The posters will display critical thinking skills developed this semester by nearly 400 freshman Pathways to Academic Success Seminar (PASS) students.
“We have good topics, and we’ve become informed student sources about them, so we invite everyone to come and see what we have to show them,” a proud member of Selena Castro’s Gen Ed 104 class said last week.
Teams of 4-6 students from 20 course sections developed topics from a theme assigned to each class. Themes ranged from “Sports and Recreation,” to “Global Warming” or “Stereotypes,” for example.
Posters detail not opinions, but student research into “Alcohol: The New Gasoline,” “Uses of Hemp: The Case for Legal Growing,” and “The Effects of Stress on College Students.” And dozens more topics.
 |
|
Student and poster from the 2009 Freshman Academic Showcase. |
“This is the first time most of them have ever been introduced to peer-reviewed journal articles, research and research writing,” she said. “In PASS, they learn specific skills to apply in all of their classes. They learn, over the course of the semester, to understand what their professors expect of them and their writing ability, and how to properly cite sources, critically evaluate them, and use them correctly.
“Through working on their scholarly research papers, students develop key skills to be successful at our research university,” Castro said. “These students are engaged in metacognitive activities.”
PASS classes and freshman poster showcases have evolved over some time at WSU. In the 1990s, there was Freshman Seminar to teach college skills and develop critical thinking abilities. Students would create a webpage using technology that was likely new to them.
In 2008, PASS became the name of the two-credit elective course, and scholarly research became its focus, Castro said.
Graduate facilitators (most have a background in student development theory and in education) lead the classes and follow a common syllabus. Students learn to build skills in time management, note-taking, organization, test preparation, maximizing academic advising, and using library resources.
Small group discussions stem from current news topics and from the freshman Common Reading book (in fall) or assigned themes (in spring). Students choose an interest area to research, learn to use library systems to obtain reliable information, create an argumentative thesis, and defend that argument with their research findings.
They write a report using style handbooks and technical writing tips, and create a final project presented in the form of a conference-style poster. Classmates evaluate posters in class before revisions are made and posters are printed and displayed to the public.
Castro, who was a facilitator before becoming director, believes in PASS.
“Students who take PASS have found it challenging, fun, sometimes frustrating and, most of all, different from their other courses.”
Castro has statistics that students who have taken the PASS freshman class are more likely to see their GPAs going up higher than some other students, and there is a higher retention rate.
For fall 2009, PASS reached out during Alive! summer orientation to freshmen intending to major in science, technology, engineering and math (the STEM disciplines), plus business. A gift from The Boeing Company made it possible to purchase 30 laptop computers, equipment carts and poster display stands for the program. Instead of five or six sections, Castro filled 20 sections with 300 students that semester.
“We were able to be proactive rather than reactive to more students,” Castro said. “They could develop skills to bridge the academic distance between high school and college and apply that knowledge to all of their other classes and be successful going forward.”
Tim Short, a freshman from Hawaii planning to major in Asian studies, says that’s so.
“Before PASS, I didn’t understand what ‘scholarly sources’ were,” he said. “Then last week in my English 101 class the professor talked about scholarly sources and I knew exactly what that meant. That felt pretty good.”
Tam Nguyen, a freshman from Redmond planning to major in food studies/human nutrition, said PASS has helped her engage more fully in college life and learning.
“It’s the first time ever that I’ve really been on my own to explore topics,” she said. “It’s helpful to know the teacher is there as a backup, though.”
Keeping a personal reflections log for class has helped her identify something she would like to change about herself.
“My cooperation skills with other people are not as good as I thought,” she said. “I see I have difficulty in getting my point across. I want to work on my team communication skills.”
Education process
Cindy Williams, assistant to the associate dean of the University College, earned her master’s in education degree in December. She has facilitated PASS sections for two years.
“I do it because I love teaching and because it’s exciting to see ‘the lights come on’ when a student has a personal revelation about college or themselves,” she said. “I see it often in PASS students.
“To me, PASS is all about the process, not the results,” Williams said. “If students dig down inside themselves and really understand the skills they need to succeed, there’s no limit to what they can accomplish.
“Just look at the posters they are doing,” she said. “And the research they’re prepared to discuss. Three months ago, it might have seemed impossible to them that they could achieve these kinds of results. It’s pretty impressive.”
Like the teacher says, just look at the posters.