 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Conference theme: Strategies and Innovations in Teaching and Learning
Title: The First Year Experience: Starting with the Student
Kerry Howells
Education Development Unit University of New South Wales
Abstract
Most transition and orientation programs are characterised by their focus on
the future learning experience that awaits the “unknowing” student.
This paper will argue that in making the locus of experience the forthcoming
university encounter, without also taking into consideration the self-identity
that the student brings to the university situation, an important dimension
has been neglected. Some reasons will be postulated as to why we should make
the student’s current self-conception as learner the starting point of
transition programs and why this has been traditionally ignored. Sociological
and phenomenological perspectives will be used to describe the depth of “experience”
that needs to be considered. Pedagogical implications will be discussed in the
light of outcomes of one-day workshops offered as part of the 2003 orientation
for new students in the Division of Economics and Financial Studies at Macquarie
University.
Back