“As an archetypal student success higher-educator myself, I did not enter this profession intentionally....But my life experiences did prepare me to be very successful at this work. So, what are those experiences, and types of knowledge, insight, skills that equip one to do this kind of work? This book is about encouraging the next generation of successors to use their experiences to become equity warriors within the system.” - John N. GardnerThis book argues that today more than ever we need new and more student success leaders to step forward to make the changes that students need, and it offers the story of one such leader in the belief that it will help others see how they can make their own contribution to this movement. The author relates a story about events and individuals that launched a national and international movement to enable many more college students to proceed beyond the beginning college experience and complete the credential they are seeking. It is also the author’s personal history – how he ended up spending his whole life in college, and how college can make us wiser and more successful than when we started the journey. John Gardner brings 55 years of professional experience to telling this story. He begins with the story of how colleges can and do introduce students to life changing perspectives and ideas. In Gardner’s case it was a matter of being introduced to the question: “what is justice?” and then spending his entire professional life seeking ways to bring justice to underserved college students by making changes from the inside of the higher education system.An on-line compendium accompanies this book, which includes prompts for guided reflection and questions and topics for discussion, as well as additional material on the author’s background and personal philosophy.

The first year at university can be a very challenging time for students especially in a mass system of higher education. Many students are ill equipped to cope with life at university and retention is now a critical metric for all universities. This has resulted in universities having to spend considerable time and attention on ensuring that the 'first year experience' is as positive as possible for all students. This book sets out to offer a range of practical strategies, underpinned by relevant research, which lecturers can implement when charged with working with first year students and helping them make the transition to higher education. As well as providing a practical resource, the book will be of value to lecturers undertaking the PGCE (Higher Education) as well as CPD courses on teaching and learning in higher education.

An examination of the first year of college and the intersecting challenges facing today's students, written by top educational researchers.

When it was originally released, Thriving in Transitions: A Research-Based Approach to College Student Success represented a paradigm shift in the student success literature, moving the student success conversation beyond college completion to focus on student characteristics that promote high levels of academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal performance in the college environment. The authors contend that a focus on remediating student characteristics or merely encouraging specific behaviors is inadequate to promote success in college and beyond. Drawing on research on college student thriving completed since 2012, the newly revised collection presents six research studies describing the characteristics that predict thriving in different groups of college students, including first-year students, transfer students, high-risk students, students of color, sophomores, and seniors, and offers recommendations for helping students thrive in college and life. New to this edition is a chapter focused on the role of faculty in supporting college student thriving.

The “first-year experience” is an emerging hot topic in academic libraries, and many librarians who work with first-year students are interested in best practices for engaging and retaining them. Professional discussion and interest groups, conferences, and vendor-sponsored awards for librarians working with first-year students are popping up left and right. A critical aspect of libraries in the first-year experience is effective information literacy instruction for first-year students. Research shows that, despite growing up in a world rife with technology and information, students entering college rarely bring with them the conceptual understandings and critical habits of thinking needed for finding, evaluating, and ethically using information in both academic and real-world contexts. Faculty in upper-level courses expect students to learn about the research process in their first year of college, and instructors in the first-year curriculum expect librarians to teach this to their students. Despite all this, designing, teaching, and evaluating effective information literacy instruction specifically for first-year students is not necessarily intuitive for instruction librarians. That is why Teaching First-Year College Students: A Practical Guide for Librarians is a comprehensive, how-to guide for both new and experienced librarians interested in planning, teaching, and assessing library instruction for first-year students. The book: Examines the related histories of library instruction and first-year experience initiatives Summarizes and synthesizes empirical research and educational theory about first-year students as learners and novice researchers Establishes best practices for engaging first-year students through active learning and inclusive teaching Features excerpts from interviews with a number of instruction librarians who work with first-year students in a range of positions and instructional contexts Includes examples of activities, lesson plans, and assessment ideas for first-year library instruction for common first-year course scenarios Includes a template to use for library instruction lesson planning Written by a library instruction coordinator with a graduate degree in First-Year Studies and a first-year instruction librarian, Teaching First-Year College Students: A Practical Guide for Librarians is the first comprehensive, how-to guide for both new and experienced librarians interested in planning, coordinating, teaching, and assessing library instruction for first-year students.

Exploring the impact of the digital environment on international students, carefully selected global contributors examine how digital experiences have been used to internationalize higher education. Using fascinating case studies and current research, this book considers the digital experiences of students as a result of their engagement with international education providers and stakeholders from a transnational and trans-disciplinary perspective. Looking specifically at the digital transitions and networks that international students experience during their time studying overseas, this book examines the ways in which the curriculum and higher education institutions’ engagement strategies have been shaped by the digital environment. Split into three sections, this book: looks at the broad experiences of international students, covering the digital transitions and networks that students experience during their time studying overseas explores the ways in which the curriculum has been shaped by the digital environment considers the ways in which higher education institutions and other service providers implement digital engagement strategies to communicate more effectively with international students. Digital Experiences of International Students is essential reading for practitioners, academics, researchers, administrators, policy-makers, and anyone with an interest in learning and teaching in a digital age.

While stories of working-class and minority students overcoming obstacles to attend and graduate from college tend to emphasize the individualistic and meritocratic aspect, this book - based in extensive empirical study of American high school classrooms, and in theories of social and cultural capital - examines the social relations that often underpin such successes, highlighting the significant formal and informal academic interventions by educators and other education professionals.

The importance of the first-year experience is now well recognised. This collection of papers makes a fascinating and important contribution to our understanding of students' transition to higher education. This is a scholarly, engaging and illuminating text, that is relevant not only in the context of South Africa, but for anyone interested in student learning in the first year of university education. David Gosling, Plymouth University