This paper explores an inter-learning teaching method designed and utilized by the authors in the Winter 2021 term for first- and upper-year therapeutic recreation (TR) students in an online platform. This collaborative teaching method sought to make intentional space for upper-year students to take the lead on and facilitate seminars for…

Drawing from our experiences facilitating an FYE faculty development program, we highlight how we have practiced elements of trauma-informed pedagogy to work with first-year students and faculty. We discuss how both students and faculty can benefit from a more complex process of cultivating relationships through mindfulness. Practices of…

First-Year Seminars (FYS) are a high-impact practice (Keup & Young, 2018; Skipper, 2017). However, outcomes of pedagogical approaches linked to those seminars have not been as well researched. An expectation of Christian higher education is to consider what kind of spiritual and personal formation is happening through classroom assignments and…

The authors report on a pilot project designed to integrate habits of mind into a skills-based first-year seminar. This project featured the development of a curriculum map outlining the primary learning objectives for seven habits of mind--curiosity, perseverance, introspection, courage, humility, empathy, and civility--and this study shares that…

This article describes a studio approach to faculty development in a First-Year Seminar (FYS) program. The studio concept helps structure and theorize faculty development efforts in the program. Meeting for regular in-term reflections on their FYSs, instructors collectively generate responses to teaching challenges specific to the program as well…

We investigated changes in students' reported sense of community in the context of a one-semester first-year seminar course using the Community and School Community Inventory (CSCI) research instrument across two years with differing instructional formats. We report a statistically significant increase in students' sense of perceived classroom…

This paper discusses the development and implementation of a locally-sourced corpus to address the specific needs of an ESL writing program. The paper begins with a description of the motivation and development of the "Corpus of Ohio Learner and Teacher English" (COLTE), a large in-house corpus consisting of assessed ESL student writing…

Historically, storytelling has been a way to pass knowledge between generations and to facilitate an understanding of beliefs. The aim of this current research was to explore the value of storytelling in the higher education classroom, to address the question "how can sharing stories assist students in constructing new knowledge in the…

Evaluating information is an essential skill, valued across disciplines. While librarians and instructors share the responsibility to teach this skill, they need a common framework in order to collaborate to design assignments that give students multiple opportunities to learn. Librarians and First Year Seminar faculty at Belmont University…

Students in The Honors College at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh are required to take a team-taught first-year seminar in their first semester. The seminar is theme-based and taught by two professors from two different disciplines. The theme of the seminar is food, one teacher is a professor of geography and the other a professor of…

This study brings together insights from the Science Education Initiative with a new course, "Spy Novel Diplomacy: Propaganda and International Relations," which has been taught as a General Education Seminar for first year students. The class will continue on an annual basis from the spring semester of 2020 onward. Thus what follows is…

This chapter presents mindfulness relaxation activities used in a first-year seminar, discusses Eastern ancient meditation methods as alternative Western contemplative inquiry, and suggests teaching practices in adult and higher education for holistic education and well-being.

A defining feature of honors education is meaningful engagement within and across disciplines, yet significant challenges for creating and sustaining meaningful transdisciplinary research remain. One such challenge involves a nuanced understanding of a discipline, or what educational researchers call "disciplinary literacy." This article…

In 2012, Randy Bass challenged educators to "disrupt" themselves expanding the notion of teaching to include multiple high-impact practices (HIP). First-year seminars are a HIP that, when done successfully, encourages retention and persistence in students. On our campus they function similarly, but they also create opportunities for…

The Effective Team Dynamics (ETD) Initiative at Georgia Tech developed curriculum to improve function of student teams. ETD uses the language of CliftonStrengths® to help students identify the areas in which they are the strongest and to apply those strengths to interpersonal contexts. ETD has developed curriculum for five "Touchpoints,"…