assessment processes used across each library is necessary to advance the project aims. Further work with the project partners on measuring the effectiveness of their activities will allow the testing of the application of a maturity model for quality improvement of library assessment practices. Research limitations/implications – The project provides the opportunity to develop a series of performance measures that can be verified across an international network of libraries. Sharing information on activities and practices that impact upon the wider institution provides a means to review and improve library assessment practices. Originality/value – This paper outlines the first benchmarking activity in the development of a review of performance measures through an activity-based benchmarking project. The activity included an international network of academic libraries. This work will lead to benchmarking effectiveness measures and the development of a library assessment capability maturity model. This will offer a development path, and a better understanding of progress, to demonstrate value and provide evidence of successful outcomes.

Making sense of how I learn: Metacognitive capital and the first year university student

The retention and engagement of students entering universities globally has been a significant priority area in higher education over the last decade in alignment with a widening participation agenda. Research focusing on the successful transition of first year students has been widespread and contributed to the current body of knowledge focusing on best practices in engaging first year students. This paper focuses on a factor of significant and growing importance in this context: critical thinking. We argue that students who are not equipped with sufficient metacognitive capital when entering university are at increased risk of attrition. Further, we suggest some possible avenues for intervention.

Peer Mentoring to Develop Psychological Literacy in First-Year and Graduating Students

First- and final-year undergraduate students have unique transition issues. To support both the transition of first-year students into the program, and the transition of third-year students out of the program and into the workforce or further study, a face-to-face peer mentoring program was embedded into the first-year psychology curricula at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. The 34 peer mentors, third-year students taking a course on mentoring and career preparation, worked in pairs with small groups of first-year students ( N = 231) in class time to help them develop study skills that underpin the first-year assessment tasks. This article reports on a peer mentoring program designed to develop and consolidate psychological literacies of both first- and third-year students. Comparing pre-and post-tests for first-year students, there was a significant increase in self-ratings across 8 of the 9 ability areas used to measure psychological literacy. In contrast, third-year mentors only showed significant change in the ability to understand basic psychological concepts. Correlational data reveal, for mentees, final course grades were significantly correlated with domain-specific psychological literacy, comprising knowledge and understanding of basic psychological concepts, scientific research practices, application of psychology, and ethics; for mentors, final course grades were significantly correlated with general psychological literacy, comprising cultural competence, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and self-awareness skills. While first-year students indicated an overall positive experience with the mentoring program, the third-year mentors showed strong support for the program. The key implications are discussed.

Assessing the Effectiveness of an Adventure-Based First-Year Experience Class

This study compares a first-year experience (FYE) course utilizing outdoor adventure experiences to a more traditional FYE class at a large mid-Atlantic university. This study compares the quantitative differences between responses by participants in the two classes using the First Year Initiative Survey (FYI), a measure of FYE outcomes related to successful first-year student transition (Swing, 2002). Findings indicate that responses by the adventure class participants had significantly higher mean scores (p < .05) on 8 of the 15 FYI variables. The use of an adventure-based program was effective in providing FYE course outcomes as measured by the FYI and was more effective than the more traditional FYE class on some outcome variables such as knowledge of wellness and connection with peers.