How Well Do We Know Our Students?
“…Student-teacher relationships play a relatively minor role in the experience of undergraduate life in a large university.”
This quote from Rebekah Nathan’s 2005 book entitled My Freshman Year may raise eyebrows at Cal Poly where many faculty take pride in their teaching and in the personal attention they give their students. Do we know if the quote applies here and, if so, what the implications might be for our roles as faculty and staff? More generally, how much do we really know about our students and their experiences, particularly as these relate to the quality and extent of their learning and how we might influence that learning?
Nathan is the pseudonym of Cathy Small, a professor of anthropology at Northern Arizona University, who decided to find out more about NAU students. She enrolled as a freshman, moved into a dorm, ate in the dining hall, and took a full load of classes. Her “participant-observer” research incorporated formal interviews as well as a great deal of informal observation. Some Cal Poly faculty and staff may have had the opportunity to meet her when she visited our campus in spring 2007.
I believe that My Freshman Year offers many insights that are worthy of discussion at Cal Poly. I find particularly fascinating her findings on academics, ranging from the choice of courses to the “care and handling of professors,” decisions about class attendance, views about assignments, and attitudes regarding cheating. She contends that there are “norms” governing the kinds of questions that students will ask in class: “what does that mean?” is not an acceptable question!
I plan to build a series of colloquia around My Freshman Year, as I did previously for Derek Bok’s Our Underachieving Colleges. Participants in the six “Bok Colloquia” told me they appreciated the opportunity to come together for intellectual conversations with colleagues—often previously unmet—from across the campus.
The first of the new series will take place next quarter (spring 2009) and consist of four 1 ½ hour sessions, open to faculty and staff. Tentatively, I’m proposing that we meet 1:30-3:00 on Tuesdays April 7, 21 and May 5, 19. If you are interested in participating, please send me an email (dconn@calpoly.edu) by Friday, February 13. Depending on the level of response, I may open up a second set of colloquia in the spring quarter, or possibly during summer or fall. Once selected, participants will be offered free copies of the book. Please consider joining the discussion.
-David Conn, Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Undergraduate Education