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In an effort to ease the academic stress felt by many first-year students, Smith expects to launch in the fall of 1998 a series of seminars designed specifically for college newcomers. John M. Connolly, dean of the faculty, said Smith's faculty have approved a proposal for a four-year pilot program of approximately 10 first-year seminars per year. Connolly said that the first-year seminars were proposed because the college recognized the importance of treating the student's first year as a time of transition to college-level work. He pointed out that at this point many introductory courses for first-year students are large, lecture-format classes designed to impart a great deal of information without inviting or even allowing much student response. For example, Connolly said, a pre-med student may end up taking biology, chemistry and mathematics courses, all at the introductory level and all in one semester. She might accordingly feel that her academic schedule offers no opportunity for interactive learning. "It's very rare for a professor to be able to build an introductory course around some sort of research project," he said First-year seminars, on the other hand, would be smaller in size and would introduce the beginning college student to the powers of investigative learning. She would work with the same introductory-level information now taught in the larger classes, but would do so in the more absorbing context of conducting a research project. "The idea is that the student will work on a particular project where she can pull together some people and produce some new insights," Connolly said. "She'll pick a topic that appeals to her, go to the library, surf the Internet, and maybe work with her peers." Robert Buell Merritt, professor of biological sciences and former dean of the faculty, acknowledged that most beginning-level courses in his field require students "to master a lot of material in a relatively short period of time." And those classes are large, typically consisting of 130 to 170 students. He noted, though, that large classes do not necessarily hinder academic performance. As long as a student has good study habits and strong writing and analytical reasoning skills, she will succeed in the classroom, said Merritt. While he welcomes the idea of first-year seminars, he'd rather "get class sizes down to 30 or 40" and offer more courses for nonmajors. Enrollment in each seminar will be limited to approximately 15 students and will be voluntary. The Dean of the Faculty's office is currently accepting proposals from professors who wish to develop and teach the series of pilot programs. The academic policy committee set first-year seminars as a goal in 1992. Another of the committee's goals, a writing requirement, became effective for the 199798 school year. Through the addition of first-year seminars and other small classes to
the college curriculum, Connolly said, Smith hopes to enhance the experience
of first-years. A growing body of research supports the idea that first-year
seminars are an effective way to introduce students to the tools of the
various disciplines and to hone analytical and communication skills, including
oral presentation. |
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