engaging today\'s college students

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ENGAGING TODAY’S COLLEGE STUDENTS INCORPORATING STUDENT SUCCESS BEST PRACTICES TO REACH AND MOTIVATE OUR NSU STUDENTS JACQUELINE M. SLAUGHTER, DIRECTOR, NEW AND TRANSFER STUDENT TRANSITION, FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE, NSU

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Exciting reasons why it is critical to engage students in the classroom and nifty ideas on how to do such!

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Page 1: Engaging Today\'s College Students

ENGAGING TODAY’S COLLEGE STUDENTSINCORPORATING STUDENT SUCCESS BEST PRACTICES TO REACH AND MOTIVATE OUR NSU STUDENTS

JACQUELINE M. SLAUGHTER, DIRECTOR, NEW AND TRANSFER STUDENT TRANSITION, FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE, NSU

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A VISION OF STUDENTS TODAY

200 students enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Spring 2007. This discusses how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

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GENERATION Y CHARACTERISTICS STUDENTS BORN BETWEEN 1977-

1997 Generation Y is cynical. Baby Boomers started out optimistic and

political involved, but became disillusioned during the turbulent 1960s. Generation Y started out disillusioned. They came of age during events such as 9/11 and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and have little trust in government or other authority figures.

Generation Y has a non-existent attention span. College students have always gotten bored easily, but the attention span of this group is especially low. This is a generation of remote controls, hyperlinks, and MTV. Professors have their work cut out for them.

Generation Y loves consumerism. Advertisers love Generation Y because they are such a large demographic group, and because young people are easier to market to than older ones. Thus, Generation Y has grown up accustomed to businesses trying to win their favor. In the U.S., this is the first generation who grew up with advertisements all over their high schools and fast food in the school cafeteria.

Generation Y is extremely comfortable with technology. This is the first generation that has no real memory of life without computers, cell phones, and digital music, and members of Generation Y laugh at people who don’t have these technologies. Walk around any college campus between classes, and you might see half of the students talking on their phones or listening to their iPods (or doing this during class, which drives professors crazy).

http://collegeuniversity.suite101.com/article.cfm/generation_y 3

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MY GOALS TODAY

Introduce student engagement and the purpose.

Introduce my passion and commitment to the process.

Share some experiences that I have had. Discuss engagement using the paradigm of

freshman year engagement, but will have applicable appeal to all instructors.

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Page 5: Engaging Today\'s College Students

LET’S DO THIS FIRST

Engagement comes from the 17th century French word engager which means “to pledge”.

http://www.bearmedicineherbals.com Engagement– to pledge, to attract, and to hold

fast. http://www.reference.com/browse/engage

Engagement means involvement….influencing students to be motivated to take an active part in their college experience, both curricular and co-curricular. 5

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WHY ENGAGE OUR STUDENTS? Retention, Retention, Retention!!! Students who miss even 1 class period during first

4 weeks, are more likely to not persist in the first year than students who attend each class sessions.Watch those early absences.

 Institutions of higher education are reevaluating teaching and considering changing faculty reward systems correspondingly.

Teaching with technology requires us to reevaluate not only what we teach, but how and why we teach it.

Employers are looking for graduates to have “real world” skills and readiness for the workforce.

A movement to assess student learning is sweeping our colleges and universities.

(Constance Staley, 1999)

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EXPERTS SAY: Vincent Tinto, national expert in student

retention states: “An engaging learning environment, not retention programs per se, is the key to helping students persist in their studies”.

Alexander Astin: Astin’s Theory of Involvement: Students learn more the more they are involved in both the academic and social aspects of the collegiate experience. An involved student is one who devotes considerable energy to academics, spends much time on campus, participates actively in student organizations and activities, and interacts often with faculty (Astin, 1984, p.292).

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CHICKERING AND GAMSON (1987)

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.

Encourage Student/Faculty Contact Encourage Cooperation Among Students Encourage Active Learning Give Prompt Feedback Emphasize Time on Task Communicate High Expectations Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of

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HIGHER EDUCATION BACKGROUND Who am I? An avid and enthusiastic college student

administrator. I began my experience with higher education at the tender age of 4.

I come from a family very invested in science and engineering and they have made many contributions in such.

In the 1970’s I was intrigued with the sciences and technology as I went to my father’s work. He was working as an engineer and he introduced me to what science and engineering was.

Received my career beginnings at the UMCP, once graduating from Hampton University in 1987 and higher education became my passion ever since.

Began in 1994 as the Retention Coordinator for the Minority Engineering Program at Cal State LA then became the Associate Director. Served as NSBE advisor from 1995-1999.

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MINORITY ENGINEERING INTEREST

Mentored by Raymond B. Landis—Dean of Engineering at California State University, Los Angeles for 16 years.

Uri Triesman model has been implemented—focus on assisting minority students with excelling in mathematics and engineering.

“Father of MEP” founded the first Minority Engineering Program in the nation at California State University, Northridge in 1973. He utilized collaborative learning paradigms, freshman seminar courses, academic enrichment workshops, 24 hour study room, NSBE and SHPE organizations and enthusiastic corporate partners.

Now, 20 engineering schools in California have replicated the MEP Program, which is a national model for engineering education for students of color.

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A TEXT TO USE

My experiences working with INROADS/Los Angeles, a training and development firm, showed me that the book “Seven Habits for Highly Effective People”, by Stephen Covey was an effective way to change paradigms.

INROADS students were given a copy of the book in order to teach them the 7 habits that they could employ to help them to be better stewards of their time, and decision making.

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AN IDEA WAS BORN

When the MEP director stated that they were disenchanted with their current text and that they needed a more relevant vehicle to get positive study behaviors across…this was all I needed.

I illustrated to the MEP Director and the Dean of Engineering my success in using the “7 Habits…” and asked if I could adopt this text for our students.

I was met with much resistance as they discussed the fact that it was a book written for business executives and not one that was appropriate for 18 year olds.

I asked that they give me an opportunity to prove that I could adopt my lectures, discussions, and activities in order to make it relevant.

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

A pilot was allowed for me to adopt the text for the quarter with the understanding that at the end of the quarter, we would evaluate the progress.

10 weeks in the quarter. Each week, I introduced a particular habit. The remaining weeks we did applications of the habits and had guest speakers.

Students became quite excited about being in class each session.

The examples used were relevant to what they were struggling with and it became a rich and inspiring experience for all of us. 13

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HABIT ONE

Be Proactive: Importance of students taking themselves seriously as college students.

Students came to college to begin their studies and ostensibly to employ the behaviors that will enable them to be successful. We discussed the importance of proactivity as opposed to reactivity.

We discussed meeting with their professors during their office hours, not just when they had problems but also to introduce themselves formally.

We discussed the importance of going to supplemental instruction, tutoring in order that they could keep up with the math and physics courses that they were studying. 14

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HABIT TWO

Begin with the End in Mind…We introduced this by asking them to imagine their graduation day. We ask them to imagine as they are sitting with their fellow engineering students and to reflect back on to their freshman year and the habits or behaviors that helped them to get to where they are now.

Engineering positions—we illustrated the importance of students receiving academic excellence in order that they could compete for the myriad of positions that would be available to them in the future.

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HABIT THREE

Put First Things First…this was the Time Management Chapter. In this Chapter, it was key that students learn how easily it is to confuse what is urgent and important from time wasters. We spent quite a bit of time on this habit and we discussed their strategies on how they utilize their time and what they could be doing differently in order to be a better manager of their time.

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HABIT FOUR

Think Win/Win– This habit forces individuals to look at the whole picture, a macroscopic view as opposed to looking at only a microscopic view as to their own importance.

Much fun was had explaining and doing activities based on this habit. Students would discuss conflicts that they may have had with this principle and we were able to delineate what exactly they could do differently in order to be more successful.

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HABIT FIVE

Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. In this chapter, we discussed the importance of communication, and specifically of listening. We introduced the idea that it is critical that we thoroughly understand the other person’s concerns in order that we can be better at addressing their concerns.

This was an excellent opportunity for us to discuss instructors’ styles and how instructors have different ways of communicating, but it the student’s responsibility to grasp the needed information.

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HABIT SIX

Synergize…my favorite habit. This habit was an excellent way to introduce diversity to our students. In addition, we discussed the importance of working in teams and working with peoples’ strengths. The adage “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” was quite helpful here.

A helpful way that we were able to illustrate this was to discuss conflict and how it was critical that different components being discussed related together in order that they can become interdependent with one another.

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HABIT SEVEN

Sharpen the Saw—focuses on creating a balance in your life…Here we discuss the importance of eating correctly, exercise, taking time to renew oneself, etc.

Powerful habit to introduce relaxation, meditation exercise, visualization exercise, etc.

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THESE HABITS BEYOND

Framework for students to understand their personal and collective responsibility for their work.

Inspiring to hear students discuss with me how the “habits” had helped them to study for a test or for them to test their capacity to be diligent.

Was able to discuss with students in their junior and senior years about how these habits had impacted their life.

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HUMOR AND CREATIVITY

Ron A. Berk, RONALD A. BERK, PhD, Professor EmeritusBiostatistics and MeasurementThe Johns Hopkins University

Teaching is all about the students

http://www.ronberk.com/html/video_clips.html

Statistical Sampling Exercise Contextual Humor can help students get ingrain information

http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun06/learning.html

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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STUDENTS RON A BERK, PHD PROFESSOR EMERITUS

BIOSTATISTICS AND MEASUREMENT, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

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JIGSAW CLASSROOM

Divide students into 5- or 6-person jigsaw groups. Appoint one student from each group as the leader. Divide the day's lesson into 5-6 segments. For instance mitosis of cells:

Have each group discuss the different phases of mitosis. Then, give students in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of their segment and to rehearse the presentations they will make to their jigsaw group.

Ask each group to present her or his segment to the class. Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

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MINUTE PAPER

At the end of your lecture ask the students: What was the most useful or meaningful

thing you learned during this session? What question(s) remain uppermost in your

mind as we end this session? What was the “muddiest” point in this

session? Give an example or application Explain in your own words…

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HOLD THE DRUM—A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE OF ACADEMIC

ENGAGEMENT

For example, one student arrived at Harvard from an island in the South Pacific and was quite overwhelmed. 

Her adviser recognized this and gave her some suggestions of activities in which to participate.

He suggested that she join the Harvard Band.

Conclusion, she felt much belonging.26

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IDEAS TO BECOME MORE ENGAGED

Ask for students commitment to the class and the learning on the first day of class. Ask students: “Do you really want to pursue the learning objectives in the manner described”? Let them know that this is a Win/Win. You’ve made a commitment to give them sessions worth attending and they need to attend to get the worth that you’re giving out.

Ask students for a show of hands of who is willing to be on time for every class and participate intellectually in the class.

This allows students to decide for themselves if they want to take this class and pursue their goals. They have the time to think about it and decide. 27

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MORE IDEAS TO BECOME ENGAGED Have stories in which to introduce important concepts:

such as the Harvard chemistry professor, Dudley Herschbach, whose "lesson on polymers becomes the story of how the development of nylons influenced the outcome of World War II“.

He asks the chemistry students to write poetry while they struggle to comprehend the concepts and ideas that scientists have developed creating an interdisciplinary approach to problems invoking the arts.

Create diverse learning experiences…the brain loves diversity. Conduct class in a multitude of ways. Offer visual information (pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, demonstrations), auditory input (speech). Allow students to talk things out, to interact with each other, and also to reflect independently.

What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. 224p.

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3 THINGS THAT YOU CAN BRING TO STUDENTS IN THEIR COURSE RAYMOND

LANDIS

1) Each other—deliver students to each other– Name Game.

2) Strengthen their commitment to getting their degree. Have students look at the payoff.

3) Students can articulate significant changes that they have made in their behaviors.Ask this:

How many of you want to change something about yourselves?

How many of you want to have better study habits

How many of you want to write better? Who can tell me something that they changed

about themselves so far this semester.29

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RAYMOND LANDIS’ QUOTE: ENGAGING STUDENTS

 "Unless you get a standing ovation at the conclusion of every lecture, you are not doing the best job that you could". A hyperbole: No matter how good you are, you can always improve.

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THEREFORE.. Use Your Creativity…Use a blend of humor,

engaging exercises, collaborative learning, and your own creative style in order to give your material the extra edge needed to compel and excite your student protégées.

The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people.

K. Patricia Cross

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