The transition from high school to college is amazing. How do kids do it? Those of us who teach college freshman don't think about this challenge enough. In Tim Clydesdale's observations in The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens After High School, several points stand out:
1. Seniors and college freshman are so focused on "daily life management" that they are not, for now, interested in larger social, cultural, political issues. Teachers might need to "let go of" the expectation of these students having "worldly curiosity" (p. 201). Instead sophomores and juniors in both high school and college, might be more apt to consider their community or global context.
2. Teachers of college freshman underestimate what students can learn and should raise standard/upgrade expectations. Students expect college to be hard.
3. Teachers should begin with what students want to learn (engage interest, connect it to bodies of knowledge, and apply knowledge, p. 203). For example, Clydesdale teaches sociology, and he decided to teach research on relationships because that is a big part of their "daily life management" and he covers the introduction of the field later in the semester.
4. Teachers "overestimate" what students can "meaningful integrate on their own" (p. 40). This one needs further explanation.
What are your observations?
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On point #4, I think I understand what is being said here. I had 7th graders this year, and they are not so much different from high school or college freshman, at least in our district. They are coming into a new building, a completely new staff and environment, and we expect them to adjust without much explanation. We give them the quick tour before school starts, but that's basically a guided walk around the building that shows them where their classes are. If they don't transition at this age, they get into trouble quickly. At the higher educational levels, they tend to fall behind in classes, I think maybe because of these reasons. If they can't meaningfully integrate the new procedures, the new situations and information on their own, they are quickly going to be lost and in trouble. I think after the new experiences have settled for a few days, maybe then we could open up a discussion and answer any questions that have popped up. Asking questions at the first introduction I think often puts people at a loss, as they haven't yet had any time to really process it and make sense of it. Speaking of which, did that make any sense? I feel like I rambled.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't exactly what Clydesdale is concerned about--he focuses on "daily life management" as the huge amount of work, friends and Facebook, family responsibilities that kids face. But I do think that part of the transition that you mention is adjusting to new relationships in junior high. Interesting! I bet that there is a lot of "teaching in the middle" that is concerned about this transition. I am so concerned about the transition into college (especially community college) but I see now from your response that kids go through many transitions in their school years. It might be interesting to come transitional stages. Thanks for sharing!
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