The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to understand the motivations and processes faculty used to design first-year undergraduate classes with international and/or intercultural content. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 7 professors at a large public university in the United States with very high…

Persistence, along with retention and completion initiatives, are the focus of institutions of higher education, especially community colleges. There are initiatives that focus on student success that start at orientation and revolve around connecting the student to the college. Students often arrive on campus with a minimal understanding of the…

We analyze the identity trajectory of a single case study, Cassidy, within the physics community. We focus our analysis on two settings in the physics community: an undergraduate research experience, and undergraduate coursework. We use video data from three interviews (spanning roughly fifteen months) to longitudinally analyze shifts in…

This article presents original qualitative research applying paired text study, "havruta" learning, to the secular college classroom. I adapted this method to a first-year seminar in a public university and found that students perceived that "havruta" improved their abilities to verbalize their understandings through reading…

Establishing a sense of belonging on campus is needed for the success of all students, but research indicates that belonging can serve as a key protective factor for students with working-class social identities (Ardoin, 2018a; Espinoza, 2011; Ostrove & Long, 2007; Strayhorn, 2019). Through a mixed-methods approach, this study looked at…

First-year seminars and university induction programmes are embedded with academic and social skills required by students to transition into their first year of study. The first-year seminar at the University of the Free State is a credit-bearing module called UFS101, and is a prerequisite for degree completion. Students are assessed through…

Students with disabilities are enrolling in colleges and universities at increasing rates, but not completing degrees with comparable success as their peers. First Year Seminars (FYS) are commonly employed by colleges and universities to address retention, strengthen connections between the student and the institution, and enhance the likelihood…

This study looked to situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) in order to explore students' participation in the social practices of first-year learning communities. Wenger's (1998) elaboration on "communities of practice" provides insight into how such participation transforms learners. These perspectives frame learning as a…

The responsibility for college success has historically rested with the student, but since the 1980s, educators have taken increasing ownership of this, designing structures that increase the likelihood of learning, success, and retention. These efforts have included a variety of initiatives--first year seminars, learning communities,…