Undergraduate Culture as presented in "My Freshman Year"

I must admit I was a skeptic when confronted with reading My Freshman Year. The premise of a fifty year old tenured faculty member living the life of a freshman seemed ridiculous at best. I was pleasantly surprised by several aspects of the book.

First, I actually learned something about my students, something I had not expected. As a recent graduate I thought that I was closely connected enough to undergraduate life that I could relate to my students. That said, my own freshman year was over eight years ago as I took time off from school. Clearly, I’ve forgotten much of the anxieties of being freshman, something I should be familiar with as my classroom is largely composed of them.

In my class these freshmen are adapting to college life, as discussed in the book. I found myself looking back on my freshman year and relating to much of what Nathan says. I remember orientation, and dealing with the long lectures on alcohol, the dangers of unprotected sex, and concerns about assault. I did not live in the dorms however, so the chapter on dorm life was an interesting read for me.

Clearly I have been in dorm rooms before, but never imagined living in the dorms. It was recommended by the university that all freshmen live in the dorms but since I lived in town, and preferred to remain in the comforts of home, I was allowed to not live in the dorms. I was very glad as I am one who likes my peace and quiet.

I found the idea of dorm dwelling students seeking peace and quiet in designated common areas very interesting. I remember as an undergraduate studying in common areas around campus and it drove me crazy. I could not imagine that as an escape. Perhaps one of the reasons freshmen don’t accomplish much is that they are constantly inundated with their friends and social activities. Even in the master’s student office, I sometimes have trouble getting work done. I can’t imagine my home life being that social. In spite of all that, if I had it all to do over, I probably would live in the dorms. I think I may have been more connected with the campus, and perhaps performed better during my freshman year (frankly it would have been near impossible to have done much worse).

Performance was interestingly brought up by Nathan. On one hand Nathan is able to excuse students’ lack of reading because she now realizes that she only has two classes to prepare for while her students have as many as five or six. I think this is a good point however, for what classes are students reading? Is there a specific field where instructors have high rates of student preparation for class? I’m doubtful, and feel that Nathan is too quick to justify ill-prepared students. I do think however, we need not be completely harsh towards our students.

Nathan speaks about being compassionate as instructors. I think that this would be the piece of advice that I would be most comfortable passing along after reading this work. I think that all too often, as instructors, we get wrapped up in our own worlds. Often we forget that students are constantly juggling other obligations and classes, and may have valid reasons for not being prepared for our courses. Just the other day I found out one of my students has three jobs in addition to being a full time student. I don’t give her special treatment on account of this, but it is far easier to be compassionate when readings are not complete, or when she becomes slightly needy. As important as compassion is, I think another aspect that should be shared with future teachers is the fundamental differences between us and the typical undergraduate student.

Often in the course of mentor meetings and sessions of comm. 690, I have heard the common phrase “These students aren’t you and me. They aren’t like us.” Normally I hear this phrase when I’m overly concerned about students and their performance. The culture among freshmen that Nathan discusses largely explains this difference. I would argue that most of us as graduate students place a high value on academic achievement. Nathan speaks to the notion of college as job training and nothing more for many students. As long as the work is good enough to get the degree and survive in the work world, most of these students are happy.

Looking back on the early portion of my undergraduate career, when the thought of just getting my bachelor’s in teaching seemed exhausting and impossible, I can relate to this feeling. My goals early on were to simply get a degree so I could get on with my life. Even when I returned to school, initially my goal was to get the degree to get the job. I am glad that during my second semester back I took a challenging course and excelled. I then realized that academia is something I am good at, and am indeed smart enough to follow my dreams. Frankly it still seems surreal to me that I am working on a my master’s and teaching two classes. Although I am very happy right now, Nathan did present some startling statistics.

Nathan did not really leave me feeling all that hopeful about the state of higher education. As an individual anticipating a career in academia, the cuts in funding and change in the amount of tenure track positions is disconcerting. Also, the fact that the lower paying positions generally don’t allow instructors as much agency in their courses (something that I struggle with right now) is another aspect of higher education that made me uncomfortable. As schools are changing, so are instructors and students.

This book has changed how I view undergraduate students in many ways. First, I was glad that a sociologist was completing this ethnography. Nathan’s perspectives on undergraduate students move us from simply observing them to better understanding them. Nathan does a very good job of moving from just artifacts, texts, and conversation, to providing a meaning behind them.

I found particular brilliance in Nathan’s remarks on the decorating of different dorm room doors. She nicely explained each decoration and then moved into explaining the overarching themes. Nathan also used these artifacts to explain their meaning in freshman culture. I think this glimpse into their world as revolving around a culture that stresses sociability, humor, and fun (Nathan, 2005) can be highly useful for us as new teachers. Towards the end of the book, Nathan touched upon the presentation that was communicating using this culture when presenting the more formalized culture of the academic institution. I believe that it is our responsibility to try to reach our students, even if it means we have to adapt to their culture.

As skeptical as I was entering this reading assignment, I feel that My Freshman Year has significant pedagogical value. The book provides us a glimpse into undergraduate culture that is impressively accurate. Further, the book moves beyond a simple glimpse into the culture, but also explains the meanings behind the artifacts, rules, and arguably different language of undergraduate culture. Although I don’t agree with some of the arguments Nathan makes defending undergraduate students, I feel that this work is a fantastic way to get a better understanding of our students.

Ethics and Learning

This week's readings focused on several aspects of teaching. From teaching students how to learn, to ethics, to teachers as learners, I feel that we covered a wide variety of aspects of life as a teacher.

One aspect of teaching that I hadn't really considered was the notion of, as the McKeachie book puts it, "teaching students to think like a ______" (p. 322). I guess I'd always know to cover course content, and realized the value of Bloom's taxonomy, but this idea really resonated with me. When I ask my students to analyze the definition of small group communication, how can I expect them to answer when they don't have the background to think like a social scientist. Teaching students to think like members of the field is useful for getting at higher order learning in Bloom's taxonomy.

Higher order learning is fantastic however, the text alludes to the fact that, in introductory courses, it may be advantageous to stick to primarily lower-levels in the taxonomy. I think that this is largely one of the frustrations I face with my class. I want to engage students and have all of these fantastic discussions where we are evaluating and analyzing course material. In reality, I should just be happy if they can remember, understand, and maybe apply the information. I think that with this knowledge of what an introductory course should look like, I may adjust how I teach class. I don't want to necessarily "dumb it down" however, I will change the approach I take in asking discussion questions. My questions will probably be more based on application than anything else. (I am an eternal optimist!) Realizing my students don't know "how to think like a social scientist" does indeed change how I will approach levels of Bloom's taxonomy, especially in discussion.

Another aspect of the reading that will directly impact my teaching is the notion of ethics presented in McKeachie. As a communication major I have had whole classes on, read, and partaken in more discussions on ethics than I'd care to mention. This information however, seemed far more applicable and called into question some aspects of ethics in the classroom that I had not considered.

I like to think that my colleagues and I are ethical individuals. I like to think of academia as this realm where we make the right decisions and do good at all times. Chapter 25 on ethics seriously challenged my taken for granted ideal of the ethical academic institution.

For example, I always considered it good practice to prepare a lesson plan and be prepared for class. I hadn't really thought of it as an ethical violation until I read the chapter. Some examples of less obvious ethical violations I found interesting are the notion of just how we communicate in the classroom. We can teach values (if we intend to or not) just by what we say, and how we engage in classroom discussions.

I feel it is obvious that we are all role models as instructors. When it comes to determining how to act in the academic institutions students follow our lead. McKeachie carries this further into the organizational world and after school. I had never really thought of the potential impact I have as an educator until I read this chapter of the book.

Ethics, and modeling behavior are a large part of being a teacher, but I also feel are particularly important in a field such as communication. During class discussions, especially in upper-level communication courses, the openness of the instructor plays a key factors. I think it is all to easy to listen only to the arguments we agree with. I like the excerpt McKeachie borrows from Hanson, (1996) "'Teachers who can nimbly convey the strenghts of a position they in fact oppose, who can clearly display the weaknesses in a position they in fact embrace, who are modeling a critical engagement from which students may learn their most important lessons' (p. 35)." (p. 332). I hope to achieve the ability to engage in this type of modeling to help my students get to a point where they are able to critically evaluate the information presented in my classroom. I believe that this is something that takes a fair amount of time to develop as a teacher.

I look forward to a career as a teacher. The closing chapter of the McKeachie book reinforced that enthusiasm. The notion of always learning, encountering new situations, and the constant rewards of teaching seems exciting to me. Life as a teacher, and all that goes with it seems to be something that I get only more excited about as the semester progresses.

Helpful Links:

Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy: This link will take you to a far more in-depth look at the revisions that Anderson, Krathwohl, et. al (2001) made to Bloom's original 1956 taxonomy.

Ethical Violations: This link will take you to a PDF file that better explains the seven intolerable categories of teaching behavior. I liked this because it gives some examples to simplify some of the concepts.

STLHE Ethical Guidelines: This link will take you to a list of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education's (STLHE) document titled Ethical Principles in University Teaching. This document was referenced on p. 328 of McKeachie.