Page sections
- The transition to college and the first year experience
- Student attitudes and perspectives
- The diversity of our students
- When your student needs help
The Office of Academic Planning and Analysis offers up-to-date information on our students, their background, enrollments, retention and many other related issues.
The transition to college and the first year experience
- Talented freshman class enrolls (Wisconsin Week: Sept. 3, 2003)
- Sometimes faculty and staff who work with students assume that the typical student arrived on campus straight out of high school. In fact, over 20% of students who receive undergraduate degrees at UW–Madison transferred in from other campuses. As groups, transfer students and freshman-start students are a bit different in terms of their background and experiences, and in terms of some of their academic and other needs. To learn more, look at the report and supporting documents released by the Committee on the Transfer Student Experience in 2004
- The Office of Orientation and New Student Programs serves our new students in many ways, including producing SOARand Welcome Week.
- Unrealistic Student Expectations (University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning Resources) offers a list and suggestions for how to help students develop a better understanding of university academic life.
- How should we think about what is supposed to happen to students as they move through their college education? Are there implications for differences in the way faculty and other university staff should work with students depending on the stage of the student’s undergraduate career? These questions point to the increasing view that academic and student life programs should be organized through a framework of “student development.” For a good introduction to student development ideas aimed at students themselves, see the University of Minnesota’s webpage on “Student Development Theory”.
Student attitudes and perspectives
- “Educating the Net Generation ” is a high quality streaming presentation with useful slides presented by Diana G. Oblinger, Vice President of EDUCAUSE. Abstract: The “Net Generation” has grown up with information technology as an integral part of how they work and socialize. Their behaviors, attitudes, and aptitudes have changed as a result of their exposure to technology. This session explores the implications of the Net Generationfor colleges and universities as well as how to address the generation gap between faculty or administrators and the Net Gen. This presentation is from an October, 2004 EDUCAUSE conference. About 43 minutes.
- See the reports of the periodic Undergraduate Surveys of UW–Madison Students.
- The campus took part in the National Study of Student Engagement in 2004.
- The Beloit Mindset List : The life experiences of this year’s entering class.
- A national survey of undergraduates done by Harvard University in 2003 explored their civic and political engagement and attitudes.
The diversity of our students
- CIRTL’s Diversity Institute is gathering information on diversity in post-secondary teaching and learning in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from Diversity Scholars across the country and working to aid faculty and future faculty in incorporating diversity into post-secondary STEMclassrooms. The Diversity Institute web site offers resources and avenues for participation. It will be fully developed by June, 2005.
- The University of Minnesota publication, “Multicultural Awareness Project for Institutional Transformation (MAP IT)” offers excellent guide questions for faculty and staff, institutional leaders, and for students to consider in the course of their work at the university to determine what contributions they are making, and could make, with respect to multicultural awareness and diversity in their work. You can download the report and the questionnaires in pdf format, or order a glossy copy for yourself.
- The New York University Center for Teaching Excellence offers Ethnic and Gender Issues in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Courses: An Annotated Bibliography, which includes connections to the texts of the articles.
- The University of Wisconsin–Madison is committed to enhancing the education of all of its students, which requires understanding the implications of their diversity along many lines – gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, perspectives and disabilities – to shape how teaching practices and the nature of courses and curricula may influence students’ likelihood of success.
- Plan 2008 outlines the current campus goals on racial/ethnic inclusiveness.
- The Americans With Disabilities Act provides that no qualified individual with a disability be denied access to or participation in services, programs and activities at the university. This act applies to virtually all aspects of campus activities including employment, student programming and services provided to the community at large. For more information and resources, see the ADA Campus Policies page.
- University policy states that “students’ sincerely held religious beliefs shall be reasonably accommodated with respect to scheduling all examinations and other academic requirements.” For a more complete discussion of how to resolve relevant issues for course activities, see the annual university memo, “When Classwork and Religious Observances Conflict.”
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Many offices on campus are available to help you understand the diversity of your students and its implications for your effectiveness as an educator and mentor, and to assist you in designing more multicultural courses and curricula. Among these are:
- The Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Climate, Bernice Durand, provides leadership and coordinates resources relating to diversity and climate issues.
- The mission of the McBurney Disability Resource Center is to create an accessible university community where students with disabilities can realize their full potential. The center staff collaborate with students, faculty and staff to promote students’ independence and to ensure assessment of their abilities — not disabilities. Students with physical, learning, sensory, psychological or health-related impairments may benefit from the center’s services. Contacting the center as soon as possible to arrange for disability-related services and accommodations is encouraged. See the frequently asked questions on services for students with disabilities for more information. A student may request notetaking services because of his/her disability. What should you do? See the Notetaking Fact Sheet. A student may request alternative testing arrangements in your class because of his/her disability. What should you do? See the Alternative Testing fact sheet.
- The Office of International Student Services “is responsible for services and programs that aid students from abroad in achieving their goals while studying at the UW–Madison.” The office strives “to create an environment that allows for successful educational and personal experiences through orientations, advising, and campus and community programs.”
- The Equity and Diversity Resource Center is a unit within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Legal and Executive Affairs. The EDRC provides leadership and education to university employees and students on principles of equity and diversity to promote respectful and supportive work and learning environments. See its programs, including workshops and seminars on many relevant topics. See especially the descriptions of the SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Seminar and, for more advanced work, the SEEDED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity for Experienced Doers) Seminar.
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Diversity in Mathematics Education, Center for Learning and Teaching
1025 West Johnson Street
Madison, WI 53706
Tel : 1-608-4282 , 1-800-1055
Fax : 1-608-3406
E-mail : kmschul1@wisc.edu - The UW System Office of Academic Diversity and Develop offers many resources, including the Multicultural Center for Educational Excellence.
- The Elements of Multicultural Teaching and Learning [NEED NEW URL] , offered by the School of Nursing, is a schematic to help guide you.
- Multicultural Education and Human Relations, has many good pointers for self-awareness and self-education.
- The UW–Madison School of Social Work Library has an extensive gateway to multicultural Web sites.
- The Web site of the UW System Women’s Studies Librarian is a national treasure of information on bibliographies, Web sites, media resources, tutorials, course handouts, and other materials on many subjects.
- The University of North Carolina’s Center for Teaching and Learning has a very good substantive section on Diversity in the College Classroom.
- McGraw-Hill also has a Web site on Understanding Prejudice.
- The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) includes educators from all levels and many fields. See its Resource Center.
- The University of Washington Center for Instructional Development and Teaching offers a detailed and helpful site on Inclusive Teaching.
- “Tools for Teaching” (Jossey Bass 1993), a book partly reproduced online, includes two chapters with long lists of tips and tools for taking account of students’ diverse backgrounds and resources in your teaching: Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities and Diversity and Complexity in the Classroom: Considerations of Race, Ethnicity and Gender.
- Teaching to Variation in Student Learning is an online interactive workshop offered by the Brown University Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. The introduction says, “After you have completed these five exercises, you will have a better appreciation of the many ways in which your students learn. As a result, you may wish to consider devising new teaching strategies for reaching the broadest number of students.”
- Katharin Peter and Laura Horn, “Gender Differences in Participation and Completion of Undergraduate Education and How They Have Changed Over Time”: The National Center for Education Statistics, 2005. ABSTRACT: “This report drew on several publications and postsecondary datasets to provide a detailed account of gender differences in undergraduate education. Specifically, the analysis examined gender differences in rates of participation and completion of undergraduate education, focusing on changes over time in college enrollment, associate’s and bachelor’s degree awards, and the demographic and enrollment characteristics of undergraduate men and women. The analysis also examined trends in high school academic preparation, postsecondary persistence and degree completion, and early labor market outcomes among bachelor’s degree recipients.”
When your student needs help
- In some challenging situations, both you and your student need help. The Center for Teaching and Learning Services at the University of Minnesota offers a useful on-line tutorial, Scenes from a Classroom: Managing conflict.
- At some point a student is likely to turn to you with a call for help, perhaps with a family or mental health issue, or as a result of victimization. The Dean of Students Office has published a list Faculty and Staff Resources.
- For any credible threat to the safety of any member of the UW–Madison campus, contact the campus Police Department. Emergency Calls: (9)911. Non-emergency calls: 262-2957/262-4524