|
|
[Print-friendly version]
There has been much research conducted in recent times on the first year experience
at University. It is not possible for me, in a few short paragraphs, to engage
with you on all of those issues but I do wish to draw your attention to some
critical factors that may influence your successful transition to University,
at least by way of preparing you for your first year experience.
 [4]
The first year of tertiary study (even the first year of tertiary study in
a new discipline for those of you who are coming to law or justice programs
from outside legal studies) is a challenging and can be a difficult time. The
first thing for you to appreciate is that it is a very big transition and that
you will need to adapt fairly quickly if you are going to succeed. I should
also add, by way of introduction, that the transition is often as difficult
for non-school leavers as it is for those straight from secondary school.
For most of you the issue will be your ability to adjust to university in
time: the first three months will be critical to you, not just in terms of whether
you will survive your first year or even your first semester, but also (and
probably more importantly) whether you will be able to enjoy it as much as you
should academically and socially.
It might be helpful in this context to contemplate, for a moment, the "Life
Cycle of a First Year Student". In putting this information to
you in this way, it is not my intention to be flippant in the slightest. I simply
hope that,
As Brass and Pilven stated in 1993, "students need to engage
in considerable ongoing reflection on their progress" if they are to develop
the characteristics that are integral to effective learning in their first year
and for their future studies.
Life Cycle of a First Year Student
First few weeks
- Usually new and stimulating; but while it is exciting, it is also daunting.
- You will probably be overwhelmed with important information (like my message
to you here!) and may well suffer from information overload. This is why much
of the information you will be given will be available in a variety of different
formats. For example, the gist of this message I will repeat to you in my
Orientation session with you. Your various unit co-ordinators will also repeat
much of this information, though with different emphasis.
- All of us (the academic and administrative staff) will be seeking ways to
highlight the most important information for you and will also attempt both
to stage its release and layer the complexity. This web site is part of that
process, so that, at any stage, you may come back and review vital information
on a needs basis.
The first few weeks are then followed by...
- A period of shock when the extent of workload is realised. You may well
have been required to submit your first pieces of assessment and you may feel
that the whole experience is happening despite you!
- Do not panic!! These feelings are normal - but now you have to make a decision.
Are you going to adapt and cope or are you not?
Are you gong to help yourself or are you not?
Are you going to seek out help (from lecturers, tutors, fellow students, student
services, administrative staff and the like) or are you not?
Then in the 8th or 9th week...
For those who are either unable to or chose not to adapt to workload demand,
a very real and debilitating sense of panic sets in and there is a self-defeating
tendency to either:
- Become totally overwhelmed and give up = academic failure and is costly
both financially (HECS liability and future prospects) and personally;
OR
- Realising that you can't catch up before exams, adopt avoidance tactics
such as starting to skip classes or pretending to rely on friends for "help"
or dropping out because you are reluctant to or "too shy" to seek
academic help = academic failure and is costly both financially (re HECS liability
and future prospects) and personally.
Many issues may impact on your ability to survive and flourish
in the first year experience. Research has shown that even apart from
academic issues influential factors include:
- personal issues
- social and financial pressures
- feelings of isolation and loneliness
- being away from home
- negotiating accommodation and transport needs
- the pressure of coping in a new environment (the size of your first lecture
can be off-putting enough!)
- the financial burden of simply supporting yourself and your studies
- acdemic issues
I shall attempt to address briefly some of the transitional issues that arise
from an academic point of view further below and provide you with some basic
strategies to deal with them. As regards social and financial pressures, you
should familarisefamiliarise yourselves with the various support facilities
that exist within the University (such as counselling services, learning skills
units and financial advisory services).
Support Facilities
Go
to QUT Student & Staff support
Above all, you should try to understand that you are not alone:
many students both "experienced" and "inexperienced", school-leavers
and mature-entry alike, suffer the same feelings of insecurity and misgivings
about their abilities as you may be experiencing. The important thing is for
you to do something about it such as:
- make new friends in this new environment
- seek help
- form a study group
- get to know one individual lecturer or tutor each semester
- join a social activity at University
- take up opportunities presented to interact with other students and the
like
because, again, research has shown that the more personally
engaged you are with your studies and with University life, the more likely
you are to succeed academically.
In terms of the academic issues you will face, it is useful for
you to realise in the first instance how very different tertiary study will
be from any other form of study you may have previously undertaken. In many
ways, as first year students you confront a multifaceted task that it is your
responsibility to come to terms with (and, as I have already suggested, quickly
or at least in time!). Particular issues for you may include some or all of
the following:
- You will be learning new content which raises issues of new knowledge and
even terminology being addressed in the absence of having the pre-requisite
knowledge.
- Consider whether
the preliminary reading suggested by your lecturers may help with
this. Immerse yourself in the terminology of your new discipline - make
it your own.
- You will be learning or expected to have new ways of understanding, interpreting
and organising your new knowledge.
- These are very real issues, but you must be
guided by your teachers about learning approaches, try to obey instructions
about workload when given and don't be afraid to take risks to learn.
It may also require that, at some stage if it is not coming to you easily,
you may have to "force yourself" to understand.
- If you are really
concerned, consider doing a Study
Skills course offered by the University. You could also look for assistance
in some of the many resources the Law Faculty has provided for you both
on this website and/or in the
skills materials located in each of your on-line
units sites.
- You will need to learn new ways of writing and discussing knowledge
- You will need to engage in the "discourse of the discipline".
In particular, at a tertiary level of education, this requires that you no
longer engage in simple description, but proceed to higher levels of analysis
and synthesis of material and to appropriate levels of analysis
and evaluation, expectations of which will change over the course of your
degree degree (eg simply put, to a more advanced level in your final
year than in first year). You should also appreciate that different kinds
of and/or different levels of analysis and argument may be rewarded within
different disciplines.
- Again, some basic writing courses may be of assistance
in this regard. There are also some useful texts and websites located
on this site and in your various Units' on-line skills materials.
- While it may be trite to say, it is also important for you to appreciate
that different disciplines have different requirements and expectations
- what works for and is expected in law or justice may not be what is expected
in business studies, or in science. At another level, even within the one
discipline, there will be different expectations in different units studied
over the course of a semester and at different year levels. In the School
of Law, for example even in the one unit of study, you may have four different
lecturers in the one semester and those different teachers will have different
ways of conveying material
- Again, this is a fact of University academic life
and it is very much a matter for you to adapt to that difference. As long
as you appreciate that there is difference, at least you won't be confused
looking for the similarities!
- It may be that the program of study you have enrolled in is not what you
thought it was going to be - you may have been pressured to your particular
enrolment by workplace demands, by peers, by relatives to enrol.
- While not encouraging you to give up too easily,
consider whether this is a possibility.
- Workload will always be an issue - make a realistic assessment early
on as to what is involved.
- I have included some time-management
strategies elsewhere that should be of considerable assistance to
you in this regard the way you manage your time, not just at University
but also in the workplace (and personally), is critical to your ultimate
success.
- At University there is an assumption that you will automatically
be independent learners, even though your previous educational experiences
may not have promoted this.
- Listen to what your lecturers and tutors tell
you, and the guidance they give you, about supporting and being responsible
for your own learning. Again, some of the study skills sites located on
this website and in your various Units' on-line skills materials will
give you some pointers towards independent learning. Essentially, what
this means however is that, while you are supported in your learning by
the academic staff, you will not be spoon feed nor given the same levels
of personal attention that you may have experienced at school for example.
You are responsible for the success or failure of your own learning -
as academics, we can only help you with that to a certain extent and expect
that you will do the rest and only seek us out for assistance when it
is really required.
- You may feel that your lecturers are not welcoming, though it is useful
to appreciate that many of them are very busy and may be teaching, not only
in your unit, but two or three other units, while also researching and have
a variety of other administrative tasks both within and outside the University.
- Usually, it is a
matter of approaching your teachers at an appropriate time (ie,
during their consultation hours) and in an appropriate manner (in terms
of etiquette) in circumstances
where you have tried to find the answer out for yourself (and are in a
position to be able to demonstrate: for example, by having looked at the
Study Guide, looked to see whether the answer can be found in the FAQs
on the on-line site, by ensuring that you have read all the Notices you
have been sent via on-line site e-mails, by having done the pre-requisite
reading on a topic and formulating precise questions on the area you with
which you are now having difficulty - help staff to help you).
- With the best will in the world, some matters seem just too difficult to
understand eg, the timetable - in law, for instance, you should attend
one lecture (chose the time that suits you) and enrol in one tutorial if you
are an internal student; in the first week School of Law students are also
expected to attend a lecture by the Law Librarian.
- If you really do not understand - ask someone.
You can assist your transition to University:
Be motivated
Embrace your student identity - research shows that this is a primary indicator
of success. In particular, you should be wary of the traps of attempting to
both study and work full time. I cannot encourage you enough to engage with
your University experience, by which I mean both academic and social engagement.
Really try to focus on developing a sense of comraderie, of belonging to your
discipline and your cohort, as this may focus your motivation to stay at University
because, as I keep repeating, social integration will ultimately assist you
academically.
Work out early what works for you
For example some students prepare summaries or get into study groups or revise
each week. Be reflective, in the sense of constantly reviewing your progress,
and don't be afraid to change your approach if the feedback you are getting
tells you something is not working.
Adapt as quickly as you can
Success at University is very dependent on how quickly you can adapt to a vast
array of differing expectations and on your ability to understand and follow
course and unit requirements.
If you are a school leaver -
Expect tertiary study will be very different from school.There will be limited
feedback and limited one-to-one attention. You need to be receptive to the
teaching and learning opportunities that exist to assist you in your learning.
In particular, the value and benefit you can derive from tutorials is enormous
if you avail yourselves of those opportunities by being prepared in advance
of tutorials and by being attentive and reflective during them (for example
- asking yourself "did I understand what the tutor said then; could
I answer that question; would I have answered that question the same way as
that other student did; is my answer/understanding basically sound, with just
some differences in emphasis or am I fundamentally mistaken"etc).
Please also remember that almost everything that the tutor says during the course
of the tutorial will be some form of feedback, either to you personally or to
the group as a whole, if you are engaging in active listening.
If you came to law from another discipline -
Expect law to be very different from other disciplines. Don't fall into the
trap of expecting law to be a slight variation on some other tertiary theme.
It is a different discipline with different expectations - another cause for
adaptation.
Expect different lecturers and lecturing styles
Look for and expect, rather than ignore, different lecturers and lecturing
styles. Often within the one unit, between units, between years of study and
definitely between disciplines. You will be in constant stages of transition
and being constantly required to adapt.
Your study at University is more than just about learning new knowledge
and regurgitating that back in writing. It should be about learning new ways
of thinking and interacting with knowledge, learning about ways
in which knowledge is created and about new ways of viewing the world.
Nothing you will learn in the Faculty will be just black and white. If you are
engaging in reflective and independent learning (as you should be) you will
also learn new ways of viewing yourself and others. You will learn "how
to do" by way of skills attainment (both generic and discipline-specific)
and you will learn how to utilise the knowledge that you have acquired effectively
Professor Sally Kift, Director of the QUT FYE Project
|
