The University of Alberta’s Faculty of Science has implemented an innovative first year program, and I had the pleasure of hearing about and viewing their results in one of the STLHE’s breakout session. The students in the faculty have the option of enrolling in SCI 100 as a replacement for all of the science courses typically taught by subject in first year (i.e., no chemistry, biology, physics, or earth sciences classes). Instead this group of 40 students are taught by a set of nine instructors about all aspects of science in an interdisciplinary way. Over the course of the year, the students perform over 70 labs and receive dozens of one-hour lecture sessions on a mix of core scientific concepts and real-world examples ranging from non-renewable energy sources to radioactivity to water management. Field trips, scavenger hunts, and collaborative learning techniques are common. The focus throughout the first year is on instilling the scientific method, discovery research techniques, and the formation of a basis on which to build their next three years of more content-based learning.
Considering this began relatively recently, the evaluation of the impact of this program is still underway. But the results thus far look impressive as the students are getting better grades, are giving better course evaluations, and seem genuinely more engaged. The employment of well-studied active teaching techniques has no doubt had an enormous effect on these students.
While I doubt that many institutions have (or could) replicated this highly-resource-intensive program across entire faculties, discussions with people from all across the country indicate that many universities are attempting to move towards a model where first year students are exposed to a high-impact experience. A 100-level course that overviews the discipline and future careers and teaches broad thinking and communication skills are being implemented in many programs, as are first-year seminars and commitments to ensure that every first-year student has at least one course with a low student-to-faculty ratio. One particularly good example from Ontario came from the president of the University of Guelph who shared with us about the problem-based seminar that students are exposed to in their first year.
Julia Christensen Hughes, the co-author of Taking Stock, talks frequently about the importance of “high-impact” experiences on student engagement, particularly in the first year. I look back at my first year experience at a research-intensive university, and I don’t think that a single one of my ten classes had fewer than 100 students and certainly all employed a lecture-only style of teaching. It is encouraging to hear that a few universities have moved to improve this situation, and I look forward to working with our institutional partners and government on how to broadly implement these practices so that all Ontario university students receive the benefit of an engaging and rich education.
Sam Andrey
Director of Research and Policy Analysis
