Intentional Design for Intellectual Development in the Sophomore Year

Molly A. Schaller, Ph.D. Jimmie Gahagan, Ph.D.

Organization of Our Time

We will be:

Examining what we know about sophomores as it relates to an integrative learning experience, success and retention

Understanding the unique developmental factors that affect a student’s second year of college

Exploring a developmental framework for working with second-year students

Shaping curricular and co-curricular experiences to meet the intellectual needs of second-year students

Importance of Integrative Learning in the Second-Year of College

“Integrative learning is an understanding and a disposition that a student builds across the

curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas

and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new,

complex situations within and beyond the campus.”

(AACU Integrative Learning Value Rubric)

Sophomore Self-Efficacy

Academic Self-Efficacy as a central construct:The self-evaluation of one’s ability or chance for

success (or both) in the academic environment (Chemers, Hu & Garcia, 2001; Robbins et al., 2004)

Poor predictor of success in 1st semesterGood predictor at end of 1st year (Gore, 2006)

By the sophomore year, students have often gained enough information about abilities and the expectations of college to make a more accurate assessment.

Connect Strengths to Academic Success (cont)

Lack of sophistication and accurate analysis of one’s own abilities seen in first semester often changes in second semester or in second year:– In first year many students see world in Absolute

ways (Baxter Magolda, 1992)– By second year about half use Transitional

Knowing: the world is suddenly not simply black and white, but there are areas that are unknown

Is there a common Sophomore academic experience?

Kuh and Hu (2001) effort and student reported learning and personal gains

increased in a linear way from the first through to the senior year.

Sophomores significantly lower than seniors on cooperation among students, reading and writing, effort sum (total amount of effort put into school), gain sum (total perceived gains from school), active learning, and faculty contact.

Common Sophomore Academic Experience?

Kuh and Hu (2001) effort and student reported learning and personal gains

increased in a linear way from the first through to the senior year.

Sophomores significantly lower than seniors on cooperation among students, reading and writing, effort sum (total amount of effort put into school), gain sum (total perceived gains from school),

active learning, and faculty contact.

Actually decreased fromFirst to second year!

Satisfaction with Advising (Schreiner, 2010)

Fewer than half of the sophomores surveyed met with their advisor regularly in their sophomore year

60% of the sophomores were satisfied or very satisfied with advising – but this is the lowest level of satisfaction with any college experience

Negative student comments about advising far outweighed positive ones

DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK

Developmental Framework

Epistemological Development– How is it that students view knowledge?– Key to understanding the pedagogical challenges with

sophomore students– Includes moral development – as the question of

frame of reference is a key to understand the inherent pressures facing students

Psycho/social development– How one sees self in relation to the world or others

• impacts choices on many levels.

Key Challenges

• Academic Self-efficacy• Shifting view of self• Shifting view of self in relation to future• Disengagement• Balancing developmental challenge with

developmental support

Epistemological Development

How do “typical” sophomores make meaning?

• There is an answer!• I need to find it.

Truth

• I need to figure it out.

Answers are more elusive.

OR

Intellectual Development in Sophomore Year (Baxter Magolda, 1992)

Absolute Knowers Transitional Knowers

Receiving Pattern Mastering Pattern Interpersonal Pattern

Impersonal Pattern

Student looks to authority figure to guide learning and to gain information

Peers help to make atmosphere relaxed and to ask questions of authority figure

Student seeks to show authority figure their interest and mastery of material

Peers debate and test each other for knowledge acquisition

Uncertainty becomes real

Learning becomes important

Peers provide exposure to new views

Student seeks interaction with authority

Student seeks to understand rather than memorize

Expands views via debate with others

Uncertainty is resolved via logic and reason

Creating Epistemological Moves Baxter Magolda

Learning Partnerships Model

Situate learning in student’s experience

• Validate students as knowers

• View knowledge as co-constructed

How do “typical” sophomores make moral choices?

• What would my peers do?

Referent Group

• How will others be impacted?

Societal Needs

OR

Influences in Decision Making Moral Reasoning Kohlberg (1969)

Conventional Moral Reasoning

Stage 3 Stage 4

Moral choices are based upon being viewed positively by others. Peers and parents play a key role in student’s choices.

Students seek to meet the expectations of those around them.

(this is local to the student)

Students begin to recognize the value of law and order to maintaining social order.

Laws and rules that provide for the protection or maintenance of groups/society are valued.

(this is societal!)

Career Decision Making

V. Gordon (1998)• Very Decided: confident, knowledgeable, satisfied

with current decision• Somewhat Decided: may or may not be comfortable

with choices, may lack information about self or occupations, may have been thwarted

• Unstable Decided: high goal instability, high anxiety, have chosen a path – may keep them from seeking help

Career Decision Making (Gordon, 1998)

• Tentatively Undecided: have vocational maturity, aren’t worried about undecidedness, may be relatively well adjusted or may be avoiding, may need more exploration

• Developmentally Undecided: expanding possibilities, need to gather information

• Seriously Undecided: have external locus of control and identity, moderate levels of state & trait anxiety

• Chronically Indecisive: have external locus of control and identity, high levels of state & trait anxiety

Support students in their major decision

Utilize a full continuum of approachesMajors fairUse sections of English, communication, others to

read and write about interest explorationExploratory Studies Program Intensive Academic Advising for students who

struggleTrack and examine high drop-out majors

Learning Outcomes for Advising

• From Schaller & Tetley (2012)• Random Exploration

Students will describe their course selections within the context of future goals. Students will identify their own strengths and limitations. Students will collect information about possible major choices or career direction. Students will express how pressures and external expectations are affecting their choices in college.

Discernment in the Sophomore Year

• Tetley and Schaller (2012)• Students seem prepared to explore• Students seem to engage in a complex selecting out

and adding inSo, for Focused Exploration:

Students will reflect about self as learner, self in future and self in society. Students will synthesize relevant information from various curricular and co-curricular experiences into their view of self. Students will apply active decision making approaches

Learning Outcomes Continued

So, for Focused Exploration:Students will reflect about self as learner, self in future and self in society. Students will synthesize relevant information from various curricular and co-curricular experiences into their view of self. Students will apply active decision making approaches

• For Students who have made a Tentative Choice:Students will identify areas for future exploration

Implications for Advising

• Sophomore students will often:– Need confirmation and contradiction– May seek advisors who will “give the right

answer” (actively avoiding mentoring)– Need help in finding strengths, identifying

interests, and recognizing differences between own desires and those held for them

– Need additional exploration prior to decision making

Implications for Pedagogy

• Sophomore students will often:– Be ready and prepared to seek “understanding”– Be ready and interested in gaining insight from

peers– Resist approaches (both stand and deliver AND

active involvement)– Need to understand why faculty are structuring

their approaches

Implications for Curricular Design

• Sophomore students will often:– Have more “distant” experiences with faculty in the

sophomore year than any other year– Need relationships with faculty to be structured

through curricular expectations– Want to build upon what they have learned in the

first year, but not know how to do this– Need assistance in making connections– Value and get a great deal from additional

experiences that connect to real world

Implications for Structure of Involvement

• Sophomores students will often:– Be searching for ways to be involved in important

work– Resisting or withdrawing from involvement that is

not connected to a bigger picture– Not be able to easily find a role in organizations,

and need assistance in making those connections– Be ready for significant leadership roles– Not know how to balance, but feel very responsible

Support students in academic challenges

Take academic support to courses – via supplemental instruction, tutoring, learning communities

Study courses with: 1) high enrollment; 2) high levels of d’s, f’s, and w’s;

Pay specific attention to students who start with developmental coursework, reach out or require academic success coaching is second year

Utilize sophomore only sections

Implications for Communication• Set expectations for engagement • End of first-year discussions across campus• Summer communication• Ongoing monthly emails• Social Media • Retention software carried over to second

year

Implications for Frontloading

“I think my sophomore year kind of left me more stranded, because your freshman year there were so many things that

were reaching out to you that you come back your sophomore that it’s just like you’re on your own.”

• Meeting them where they are • Welcome Back to Campus• Providing resources• Traditions

Exploring the Role of Parents and Families

• Parents/Family Weekends• Ongoing Communication• Parental Tips – Academic support– Living situation– Personal wellness– Finance– High impact practices

Preparing Students for the Sophomore Year: A Matrix (Schaller, 2011)

Cognitive Development Interpersonal Development

Intrapersonal Development

Experiences

-1

(Student is not well prepared for the sophomore year)

Absolute Knowers*: Student views knowledge as black and white, where the goal is to gain the Truth from experts and prove knowledge or memorization of the facts.

Lack of self reflection: Student has not begun to question or examine choices, personal background, identity, skills and abilities.

Unexamined Relationships: Student is not engaged in reflection of relational expectations, rather, the student falls prey to articulated or perceived expectations without awareness.

Student does not actively seek specific experiences; rather the student randomly involves her or himself in activities without active decision making.

0

(Student is prepared for the sophomore year)

Student begins to question Absolute* assumptions, begins to seek understanding rather than memorization of facts.

Reflection begins: Student has begun to identify areas of discomfort between previous choices and current values.

Labeling begins: Student begins to identify with some relationships over others. Student is able to label expectations that seem more fitting and those that are less comfortable.

Selection begins: Student begins to seek some experiences that are not readily accessible, sorting through and selecting some experiences over others.

+1

(Student is well prepared for the sophomore year)

Student has stepped into Transitional* knowing, seeking understanding and desiring educational opportunities to engage more with content. Student begins to seek experiences rather than waiting to have them assigned.

Student is engaged in an examination of choices related specifically to major selection, co-curricular involvement, relationships

Student has begun to label expectations held by those persons they value in life. Student has practiced delineating between expectations that are healthier and those that are less healthy given current needs and values.

Student begins to select experiences in and out of the classroom so as to meet specific needs or values. Student practices acting independently of expectations held by others for activities and choices.

Key Data Sources

• Explore the following:– Who returns to the second year?

• Majors, 1st year academic progress and gpa, gender, race, age

– Who leaves during or after the second year?– What are the challenging courses in the sophomore year?

Look at : Ds, Fs, and Ws– What does your first year institutional data tell you about

your sophomores?– Listen specifically to sophomores:

• Ask for comparisons between the first and second year• Ask what they find particularly good and particularly challenging

about the sophomore year

THE ROLE OF HIGH IMPACT PRACTICES IN THE SOPHOMORE YEAR EXPERIENCE

Student Engagement Trifecta

What students do -- time and energy devoted to educationally purposeful activities

What institutions do -- using effective educational practices to induce students to do the right things

Educationally effective institutions channel student energy toward the right activities

Source: Kuh, 2009, 29th Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, Denver, CO

High Impact Activities• First-year seminars• Common intellectual experiences• Learning Communities• Writing intensive courses• Collaborative Assignments & Projects• Undergraduate Research• Diverse/Global Learning• Service-Learning• Internships• Capstone Courses and Projects Source: Kinzie & Evenbeck, “Setting up Learning Communities

That Connect with Other High Impact Practices,” Washington Center, Learning Community Summer Institute.

And Kuh, 2008

Marked by 6 Conditions

1. Time on Task

– Activities demand students devote considerable time & effort to purposeful tasks.

– Most require daily decisions that deepen students’ investment in the activity.

2. Faculty and Peer Interaction

– Nature of activities puts students in circumstances that essentially demand interaction with faculty and peers about substantive matters over a period of time.

Source: Kinzie & Evenbeck, “Setting up Learning Communities That Connect with Other High Impact Practices,” Washington Center, Learning Community Summer Institute.

Marked by 6 Conditions

3. Interaction with Diversity

– Participation increases the likelihood that students will experience diversity through interaction with people who are different from themselves. Students are challenged to develop new ways of thinking & responding to novel circumstances.

4. Frequent Feedback

– May be faculty, internship supervisors, peers, others. Close proximity may provide opportunities for nearly continuous feedback.

Source: Kinzie & Evenbeck, “Setting up Learning Communities That Connect with Other High Impact Practices,” Washington Center, Learning Community Summer Institute.

Integrative Learning

“Connecting skills and knowledge from multiple sources and experiences; applying theory to practice in various settings; utilizing diverse and even contradictory points of view; and,

understanding issues and positions contextually.”

Source: Huber & Hutchings, Mapping the Terrain, 2004, AAC&U

Integrative LearningIntegrative learning experiences…

• Occur, most often, as learners address real-world problems• Involve internal changes in the learner• Include the ability to adapt one’s intellectual skills• Provide an opportunity to understand and develop individual purpose, values and ethics

Source: Integrative Learning Value Rubric, AAC&U

Integrative Learning a Practical Analogy

Classroom Experience

Beyond the Classroom Experience

Source: Dr. Irma Van Scoy

Guiding principles for implementing high impact practices

• Reflection• Planning• Collaboration/Communication• Limitations and Resources

Critical Reflection

“Critical Reflection is the process of analyzing, reconsidering & questioning one’s experience

within a broad context of issues & content knowledge.”

Barbara Jacoby, 2012

The Importance of Reflection

• Increases the value of the learning experience• Encourages learners to make meaning out of the process they

are engaged• Enables the learners to relate the new material of learning to

prior knowledge and hence a better understanding of the discipline

• Enhances the learner’s meta-cognitive awareness

Includes four core elements of reflection:

Continuous Connected Challenging Contextualized

Strategies for Fostering Reflection

Source: Eyler & Gyles (1999)

Before During After

AloneLetter to yourself Structured journal

entriesReflective essayLetter of advocacy

With Classmates

Discussion of expectationsHopes and fears

Mixed team discussion

Team presentation, collage, mural, video, photo essay

With OthersAsset mapping planning with community or organization

DebriefingLessons learned

Presentation to community group and/or organization

Reflection Map

Source: Eyler (2001)

Key Factors to Consider in Planning Reflection

• Who are you and who are the students

• What is the context for the reflection

• Learning outcomes – what do you want students to learn from your activity

• Goals for the reflection• Timing• Methods• Location• With whom – individual,

pairs, group• Documentation• Celebration

Planning Framework1. Self-Assessment2. Reflection3. Goal Setting

Helping students become moreintentional in their engagement

Student Engagement Plan Goals1. Articulate the role that beyond the classroom

activities plays in their overall learning2. Connect relevant experiences and academic

knowledge3. Thoughtfully connects examples, facts, and/or

theories from more than one experience, field of study, and/or perspective

4. Appropriately applies experiences to solve real life problems.

5. Articulates how his/her experience and content preparation provide a rationale for decisions/actions.

Strategies for Effective Collaboration

• Look for strong academic partners – “An Academic Champion”

• Build Partnerships around institutional and departmental mission and goal statements

• Clearly define academic partners role and commitment: i.e. Partnership agreements

• Clarify roles and communication patterns

Strategies for Effective Collaboration

• Provide thorough and on-going assessment• Develop tangible rewards and recognition as

appropriate• Speak the language of the academic community• Incorporate faculty interests and areas of expertise

into training• Support faculty development and instruction

Communication/Marketing• Develop a consistent message• Tie into institutional culture• Work with campus partners to promote the

same information to various target groups.• Peers listen to peers• Make use of old and new communication

strategies. (Print, in person and electronic)• Plan early

Limitations and Resources

• Institutions fund what they value• Retention, persistence, and employability must be

considered• The importance of data driven decisions• Begin with the end in mind• Choose partners carefully• Evaluate breadth vs. depth

Curricular & co-curricular approaches to supporting sophomores

• Seminars/sophomore specific courses• Learning communities• Undergraduate Research• Study Abroad and other Exchange opportunities• Service-Learning• Leadership Development• Traditions and rituals

Sophomore specific courses

• Sophomore Seminars– Designed to support second-year students academic

success and/or transition into the major– Credit or non-credit bearing

• DePaul• University of Tennessee Knoxville• Stanford University

Learning Communities• Curricular– Cohorts of second-year students taking 2-3 common

courses together– Iowa State – Women in Science and Engineering– University of Cincinnati – Psychology for Sophomores

• Residential– Sophomores assigned to live together around a theme– Belmont University– Emory University

Undergraduate Research• Characterized by four attributes (Hakim, 1998)

– Student mentorship by a faculty member– Research project leading to a meaningful contribution to the

subject of inquiry– Conducted using widely recognized techniques in the field of

inquiry– Final project can be disseminated and assessed.

• University of Wisconsin Milwaukee• University of Michigan

Study Abroad and other exchange opportunities

• Study Abroad– University of San Diego

• National Student Exchange– Consortium of over 200 institutions across the

country that facilitate students domestic exchanges• Short term experiences– Retreats– Alternative break experiences– Bridge programs

Service-learning• Definition: A form of active learning that

connects meaningful community service with academic coursework and purposeful reflection. (University of South Carolina)

• Specific Examples– William Jewel College– Villanova University– Colgate University

Leadership Development• “Helping students develop the integrity and strength

of character that prepare them for leadership may be one of the most challenging and important goals of higher education” (King, 1997, p. 87).

• Institutional Examples– University of Cincinnati– Colgate University

Traditions and Rituals• “The arrangement of environments is perhaps the most

powerful technique we have for influencing human behavior.” (Moos, 1986, p.4)

• Welcome Events• Convocations– Washington University

• Ceremonies– Emory Sophomore Pinning Ceremony

To Consider

AdmissionOrientationTransitionSuccess

EngagementDevelopment

TransitionAcademic Success

EngagementDevelopment

Curricular Challenges

Career Development

Transition to Major

LeadershipInternship

Study AbroadMinors/Focus

Career Development

AdvisingAcademic Success

Transition OutCulminating Experience

Career Development

First YearSecond

Year Junior Year Senior Year

Integrated Learning Approaches

PROPOSED SOPHOMORE YEAR CONTINUA

Academic Integration

Sense of Self

Social Engagement/ Quality Relationships

Not Yet Considering

Major

Deeply Committed

to Major

Following others, Withdrawing,

Following Stereotypes

Purposeful in College Life

Unsophisticated in Selection of

Friends/ Evaluation of Relationships

Making “Friends for

Life”

For Discussion:• How would you describe the

curriculum for second year students on your campus?

• How would you describe the co-curriculum for second year students on your campus?

• What opportunities exist for you to promote integrative learning in the sophomore year on your campus?