A course on ethics and history of technology, taught to 1886 first-year engineering students of 14 engineering departments was redesigned using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) by adapting many course elements at the same time. We applied the situational level of Vallerand's hierarchical model, analysing how the elements of this ethics and history…

Students who engage in undergraduate research experiences acquire many benefits, including an understanding of how scientific knowledge is constructed, recognition that knowledge can be complex and uncertain, and the habit of viewing knowledge critically. This paper describes a first-year two-course sequence that provides multidisciplinary…

This study aims at describing the new approach to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching based on the results of the curriculum renewal conducted for the freshman "Academic Skills in English" courses (ENG 101 and ENG 102) with reference to the Faculty of Computer Sciences. The study is based on the results of the needs analysis…

Traditional views of critical thinking instruction focus on teaching students to develop skeptical responses to the texts they read. Genuinely powerful and generative forms of critical thinking, however, require students to read creatively as well. To balance the rigor of analysis and exorbitance of creativity, a freshman honors seminar was…

This study attempted to describe current trends in the teaching of English to college freshmen and to use that description to formulate a series of suggestions for improvement. Findings from 160 responses to a questionnaire sent to college and university English departments indicated that a wide degree of variation existed between freshman English…

To address the needs of African American students at Beaver College in Glenside (Pennsylvania), a one-credit freshman orientation course on Afrocentricity was developed. The course was intended to increase the comfort level between the institution and its culturally diverse students and add additional support for increased retention of African…

There is a large body of well-conducted research that supports the value of freshmen orientation seminars in promoting the success of first-year students at community colleges. Orientation programs have been shown to improve retention, program completion, and the level of academic performance of these students. In addition to improving student…

Maine's York County Technical College (YCTC) developed a College Success Management course to help students learn and adopt strategies that promote their college success. In designing the course, a review of related literature was completed to determine the background and purposes of student success courses, data on student attrition, expected…

This article documents the conception and development of a tool for providing academic and counseling support to meet the needs of minority adult students in an urban community college environment. Specifically, the tool is a course having as its base the proper assessment of student needs and the revision of the syllabus to fit those needs.…