A Curricular Intervention for Teaching and Learning: Measurement of Gains of First-Year Student Learning

Abstract

There is continued debate about the changing and varied nature of first year courses in American higher education institutions. Therefore more current research is needed to inform faculty and institutions as to the important areas of focus for teaching and learning in first year courses. This study is one possible approach to easily determine student “gains” as described by measured improvements in the selected areas. The purpose of this paper was to examine the observed gains of first year experience course students as measured by the College Student Success Factor Index (CSFI). The CSFI pretest and posttest was administered in the summer 2013 and summer 2014 semesters. The ten success indices of the CSFI were measured and gains were observed. The summer 2013 course taught as it had always been taught without focus on targeted factors of success. A curricular intervention was introduced into the summer 2014 course that includes the ten indices in the course learning assignments and outcomes. Possible differences or “gains” in learning will be described and includes implications for first year teaching and program design in colleges and universities.

Who Improves Most? The Differences in First-Year Students’ Learning Attitudes and Behaviors Measured by College Success Factor Index

“…The most powerful finding of this study is reflected in the fact that course participants displayed a statistically significant improvement in academic attitudes and behaviors for all 10 factors. This finding corroborated the work of Cox and Lemon (2016) who recorded statistically significant pre and post-tests differences for FYS participants within the same institution. Even though this study was conducted five years later, on a different sample of participants, and under a redesigned curriculum, the findings were equally powerful.…”

Exploring the potential of using undergraduates’ knowledge, skills and experience in research methods as a proxy for capturing learning gain

“…Self-efficacy has also been applied in a number of learning gain studies (e.g. Arico, 2016;Cox & Lemon, 2016;Lim, Hosack, & Vogt, 2012) which have used students' self-assessment of their learning, knowledge and/or skills and demonstrated that students' self-assessment of their learning can provide a robust measure of learning. Ongoing application of these measures in classroom settings (as explored, for example by Arico, 2016) have demonstrated learning gain over time.…”

“…Attempts to capture learning gain have been shaped by a variety of definitions and methodological approaches (e.g. Corlu & Aydin, 2016;Cox & Lemon, 2016;Lim et al, 2012;Varsavsky et al, 2014), which make comparative work in this area challenging to undertake (McGrath et al, 2015).…”

Monitoring the Curriculum through the Student Perspective

“…Paid employment hours could be simultaneously helpful for student learning by creating a framework for knowledge or skills connection 33,34 while at the same time having a negative effect on available study time. Required employment hours may also stimulate more effective study habits 35 or have a threshold effect on week quality, with most of our students staying below that critical threshold. We continue to collect data for more analysis and verification of our findings.…”