Prioritising First Year Experiences Diane Nutt European First Year Experience Network

Outline Why first year experience? Europe and beyond 1: general issues Europe and beyond 2: general strategies STEM: What are you doing? STEM: examples more widely

Why first year experience/s? There isn’t just one FYE, but ... Key transitional phase – managed for all students to benefit? Multiple firsts ... Retention and targeting ‘critical moments’ (rather than at risk students) Groundwork for the future – feeding forward Refs: Harvey and Drew (2006); Krause, et al (2005); Nutt and Calderon (2009) Tinto (1993 etc); Upcraft et al. (1989, 2005); Yorke and Longden (2007)

‘First year students can and will do better when placed in intentional intellectual and social campus environments that challenge and support their efforts to succeed’ (p.524) Gardner, J.N., Upcraft, M.L. and Barefoot, B.O. (2005), Conclusion, in Gardner, J.N. Et al. (editors) Challenging and Supporting the First Year Student, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

What does it mean to really prioritise the first year? Resources Planning and deliberate curriculum design Knowing a bit about your students (now, but also before and after?) Valuing year one BUT we can make a difference from where we are: module, programme/course, department/faculty, school, service, institution?

Enhancing FYE: what’s going on in Europe (& beyond) 1: issues Academic preparedness Social integration Financial issues Widening participation/open access Institutional and academic cultures

Europe and beyond 2: strategies Pre-entry Induction and integration Skills development Peer support Staff support Curriculum activities Institutional approaches

What are you doing to support STEM FYE in your institutions? Find someone you don’t know. Talk to each other for a few minutes about some of the things you are doing in your institution Some examples from the floor ...

STEM examples from elsewhere? Videos from Science students (Sydney) Learning communities in engineering (Glasgow) Group projects from week 5, with student facilitator SciTech model (Uppsala) Annual industry project with all years

More STEM examples Taking a problem-based learning approach (Groningen) Creating multiple opportunities for students and staff to interact informally (Pennsylvania State) – providing opportunities for relationship (and confidence) building. Mathematical modelling through group work (Glamorgan)

And more ... Integrated extended induction (various) Use of learning spaces (Strathclyde) Contemporary and relevant topics for focus of science learning – making ‘troublesome knowledge’ pertinent (various, e.g. Robert Gordon & Queen Margaret) Various buddying & peer support and mentoring models

Resources and contact The Engineering Subject Centre's Guides: ‘Enhancing the First Year Experience for Engineering Students’;& ‘Personal Tutoring’ Various HEA material on FYE Material from the Scottish Enhancement theme: first year experience (2008) Contact details: Diane Nutt, Department for Learning Development, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BA diane.nutt@tees.ac.uk JISC discussion list: EFYEN (email me to be added)

Scottish QE Theme: Key features of an 'ideal' FY curriculum: orientation of students to increase social and academic engagement, 'connectedness' to university, sense of direction and future career (Beder, 1997) development of learning skills (Lines, 2005; Harvey, Drew and Smith, 2006) student-centred, active learning through problem-based, project-based and group learning (Beder, 1997; Harvey, Drew and Smith, 2006) collaborative learning or learning communities to enhance transferable skills and lend a sense of belonging (Barefoot, 2002; Lines, 2005) formative assessment & feedback (Yorke, 2003; Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006) progressive skills development (Jantzi and Austin, 2005) time and structures for reflecting on learning (Jantzi and Austin, 2005).