An interview with David Riesman, founder of Harvard University's (Massachusetts) freshman seminar program, covers the origins and structure of the seminars, Riesman's own college experience, the importance of the college experience, faculty research, and the role of faculty in student intellectual development. (MSE)

The development of a freshman seminar at Ohio State University over 70 years is chronicled, looking at the impact of historical influences and the changing values of higher education on the character of the course. The structure and content of the current course are also outlined. (MSE)

Thirty-nine at-risk college freshmen participated in an eight week non-credit seminar in the Fall of 1989. At the beginning of the seminar, students indicated that they enjoyed reading, did leisure reading, and felt that lack of vocabulary, slow reading rate, and inability to concentrate were their major reading problems. They also described their…

This monograph contains 15 papers on aspects of college and university student and family orientation programs. Following a prologue, "Reflections on the Future of Orientation," by M. Lee Upcraft, the papers are: (1) "Today's Students and Their Impact on Orientation and First-Year Programs" (Tony W. Cawthon and Michael Miller);…

Two studies evaluated outcomes of a University Experience (freshman seminar) course to ease the transition to college and enhance student retention at the University of South Florida. In the first study, course evaluations of "typical" USF students (N=540) who completed the course in fall 1998 were overwhelmingly positive in support of…

Explores traditional assumptions about the relative emphasis faculty members and student affairs administrators place on cognitive and affective development in the classroom. Examination of 180 students and six teachers suggests that traditional assumptions about the relative emphasis that faculty members and student affairs educators place on…

The effectiveness of the Plattsburgh Freshman Seminar program, which was designed to increase student retention, was evaluated. The 45 hour, three credit program was designed to help students clarify educational and personal goals, to increase faculty-student contact, to develop communication skills, and to familiarize the student with the…

Reviews a college freshmen history seminar project in which students wrote, illustrated, and prepared a U.S. history textbook on the 1950s and 1960s. Reflecting on the resulting text, Ramsay questions whether students succumbed to the didactic fallacy; and cites a lack of cohesiveness, but praises the project's value as a teaching exercise. (LS)

A study examined gender differences in 180 college freshmen's development of purpose, mature relationships, academic autonomy, and relationships with freshman seminar instructors. Results indicate significant differences in male and female students' patterns of psychosocial development. The gender mix in the mentoring dyad also appeared to have…

A study investigating the effect of a freshman seminar on students' social and academic adjustment to college (the University of North Carolina (Charlotte) found that seminar participants (n=150) had higher grades and participated in more out-of-class contacts with faculty than did a matched group of non-seminar students. (Author/MSE)

A three-semester study investigated the effects on academic performance of a freshman seminar paired with a core sociology course. Students in the paired course achieved higher grades in the course and higher grade point averages for the semester of intervention than did nonparticipating control group students. After two years, freshman seminar…

Focuses on how a culture that values the work of teaching undergraduates might be fostered, suggesting in particular how the institutional culture, academic program, the core curriculum, and Freshman Seminar at Mount Saint Mary's College (Maryland) supports the teaching of first-year students, making it an enjoyable challenge rather than drudgery.…

Examines ways in which colleges and universities have attempted to integrate the curriculum and deepen students' involvement in learning, including first-year programs, learning communities, inquiry-based learning, integrative general education, and efforts to connect general education to majors and apply what has been learned from cognitive…

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…

Social isolation and loneliness, cultural shock, and lack of commitment to minority students have been suggested as barriers to educational attainment for many minority college students. Blacks are severely underrepresented in the sciences and in mathematics, and these issues and concerns are not uncommon to black students enrolled in the School…