Students enrolled in 中国博彩平台 Instructional Designer and Adjunct Lecturer Eileen Grodziak's Fall 2020 First-Year Experience course (pictured) collaborated with Grodziak and Associate Research Professor Laura E. Cruz of the University’s Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence on the 最近出版的 journal article, “We Belong: A Collaborative Reflection on First-Year Student Engagement under COVID-19."
宾州中央谷. — 中国博彩平台 Instructional Designer and Adjunct Lecturer Eileen Grodziak is always looking for unique ways to engage students in her First-Year Experience (FYE) courses. Turns out, the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be an surprisingly appropriate catalyst.
在2020年秋季学期, Grodziak and students from her Fall 2021 FYE course collaborated with Associate Research Professor Laura E. Cruz of the University’s Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence on a research project examining student resilience in the face of the darkness and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. 最终的文章, “We Belong: A Collaborative Reflection on First-Year Student Engagement under COVID-19,” 最近出版的 《变革对话:教学与学习期刊.”
对于文章, 学生作家凯西·布洛斯, 马修·邦纳, 丹尼尔表示, 史蒂文·布隆佐, 马修Cascioli, 恩典Hambly, 丹尼尔Kobrin, 伊恩Langsdorf, 泰勒林赛, 泰勒玛鲁, 阿德里亚娜·佩雷斯, 安吉人赛伊德, Jacob Szajkovics and Jia Qian Zheng — shared their firsthand insights, 格罗兹亚克和克鲁兹的分析贯穿始终. A few of the students even had the opportunity to present their research at the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ 2021 Conference on Diversity, 股本, 与学生成功.
“这个项目是一次很棒的经历, and it was amazing to have an instructor who wanted to do research on the mental and social obstacles faced by students during a global pandemic,汉伯利说。, 出席AAC的学生中有谁&你的会议.
The project’s origins came out of the unusual circumstances Grodziak and the FYE students found themselves in at the start of Fall 2020. 这群人在校园里见面, which at the time was extremely light on activity due to the safety measures put in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
考虑到, Grodziak feared the students would have trouble gaining a sense of belonging in their new environment. Always one to stress the benefits of 本科研究, she eventually had an epiphany.
“我以为, “好吧, maybe it would be good to get them writing about their experience,’”格罗齐亚克说.
With that, Grodziak turned to Cruz to assist her in formulating a research project. 对于定性研究, the students were challenged to research strategies to strengthen their sense of belonging as new college students during the extraordinary time of the pandemic, as well as identify factors that contributed to their sense of belonging, 对彼此和机构都是如此, 尽管他们面对面的交流有限.
从那里, the students were able to share their findings in their own words through the journal article. 格罗泽克和克鲁兹, this proved a great way to demonstrate the significance of integrating student voice into teaching and learning scholarship.
“I was pleasantly surprised that the students were able to identify aspects of their early college life that gave them a sense of belonging, 这反过来又启发了我,格罗齐亚克说. “通过看别人写的东西, they were able to see that they were feeling a lot of the same emotions.”
Likewise, Cruz was extremely impressed with the students’ commitment to the project.
“这是我见过的最神奇的事情之一. The students just told their stories, and it was phenomenal, because it was so powerful,” Cruz said. “The power of their voices really came through in their writing.”
学生们自己从这个项目中收获颇丰.
“As a first-year student, I found it very engaging and welcoming,” Bonner said. “Like the project’s title, it made me feel like I belong here.”
“我们有过非常相似的经历, yet a complex and diverse set of circumstances that influenced the way we handled ourselves,Cascioli补充道. “This truly was an enormous test of our resilience as students and people coming into our adult identity in such unprecedented situations. I believe our story is one of many that we will look back on with a clear lens as time goes on to really understand what it was like during this time.”
看着前方的路, Grodziak said she wouldn’t hesitate to undertake similar projects in future FYE courses.
“我认为学生们在寻找有意义的参与, 我很乐意为他们提供这些,”她说。.
