We examine the structure and objectives of our first-year service courses. The literature suggests that these are well out of date and do a poor job of preparing our students for the life of work and play that awaits them. In these courses, our curricula are based on the acquisition of knowledge, knowledge that very few of our students will ever…

Building on two common practices in higher education, the first-year seminar and service learning, this project uses a critical service-learning model guided by intersectional reflexivity to foster critical consciousness among first-year students. Working in small groups, students participate in a four-part critical service-learning project by…

Multilingual students learning English face changes in developing intercultural communicative competence outside the classroom. This Classroom Exploration, informed by frameworks of intercultural communicative competence, willingness to communicate, and cultural adaptation, explores the use of reflection comics in a service-learning course for…

The purpose of this study was to quantify and compare interprofessional skills among first year pharmacy students who participated in healthcare and non-healthcare setting service-learning experiences. This was a survey-based pre/post comparison of interprofessional attitudes among student pharmacists during a first professional year…

Historically, high levels of self-reported stress, anxiety, and depression are quite common among STEM students. Unfortunately, after multiple semesters of disrupted education due to COVID-19, these mental struggles among students, especially first-year (freshmen) undergraduate engineering students, have only been exacerbated. To mitigate these…

Although becoming more common, research on first-year programs for college students that combine several high-impact practices (HIP) are assessed at the institutional level, but not always published in peer-reviewed journals (Andrade, 2007). Research is being conducted, albeit mostly quantitatively, regarding individual HIP (e.g., impact of…

In this article, the author describes the curriculum of a freshman composition class for socially marginalized students that uses an imaginative service-learning component to nurture agency and voice.

Contribution: This article provides an examination of changes in first-year engineering students' perceptions of the role of an engineer after completing the Engineers Without Borders Challenge. Background: Essential pre- and post-comparisons missing in existing studies on the Challenge are provided, as well as comparison to other first-year…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold--to determine if implementing a global citizenship education curriculum can aid the development of Emirati students' social responsibility competence and to experiment with different instructional strategies that aim to yield improvement in the social responsibility of students.…

First-year students faced unprecedented challenges while transitioning from high school to university in fall 2020. The coronavirus crisis, economic downturn, social unrest, and a rapid and massive shift to remote learning altered their world in fundamental ways. This essay describes the response of one honors program toward providing extra- and…

Background/purpose: Cocurricular offerings should appropriately align with academic learning goals to ensure undergraduate students' development of professional dispositions that lead to civic and career success. This study provides a framework for implementing high impact practices into cocurricular instruction, as well as steps on how to align…

High-impact practices (HIPs) have been lauded for their contributions to student learning and development. Yet, some research has suggested inconclusive findings, suggesting that attention to how these practices are designed and implemented is warranted. Similarly, concern about who participates and who does not, or is not able to, is necessary.…

The transition from high school to university can be difficult and stressful for many students who are not sure of how to be successful in their courses and become engaged in extracurricular activities beyond the classroom. This paper describes the design and outcomes of the Preparation for Academic Success in Science (PASS) transition program in…

Motivation for the study: The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) is implementing and expanding a suite of high impact practices (HIP) in its community colleges. Service learning, one of such HIPs, is incorporated into general education or degree programs' requirements via credit-bearing service learning components of different durations. While…

In a context like South Africa's, the prevailing numerous social inequalities and problems place additional demands on psychologists and educational psychologists. Western-based, individualised medical approaches are increasingly regarded as inadequate. We thus contend that the inclusion of service-learning is an alternative approach to the…