Accompanying the growth of freshman seminars and extended orientation courses has been a rich body of literature depicting the process and outcome aspects of the course. This paper provides an annotated review of the investigations on freshman seminar/extended orientation courses. The review is designed to provide faculty and administrators with…

This paper examines several models of freshman seminar programs, reviews the assessment and research literature showing the efficacy of these programs, and discusses research emphases of the new National Center for the Study of the Freshman Year Experience at the University of South Carolina. (Author/MLW)

A North Dakota State University study found that during a required first-year seminar, students whose course instructors served as their academic advisors voluntarily attended advising sessions significantly more often than did students whose advisors were not their course teachers. Areas for further research and implications for advising programs…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to consider "friendsickness" as experienced by 96 entering college students. As defined here, "friendsickness" is a challenge new students experience when they leave their established network of friends and begin college. Journal entries written by new students in first-year seminars were examined and…

A 2003 review of the literature shows a lack of formal institutional research focusing on the development of critical thinking as a situated experience--occurring in a specific context with a complex set of dynamics. Rather, much of the emphasis has been on learning outcomes as measured by various psychometric-approaches or an instructor's…

In response to demographic changes among entering college students, more and more colleges are offering freshman orientation courses that have come to be known as "College 101." At Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, a course called COL 101 was begun in 1985. A survey of teachers of the course investigated speech or oral…

Bowling Green State University, Ohio, carried out a study of learning communities and first-year programs to determine their success in facilitating student success, increasing engagement, and promoting connections. Findings from 10 learning communities show the overall success of these programs and provide favorable cost estimates. (SLD)

California Lutheran University's seven-week freshman seminar focuses on building relationships and helping students make decisions about their college and occupational careers. Issues arising in the course's evolution include the role of peer advisors, major vs. non-major advising, maintaining institution-wide support, and credit and academic…

This paper suggests areas that need to be made implicit in developing the successful freshman seminar course including knowledge domains, acculturation, and metacognition. Literature on critical thinking, metacognition, and freshman seminars is brought together. (Author/MLW)

Attention to the origins, history, and evolution of the First-Year Experience (FYE) movement in American higher education can inform institutional practices aimed at enhancing transition experiences of students.

First-year students taking developmental courses need the kind of guidance a freshman seminar can provide when the advice is directly relevant to their progress. An alternative to assigning a heterogeneous group of students to an academic advisor is to offer a course which enriches the key elements of a freshman seminar while applying the standard…

One version of a first year seminar in rhetoric examines the President Kennedy assassination controversy as seen by several writers in a rhetorical framework that stresses the difference, particularly in regard to the writers' approaches to truth, in intellectual and imaginative discourses. The assignments, three major writing projects, introduce…

A longitudinal study of the retention and academic performance of college freshmen taking freshman seminars found that participating students with higher Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were significantly less likely to leave college than nonparticipating controls, and participating students with lower SAT scores showed slightly better…

Although the case teaching method is most prominent in graduate schools, the technique is well suited to freshman seminar courses that seek to promote student development and self-discovery. Discusses how cases have been developed and integrated into Freshman Seminar 101, a required one-credit course at a private liberal arts college. (JPS)

This article draws on historical and philosophical lenses and interviews with students to question some fundamental tenets underlying the practice of freshman learning communities (FLCs): that they develop community and improve students' learning experiences. The article brings to the discourse of FLCs some critical questions regarding their value…