‘They have different information about what is going on’: emotion in the transition to university

Most new students experience school to university transition as challenging. Students from backgrounds with little or no experience of higher education are most vulnerable in this transition, and most at risk of academic failure. Emotion appears implicated in the differential way in which first-generation students and students with family familiarity of university experience the transition. This article draws on the voices of first-year dental and oral hygiene students at a South African dental faculty regarding university transition experiences. It draws on the construct of capital and Archer's [(2002). Realism and the problem of agency. Journal of Critical Realism Alethia, 5(1), 11–20] understanding of ‘competing concerns’ to examine how emotion shapes students' experiences of university transition and how they position themselves with regard to these experiences. The article explicates the ways in which emotional commentary and classed locations intersect, exploring the extent to which this intersection shapes young people's framing of their concerns of ‘being a student’ and ‘becoming a dentist’. The article identifies aspects of the university's material and cultural environments which shape students' emotional responses and which consequently are implicated in the perpetuation of class-based differential life chances.     

Testing Programs and Liberal Studies

Abstract. Do sustained induction programs increase participants' teaching efficacy? Data from a qualitative case study of new college faculty involved in a learning community at a small liberal arts college were compared with data from a college-sponsored mentoring project involving first-year teachers from five suburban school districts. Regardless of whether participants taught K-12 or in collegiate classrooms, two dominant themes emerged from first-year narratives: students were likely to overtly challenge the authority of new teachers, and there was a profound difference between novices' own experiences as students and those of the students now in their classrooms.     

Students' Views of Teaching

Abstract

Much To Do About Writing: Teaching and Assessing Writing By Edward M. White San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1985, 304 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by David Taylor

A Poignant, Colorful Portrait: Refugee Scholars in America: Their Impact and Their Experiences By Lewis A. Coser New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984, xviii + 351 pages, $25.00. Reviewed by R. W. Franklin     

Libraries Across the Education Continuum: Relationships Between Library Services at the University of Montana and Regional High Schools

This study explores the library instructional programming and resources of high school library media centers in western Montana with the intent of documenting and understanding both the services provided to and the experiences of first-year college students at the University of Montana. Results from the survey (n = 22) and site visits (n = 10) reveal wide variation in the levels and types of library instructional programming provided at the library media centers, including media specialists’ perceptions of high school students’ information literacy skills. However, consistency was seen in the media specialists’ collection management strategies and in collection content. The results suggest implications for first-year library programming and highlight opportunities for further 9–16 collaboration and study.     

Teaching in good faith: Towards a framework for defining the deep supports that grow and retain first-year teachers

‘Good faith’ refers to the existentialist concept of living and acting in harmony with one’s innermost values. An educator who teaches in good faith will fully actualize her philosophy of teaching in the classroom, which leads to greater job fulfilment and a higher likelihood of retention in the profession. Currently, much of the extant literature refers to teachers needing greater emotional support, but this original phenomenological study uncovered the need for deep supports, defined as adaptive methods for helping educators define, develop, and enact their values and beliefs in the classroom. The study hypothesizes that the need for deep supports has never been fully explored because the language of the educational industry does not fully attend to this aspect of teaching. To that end, this study explored the relationship between school environment and the development of good-faith teaching in first-year educators with the goal of providing language and a conceptual framework to understand the ways in which first-year teachers enact their emerging identities in the classroom. Ultimately, the study links good faith teaching to teacher retention and provides indicators of school environments that provide deep supports for teaching in good faith.     

How first-year students perceive and experience assessment of academic literacies

Abstract

First-year university students’ underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students’ perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students’ perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers’ classes. Findings highlight that fostering students’ academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers’ goals of developing learners’ academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective ‘card’ played by teachers to nurture students’ appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress.     

First-year Students＇ Psychological and Behavior Adaptation to College： The Role of Coping Strategies and Social Support

This study investigates 311 first-year students＇ psychological and behavior adaptation to college and the mediate role of coping strategies and social support. The investigates reveal that： （1） first-year students who are from countryside, live in poor families, speak in dialects or major in science and engineering have poorer adaptation to college than their counterparts; （2） first-year students＇ psychological and behavior adaptation to college was influenced by not only directly coping strategies, but also indirectly social supports. Positive coping strategies maybe make students＇ adaptation to college better.     

Using an adaptation programme to introduce children to the early years of schooling in Slovakia

The article presents a new adaptation programme entitled ‘With a smile to school’ for pupils of the first year at primary schools. The adaptation programme comprises several methods and measures which are focused on the regulation of pupils’ adaptation process. The efficiency and effectiveness of the adaptation programme were verified through an experiment at selected primary schools in Slovakia in the school year 2016/2017. Based on the experiment results, a proposal for implementation of the adaptation programme to school practice was drawn up. The experiment results were evaluated by means of selected statistical methods.     

Local university students and intercultural interactions: conceptualising culture,seeing diversity and experiencing interactions

This paper examines the intercultural interaction experiences of local, first-year students (n?=?25) in their first few weeks at university. The focus on local students complements existing intercultural interaction literature, which has tended to concentrate on the experience of the ‘cultural other’ student. Employing qualitative analysis, the study revealed relationships between how students conceptualise culture, see diversity and experience their initial intercultural interactions on campus. A link between students' cultural backgrounds and the depth of their intercultural interaction experiences emerged.