SSHHAARRIINNGG SSCCHHOOLLAARRSSHHIIPP — EXPANDING ACCESS TO QUALITY EXPERIENTIAL — AN INITIATIVE OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

CAMPUS INNOVATIONS IN EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

SUBMITTER Name: Joanne A. Dreher, Ed.D. Current Position: Assistant Professor, Director Undergraduate Academic Advising Center (retired) Institution: Lesley College/Department: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences/Department of Management Contact Information: [email protected]

CAMPUS INNOVATION Name of Innovative Practice: First Year Field Course Description: Experiential learning embedded into the first year course. The first year field course course is the entry point to experiential learning in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Lesley University. The course introduces students to work environments and professions as early as the second semester of the first year. A first year field course is identified with each major and is positioned in the context of a four year degree program, the foundational step in an educational model that emphasizes experience as a cornerstone of learning. The course is structured within students’ exploration of majors, the world of work and first steps in career planning. Students examine career paths in pre-professional programs and traditional majors represented by their selected course1 to gain an overview of organizational types2 and the nature of work within those specific fields. Experiences that take place outside the classroom demonstrate many of the core academic concepts in the course and help students make connections between theory and practice. These experiences provide opportunities for students to engage with professionals in their respective work environments, gain an understanding about skillsets necessary for the workplace, and be introduced to attitudes and dispositions about jobs and careers. These off-campus experiences, when combined with guest speakers who often may be alumni working in these and related fields and the on-campus workshops that are organized collaboratively with Career Resources and the Internship Office, provide a three-prong approach in which students gain important perspectives about themselves as they embark on academic journeys to prepare for professional life. Focus of Innovative Practice: Career Development, Internships, K-12, Active Learning, Service-learning, Assessment and Evaluation, First Year Undergraduate Programs, Classroom Instruction, Experiential Learning.

Organization of Course:  Course is offered spring semester to first year students and transfer students with less than 45 accrued credits.  Course duration is one semester, a prerequisite for certain sophomore level courses and subsequent internships/field placements in the junior and senior years.  Integrates off campus site visits with guest speakers and on-campus career and internship planning workshops.  Builds in reflective learning through discussion, journaling, current literature and peer interaction.  May include a placement during the semester (e.g., education majors complete 8 weeks in a school classroom or early childhood setting).  Earns students 3 academic credits (education majors earn 4 credits3).

1 Course titles: Teaching, Learning and Social Responsibility; Foundations and Systems in the Helping Professions; Introduction to the Business Experience; Global Issues and Challenges; Patterns in Nature. 2 For example: schools, business, technology and government sectors, human services and community-based agencies, and health care institutions. 3 Education majors earn 4 credits due to the rigor of an 8-week placement and the requirements associated with field work in a structured early childhood, elementary or middle school environment. 1

 Students who do not feel ready to declare a major may select any first year field course in an area of potential interest. Students must declare the major by the end of the sophomore year.  Retakes of a first year field course are not required for students who change majors; academic advisors and department faculty mentor students in exploration of the newly selected major to ensure success in subsequent required courses in the major.  Organizations identified for off-campus activities, site visits, and field placements in the case of education majors, are coordinated by department faculty, Career Resources and the Internship Office. Targeted Audience: First year students and transfers entering with fewer than 45 credits4. Participants: Students, faculty, Career Resources and Internship Offices, community professionals representing participating organizations, and guest speakers (community members, alumni). Implementation Timeline: Includes course development, department approvals, curriculum committee approval and sign off by the Academic Dean. The timeline for adding the course to academic schedules is contingent on institutional calendars, budgets and faculty workload. Funding Implications: Includes (but not necessarily limited to) faculty compensation for course development, course release or overload for core faculty, department budgets related to faculty hiring/workload and course enrollments. Outcomes (who benefits): Multiple stakeholders benefit from this course model including students, faculty, alumni, career professionals, Career Resources, the Internship Office, academic departments, the University and participating organizations.

 The course introduces students to [a] field of work and business sectors in the local economy, including for-profit and not-for profit organizations, social services and government agencies, schools and educational institutions (public K-12), among others. Students and faculty engage with career professionals in their work environments.  The course encourages students as early as the freshman year to focus in an area of study and provides them with relevant information about organizational structure, reporting hierarchies, the world of work and professional opportunities within particular fields.  The course model allows students who are undecided to ‘test the waters’ before declaring the major. Through this first year introduction students have time in their academic careers to redirect their focus. Career Resources and faculty support students’ transitions to newly identified or enhanced areas of study.  Student engagement with faculty in the major as early as the first year strengthens advising and mentoring over students’ academic and, for some, their professional lives.  Students that complete this first year field course tend to declare their majors earlier than those who have not yet made a formal connection to an academic department or its faculty. Data indicate improved retention and graduation rates for the University.  Early commitment to a major(s) influences student planning for subsequent internships and field placements.  Early commitment to a major boosts access to institutional resources. A growing roster of majors can help academic departments leverage faculty lines and related resources.  Students’ introduction to field sites in the first year motivates and strengthens institutional relationships between participating organizations and the University, promoting opportunities for internships and field placements.  The course motivates early relationships between students, the Internship Office and Career Resources, encouraging advanced planning for internships and post-graduation employment. Assessment: The Five Learning Goals5 rubric provides the framework for evaluation and assessment of this first year field course. Using an academically integrated approach, attention is paid to goal mapping and the sequential layering of course components. Evidence of depth of learning is a critical component in the assessment process for students as well as for course faculty and the community professionals who engage with students during the semester. The faculty assessment team evaluates the level at which students gain knowledge about themselves, observing how they change over the duration of the semester as they engage with course participants and the academic content of the curriculum. Among the key points for assessment are students’ understanding of course material and its reflection in the experiential activities and events that are built into the course; reflection on professional behavior and ethical conduct in work environments; deep thinking about the social and organizational issues introduced in the course; and perspectives of how students’ passions and interests intersect with a growing set of life skills. The personal values that students bring to the course demonstrate their early attitudes about social, academic, co-curricular and career decisions, providing a foundation both for students’ academic assessment by the University and for their self-assessment.

4 Students transferring greater than 45 credits or who have taken a comparable course are waived of this requirement. 5 Five Learning Goals: Fundamental Base of Knowledge, Critical Reasoning, Social Responsibility, Multiple Perspectives, Lifelong Learning. 2

Challenges to Implementation: Institutional and departmental priorities may conflict with timing for course development and/or its implementation. Where does the course fit in the major and will it supplant other course initiatives? Lack of faculty interest or administrative support may impact funding, course scheduling, faculty workload and related issues. Organization of the course requires energy, enthusiasm and attention to detail including identifying guest speakers, appropriate and available sites to visit, and scheduling workshops with Career Resources and the Internship Office, of which both may be in high demand for calendar time. The course must be laid out with appropriate literature and course materials. Methods for reflection need to be identified to ensure that students are actively making connections between their off-campus experiences, academic content and the learning objectives of the course.

Unique Institutional Characteristics to Consider for Adaptation by Other Campuses: At Lesley University experiential learning has been a core value since its founding in 1909. The institution has embedded experiential modalities of teaching into its culture, embracing the role of experience as a fundamental educational requirement across all programs and majors. Implementation of this course model in other campus environments requires that the course not stand alone but be part of a stepped approach to experiential learning that is embraced in other parts of the curriculum. Institutions that are committed to experiential education are those that provide campuses with the necessary resources to develop programs that have at its core the values and ideals of learning through experience. A collaborative culture helps to create cross-unit synergies adding value to the work environment as faculty engage in course/program development with relevant actors in Student Affairs and offices such as Career Resources. The First Year Field Course described here must be developed with clear objectives that are supported by the administration and created by an energetic, creative and committed faculty. Students also must have a clear understanding of the role of experiential learning in the institution and the positioning of this course within the parameters of the four year degree and internship/field placement requirements. During the admission process it is important to emphasize to prospective and accepted students and their families the role of experience in the curriculum and the advantages of experiential learning in a first year course.

Key Search Words: (15 maximum) First year experiential learning; cross-campus collaboration; experiential education; internships/field placements; world of work; career planning; degree requirements; internship office; institutional learning goals; student-faculty relationships; assessment; institutional resources.

SUBMITTER PROFILE Biography: Joanne A. Dreher, Ed.D., is Assistant Professor and Director (retired) of the Undergraduate Academic Advising Center at Lesley University, Cambridge, . Her undergraduate teaching is focused in the areas of organizational behavior, women’s leadership in the workplace and practices in experiential education. She has organized peer mentoring initiatives for undergraduates and facilitated mentoring workshops for workplace professionals. Dr. Dreher taught the first year field course, Introduction to the Business Experience, and helped to shape the structure and experiential components of this course model. She developed and coordinated the freshman Transition Seminar and collaborated with faculty peers and professional staff in Student Affairs to integrate an academic inquiry component into New Student Orientation. Dr. Dreher has presented at national and regional conferences including NACADA, (Integrated engagement: Faculty do matter), ASHE (Collaboration to institutionalize service-learning in higher education: The influence of organizational structure), and New England Campus Compact (Bridging generations to build campus-community partnerships; Demonstrating the public value of higher education: New research in service-learning). She is a contributing author to Strengthening Experiential Education: A New Era, published by the National Society for Experiential Education (2014). Dr. Dreher received her BA in Economics from Framingham State University and a Master of Science in Management from Lesley University. She earned her Doctorate in Education at the University of Massachusetts- under the direction of Dwight E. Giles, Jr. In her dissertation, Collaboration to Institutionalize Service-learning in Higher Education Organizations: The Relationship between the Structures of Academic and Student Affairs, she identified six themes that provide a framework for analyzing the role of collaboration between divisions to institutionalize service-learning pedagogy. Dr. Dreher received the 2009 Dissertation of the Year award from the National Society for Experiential Education. She is a member of NSEE’s Publications Committee and coordinates Sharing Scholarship, an initiative that expands access to quality research and practice in experiential learning. Her research interests are focused in experiential education methodology and in areas related to faculty-student affairs collaboration. Her research extends to the creation of campus structures that advance undergraduate teaching and learning, improve retention, integrate academic inquiry into the broader campus experience, and provide cross-campus fertilization for new academic and co-curricular initiatives.

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