First year students' perceptions of excellent teachers

The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristic of a excellent lecturer as perceived by the first year students of Malay Woman Training Institute the similarities and differences in the responses based on education level. Knowing what characteristics are correlated with excellence in teaching is important because it provides both pre-service and in-service teachers with an opportunity to evaluate their own teaching, receive feedback from students, and improve teaching. Also, this knowledge aids teacher preparation programs in designing their courses and in recruiting the best candidates for teaching. This will help the Teacher Education Division in modifying the curriculum to enhancing specific skills that a teacher must possess. Two distinct samples were involved in this study: For the (5-point) Likert scale, data will be collected from a group of 56 post graduate students from local university and 205 O' level school leavers from Malay Women Teachers' Institute in Malacca. Data analysis using SPSS version 14 through comparing means frequency, percentage, t-test and One-Way ANOVA. The findings of this study indicate that good leader is an important characteristic that contributes to excellent teachers. More than 90% of the students agree that the teaching skills such as motivation, learning environment, facilitating learning, instructional approach and enhancement of student learning with technology should be present in an excellent teacher. .The comparison of the two means shows that students agreed that personal traits are more important than teaching skills in making an excellent teacher. There is no significant difference in the perceptions of excellent teachers between postgraduates and undergraduates students. The findings indicate that what matters most is employing a variety of teaching styles, positive attitude, establish a closer rapport with student can provide a better and conducive environment for learning. Lecturers must be more open to criticism, suggestions and constructive comments in other to change and adjust their personal traits to be a better person

Examining first year students' preparedness for studying engineering

The purpose of this paper is to report on initial descriptive data of this longitudinal project which will examine the knowledge, motivation, personality, and learning approaches of first year engineering students and how well they each predict subsequent retention and academic performance. These outcomes are yet to be achieved and are beyond the scope of this paper

Monitoring first year Maori students enrolled in selected Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences courses: A report prepared for the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Monitoring first year Maori Students Enrolled in Selected Faculty of Arts andSocial Sciences Courses. The total number of Maori students targeted by this project was 182, representing 93% of the total number of Maori students enrolled in Semester B level one courses. The majority of students participating in this initiative were first year students, although a small number of students taking 100 level courses were second, third or graduate year students. 11 Student views on the monitoring and support initiative Students were provided with the opportunity to comment on the monitoring and support initiative. All students contacted (49) recommended that this intervention continue for future first year Maori students enrolled in FASS

Guide for incoming first-year students

Advice complied by Boston University School of Medicine students for incoming first year students and third or fourth year students preparing for clinical rotations

Behavior of First-Year College Students

This is a quantitative study of depression, self-esteem, smoking and drinking behaviors among first year college students. The study results from a sample of 170 first year undergraduate students at the University of New Hampshire. Using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale, and the Short Alcohol Dependence Data (SADD) scale, results show that sex significantly predicts depression, even when controlling for self-esteem, alcohol scale scores, and smoking. Being female is associated with higher depression scores. When measuring self-esteem, results show that self-esteem is significantly associated with depression. Lower self-esteem is significantly associated with higher depression. Results also show that alcohol use significantly increases depression among males, but not females which indicates that other factors are perhaps associated with depression for females. Larger implications of this research suggest incorporating all academic standing students for more diverse results

Redbook: 1995

Advice compiled by Boston University School of Medicine students for incoming first year students and third or fourth year students preparing for clinical rotations

Peer Mentors and Writing Center Tutors: What our collaborations taught us about serving the SJSU Freshmen Students

The Library Outpost, a satellite office of the campus’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, seeks ways to reach out to First Year students who are new to writing research papers. One of our goals is to meet the First Year students on their own turf. Since the Peer Mentors and Writing Center tutors have peer relationships with the First year students, we want to learn how we can collaborate with them to provide services to the First year students. We surveyed the Peer Mentors and Writing Center Tutors to assess their perceptions of their own research skills, and their students’ research needs to guide the services and workshops offered by the Library Outpost

Engaging and empowering first-year students through curriculum design: perspectives from the literature

There is an increasing value being placed on engaging and empowering first-year students and first-year curriculum design is a key driver and opportunity to ensure early enculturation into successful learning at university. This paper summarises the literature on first-year curriculum design linked to student engagement and empowerment. We present conceptualisations of ‘curriculum’ and examples from first-year curriculum design. We also note the limited literature where students have been involved in designing first-year curricula. The results of the literature review suggest that key characteristics of engaging first-year curricula include active learning, timely feedback, relevance and challenge. The literature also points to the importance of identifying students' abilities on entry to university as well as being clear about desired graduate attributes and developmental goals. Acknowledging realities and constraints, we present a framework for the first-year curriculum design process based on the literature