Conversations
with Professors
Volunteer for the August 2008 session of
Conversations with Professors
- How often have you realized that new students' academic expectations
for college do not match reality?
- Do you have important advice to share with students BEFORE they start
classes?
About Conversations with Professors
This program, which debuted last August, is designed to promote a conversation
between a faculty member and a group of students in his or her college about
the roles of students and faculty in the university setting. It is an ideal
opportunity for faculty members to help new students understand their roles
as student learners and to express faculty expectations for student
engagement. Georgia
Southern does a great job moving students into the residence hall. We
need to help them move more smoothly into the classroom, to let them know
that Georgia Southern faculty have expectations that all students should
meet in order to be successful.
Last year we had 108 faculty who volunteered, and
evaluations from faculty about their Conversations experience were very
positive. For the results of the two quantitative scale questions we
asked, click here (.xls).
Conversation Objectives
Because the Conversations are only 75 minutes long, the specific goals
are modest. When leaving their Conversations
with Professors session, students should:
-
Understand how to approach the first week of classes, such as the
importance of:
- The syllabus and knowing how to read one;
- Settling on a course schedule no later than the last day of drop/add
(August 21 this Fall semester) and preferably well before then;
- Appreciate some basic tenets of the student-faculty
relationship, such as:
-
Most faculty care deeply that students learn the material in their
classes and will go to great lengths to help them master the
material, provided that they demonstrate that they are willing to
apply themselves and work hard; and,
-
Like students, individual faculty members differ in
their rules and expectations. It's the student's responsibility to
know what each of their professors expects (see that syllabus!).
More important than these specific goals may be the
larger one of setting a strong academic tone early in the semester, and
there are many different ways to promote this tone. Because faculty
often indicated that student questions were the most important aspect to
their Conversations in 2007, we strongly encourage faculty to incorporate
opportunities for students to ask questions into their sessions.
Student "Conversations Assistants" (CAs)
Faculty in each Conversation will have a student
"Conversations Assistant" (CA). CAs are integral parts of the
Conversations experience for several reasons. They will handle the
administrative tasks of taking roll, for instance. But more
substantively, their presence in the Conversation is meant to model the
types of productive relationships faculty and students should develop.
Accordingly, faculty members are encouraged to identify a student with whom
they have a good relationship and ask if he or she would be willing to
assist in the program. Faculty survey respondents were overwhelmingly
positive about the experience working with an assistant. For example:
- Yes, the assistant's presence enhanced the value of
the sessions considerably. His was an important second institutional
voice in the conversation with students, and this "voice" talked about
its own college experiences, and offered the students experiential
advice; naturally, the students were all eyes and ears.
- Yes, she enhanced the value. I think it gave me
legitimacy with the students.
- Assistant added plenty. She was able to give the
new students a perspective that I could never have given. She started
here as a freshman and is now a senior, so she's been through what they
will go through here.
Because of this feedback, we've determined that each
section must include a student assistant. If you are having difficulty identifying a
student who is available to assist or would rather not identify one yourself, the FYE
office will assign one to you.Logistics
The main session of Conversations with Professors will take place on Sunday,
August 17, from 3:30 until 4:45 p.m. We will also hold smaller
sessions on June 22 and January 11 for new students starting in Term B and
Spring. Students will be assigned to a section and enrolled at summer
the SOAR session by their academic college. Faculty who volunteer to
assist will will be assigned to a section of students composed of students
in his or her college. Sections will cap at between 20-30.
The FYE Faculty Task Force that recommended the program in Fall 2006 preferred to offer "Conversations with
Professors" on a week day, but it was not possible to change the
Housing move-in day to make this possible for 2007. We planned to
propose a change in this date for 2008 to accommodate offering
"Conversations" on a Friday. However, participants last year thought
that Sunday was a better day. On the faculty survey, many indicated
pluses and minuses to both Friday and Sunday, but among the 38 faculty
respondents who had a clear preference, 63 percent favored Sunday.
Among the Conversations Assistants, the preference was even stronger:
27 of 33 (82 percent) favored Sunday. For these reasons, we are
leaving the sessions on Sunday for 2008.
Faculty Resources for Conversations
with Professors in 2007 (will be expanded for 2008-- check back!)
Volunteer for the August 2008 session of
Conversations with Professors
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