While the scholarship of interdisciplinarity has grown prolifically in the last thirty years, the discourse primarily frames interdisciplinarity as an instrumental research construct. In this article, I will argue that this framework should be expanded to consider how interdisciplinary engagement can support education for democracy. The article…

This research evaluated the impact on students' academic achievements of a pre-college outreach programme implemented by a Chilean higher education institution. This programme benefits students in their last year of secondary education so they can better adapt to post-secondary education. Specifically, we assessed whether freshmen enrolled in 2017…

Not long ago, college seemed out of reach for Jesse Ashley, a high school senior in Buffalo, New York. In a troubled school system plagued by low achievement and high dropout rates, Jesse's chronic absenteeism and bouts with depression made his prospects shaky. But Jesse got help, returned to classes and began thinking about college--all under an…

This chapter will examine characteristics of first-year experience programs in community colleges, with specific attention to the extant research about their effectiveness, the ways in which research and program delivery can be integrated, and the unique challenges of delivering FYE programs and conducting research about them in community colleges.

Empathy and interdisciplinarity are both concepts that are current and relevant--across professions, in research, and in academia. This paper describes a large, interdisciplinary, project-based assignment, the Empathy Project, which allows students to delve into and increase comfort and skill with interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative…

This paper discusses a novel structure for providing a high-impact, first year experience for science students. ASTER (Access to Science Through Experience in Research) is an extracurricular certification program designed to introduce our students to the research culture via seminar attendance, journal clubs, book clubs, and lab visits.…

This article describes a mathematics support programme at the University of Queensland, targeted at first-year engineering students identified as having a high risk of failing a first-year mathematics course in calculus and linear algebra. It describes how students were identified for the programme and the main features of the programme. The…

The augmented theory of successful intelligence [Sternberg, R. J. (2003b). "Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized." New York: Cambridge University Press] postulates that intelligence comprises creative skills in generating novel ideas; analytical skills in discerning whether they are good ideas; practical skills in implementing the…

This paper presents a pre-orientation program for incoming college students, Active Citizenship through Technology (ACT), that engaged students in civic dialogue early in their academic experience while fostering a long-term peer support network. It leveraged youth's interest in Internet technologies to engage them in civic discussions and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to exhibit the integration of learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI) with the City University of Hong Kong information systems to promote teaching and learning within the university. Design/methodology/approach: From the 2006 entry cohort, all undergraduate freshmen at City University of Hong Kong are…

The preceptor program at the University of Hartford was designed to increase engagement among first-year students and to provide role-modeling opportunities for upper-class students. Data from the first two years of the program were examined. In the first year, 611 undergraduate students in 40 introductory-level courses (26 with preceptors, 14…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) has developed a system aiming to effectively place students in freshman and developmental English programs. The placement system includes: triangulating data from external test scores, with scores from a panel-marked hand-written essay (HWE),…

In the modern working environment it is essential for a structural engineer to have an understanding of abstract concepts in structural behaviour and an ability to use them qualitatively. This paper presents the findings of a study on how effectively students acquire such conceptual understanding within a new project/design focused degree course.…

Freshmen Pre-Orientation Programs (FPOPs) can be powerful outreach tools for incoming college students and provide an exciting introduction to the field of engineering. The benefits reach not only the first year students, but also the upperclassmen who help to run the programs and the departments that sponsor them. A family of three engineering…

Evaluates the Study Improvement Program, an 11-week program to improve the study skills of college freshmen. Describes selection and training of undergraduate group leaders and outlines goals for each session. Results of a subjective evaluation showed the program was effective in improving grades and reducing dropouts. (Author/JAC)