Why Teach a First-Year Seminar?

Emphasize student engagement, critical thinking, and community building

Why Teach a First-Year Seminar?

Faculty who teach a First-Year Seminar foster meaningful connections with students while guiding them through their academic journey and helping them develop essential skills for success.

First-Year Seminars as a High Impact Practice Course Enrichment Through Campus Partnerships Important Information for Instructors

Research-Focused and Honors First-Year Semnars

Instructors can request to offer their seminar as a research-focused seminar, an honors seminar, or both. Learn more about what these types of seminars have to offer you and your students.

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Academic Inquiry

Student Engagement in Academic Inquiry: Introduction to the process of discovering, exploring, and analyzing academic questions and developing critical academic skills within a specific field of study, topic, or discipline.

Academic Inquiry

Active Learning

Student Participation through Active Learning: “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—students’ thinking about their own learning—is an important element, providing the link between activity and learning.”

Additional Notes:

“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.”

Source: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu//cft/guides-sub-pages/active-learning

Active Learning

Sense of Community and Connectedness

A Course that Builds a Sense of Community and Connectedness: A learning environment that fosters positive relationships, recognizes and celebrates differences, and contributes to a more enriching collegiate experience for everyone.

Sense of Community and Connectedness

Exploration of Identity

Student Exploration of Identity through Self-Authorship: “Developing self‐authorship, [is] the internal capacity to construct one's beliefs, identity, and social relations” (Evans et al.,2010, p.184)

Additional Notes:

Baxter Magolda’s Theory of Self-Authorship addresses the following three questions:
Who Am I? How do I know? How do I want to 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.

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/he.20092

Exploration of Identity

When asked, "What do you like most about teaching a First-Year Seminar?" instructors said...

"Interaction with enthusiastic students in a low-stakes course where the focus can be on interest in the subject rather than getting a high grade"

"I enjoy it when they ask interesting questions and I can tell they are motivated."

"To get to know the students from the beginning of their journey."

"The small class size, you can build a rapport with students."

"The opportunity to introduce students to new material that they won't encounter anywhere else."

"It is nice to make a connection with students and remember what it means to be a student."

"I like the opportunity of creating a learning environment in which students feel comfortable enough to express themselves, confront their ideas with those of their classmates and learn from each other."

"I enjoy seeing students grow during the first months of college and I enjoy the relationships that sometimes last for their whole college career."

Teach your passion

What's your passion?

First-Year Seminars are built around a specific academic topic that represents a passion area for the instructor. Sometimes, it's the only opportunity the instructor has to teach on that particular topic.

When asked, "Why do you teach a First-Year Seminar?" instructors said...

“I love working with new students in my area of interest and welcoming them into college-level writing and thinking.”

“I wanted to teach about an area that I don’t get enough time with in my department. I thought it would be great to get first years excited (and more knowledgeable) about this area too. The stipend also allows me to increase my professional development and equipment purchases.”

“To give a grounding space for students, connecting them with a professor to help them settle into their first year on campus. To share the excitement of the profession.”

“Interaction with enthusiastic students on a topic that few of them know anything about but are eager to learn about.”

“I enjoy getting to know a small group of freshmen in a low-stakes (gradewise) and intellectually stimulating environment. The extra money is also nice.”

“I like teaching small classes. It's a great way to introduce topics that students may not know about or if they are thinking about a subject and want to know more. Also I feel like there are a number of really important skills that I wish someone had told me about/taught me before I was halfway through grad school that would have made things so much easier and I would like to pass on that hard earned knowledge to others to help them in their academic journey.”

“I want to get to know incoming freshmen and give them exposure to my field. It also helps generate enrollment in other courses offered by my department.”

“I enjoy connecting with first- year students as they start their journey at Iowa. It is a rewarding experience and the students seem to get a lot out of being in a small class that is related to their career interests. Feels like a high-impact practice!”

Why Teach a First-Year Seminar?