4 Pillars of a First-Year Seminar

4 Pillars as Instructional Guiding Principles & Framework for Course Design

First-Year Seminar instructors are highly engaged in student development and have an active, important role in their students' transition to college. All First-Year Seminars are developed around the following Four Pillars of a First-Year Seminar. By incorporating these research-based guiding principles and consistent framework for course design into each seminar, the role these courses (and instructors) have in students' academic success is strengthened.

Instructors should note that these are guiding principles and framework for course design, not content directives. First-Year Seminar curriculum is determined by individual instructors and may be developed around one, two, three, or all four pillars.

Pillar 1: Academic Inquiry

Student Engagement in Academic Inquiry

Instructor Description: First-Year Seminars serve as an introduction to the process of discovering, exploring, and analyzing academic questions and developing critical academic skills within a specific topic, field of study, or discipline area.

Student Description: Students will collaborate with their instructor to discover, explore, and analyze academic questions to develop critical academic skills within a specific topic, field of study or discipline area.

Pillar 2: Active Learning

Student Participation through Active Learning

Instructor Description: "Active learning is commonly defined as activities that students do to construct knowledge and understanding. The activities vary but require students to do higher order thinking. Although not always explicitly noted, metacognition- student's thinking about their own learning- is an important element, providing the link between activity and learning."

"Approaches that promote active learning focus more on developing students' skills than on transmitting information and require that students do something- read, discuss, write- that requires higher-order thinking. They also tend to place some emphasis on students' explorations of their own attitudes and values."

Student Description: First-year seminars motivate and inspire students to actively engage in their learning and skill development.

Pillar 3: Community and Connectedness

First-Year Seminars Build a Sense of Community and Connectedness for New First Year Students

Instructor Description: First-Year Seminar classrooms are inclusive learning environments that foster positive relationships, recognize and celebrate differences and diversity among all participants, and contribute to a more enriching academic experience.

Inclusion refers to a campus community where all members are and feel respected, have a sense of belonging, and are able to participate and achieve to their potential. While diversity is essential, it is not sufficient. An institution can be both diverse and non-inclusive at the same time, thus a sustained practice of creating inclusive environments is necessary for success.

Student Description: Students participate in an inclusive learning environment and smaller classroom setting that fosters positive relationships, recognizes and celebrates diversity and differences, and contributes to a more enriching academic experience.

Pillar 4: Exploration of Identity

Student Exploration of Identity through Self-Authorship

Instructor Description: "Developing self-authorship, [is] the internal capacity to construct one's beliefs, identity, and social relations" (Evans et al, 2010, p. 184).

Students enrolled in a First-Year Seminar participate in the key developmental process of asking themselves: Who am I? How do I know? and How do I construct relationships with others?

This is often done through writing or other work that fosters reflection and provides an opportunity for students to process what they're learning and how this new knowledge contributes to their personal development.

Student Description: Students will address important questions that contribute to personal growth and development: Who am I? How do I know this? How do I use this information to relate to others?

Sources include, but are not limited to: