From CUNY Academic Commons

Student Behaviors in: College Courses College Life

Community (city)

Involvement

S1

  • student involvement in the review of course goals and content
  • student self- assessment of course progress
  • student assessment of course effectiveness

S2

  • student engagement in college life and community, national and global issues as a result of course based activities such as service learning and research

SU

  • student utilization of physical spaces available for students to congregate for a variety of activities

S1

  • student engagement in ongoing faculty advising/mentoring

S2

  • student participation in the governance of student activities that includes fiscal responsibility for student sponsored activities

Second Year

  • student engagement with the community as a result of course based activities
  • student engagement in an active program of volunteerism organized by the college and the students
  • student involvement in k-12 public schools through a college coordinated mentorship program

Practice

S1

  • Intensive writing which includes time to edit and re-edit assignments.
  • Small class size.
  • Similar class offerings for day and night students.

SU

  • Spaces for students to meet.
  • Counseling from advisors with contemporary knowledge (current school policies, transfer school(s) requirements, etc.)
    S1
  • Extended library, essential services, and school hours to accommodate students learning and research needs.
  • Monitored and enforced productive library (research) environment.

S2

  • Attendance of off-site academic/professional conferences.
  • Internship(s) with firms (for the purposes of observing how/if classroom lessons are being implemented).
  • Volunteering at community schools and outreach centers to teach lessons learned in their classes.

Participation

Course descriptions and syllabi would reflect the following

SU

  • Individual responsibility for academic progress
  • Group projects
  • Individual and group presentations
  • Study groups/tutorials
  • Active participation in discussions
  • Providing and receiving feedback from peers
  • Expectation that students non-class time on schoolwork
  • student utilization of academic support services including peer tutoring, tutoring centers, faculty review sessions

S1

  • Help lead or facilitate class discussions
  • On-line forums

S2

  • Role plays
  • Co-writing papers with classmates       

Resources provided by the college to participate in college life

SU

Academic advising

  • FAFSA workshops
  • Tutoring / Learning center
  • Counseling services

S2

  • Career services

Opportunities provided by the college to participate in college life

SU

  • Creation of rituals and traditions
  • Physical space that promotes group interaction, networking

S1

  • CUNY wide events
  • Student leadership activities
  • Creation of student groups
  • Work-study

Ways in which students can experience resources on their own after they have been introduced to aspects of our community through course work and college life

SU

  • Using college sponsored passes and discounted tickets to attend events
  • Getting a library card
  • City wide events sponsored by CUNY

S2

  • Community service
  • Registering for regional newspapers

Sense of Belonging

SU

  • Learning community that promotes active membership of students and teachers alike, mutual responsibility

S1

  • Project-based learning that connects to students personal experience, interests, and goals
SU 

  • Shared rituals and habits that foster belonging or group identity
  • Orientation programs
  • Having a voice in governance

S1

  • student participation in a college and student organized activities including athletics, student government, and clubs 

S1

  • Professional Studies curriculum fosters connection to the community

S2

  • Programs that promote civic, public ethics and cultural engagement

Cooperation

SU

  • Co-construct a safe environment with students, creating norms
  • Team projects and presentations
  • Student discussion leaders
  • Class projects and exercises 
  • Partnerships for homework, accountability and mutual support
  • Foster “studio culture” of respect, caring, all for one and one for all
  • The main pattern for classes being work in groups or pairs

S1

  • Change partners
  • Seminars

SU

Traditions, rituals, games, celebrations and exercises

S1

  • Clubs, with mentors
  • Space, funding and administrative support for student activities 
  • Athletics – intramural and intercollegiate

S2

  • Publications, particularly organized by students

S1

  • Coursework organized around city concerns

S2

  • Invite people involved with city agencies or planning to make presentations
  • Internships and jobs
  • Volunteering,
  • Charitable student initiatives

Stamina

SU

  • Assume students have stamina
  • validate confusion as normal and a step towards understanding
  • provide partnerships, teams, assistance

S1

  • gradually increase the intensity and amount of schoolwork
  • emphasize that the work takes place over time–the Merlin Process

SU

  • Easily accessed support from peers, teachers, counselors, others
  • acknowledgement of effort and achievement
  • regular conversations about what is difficult, what isn’t
  • “We’re here for your success.”

S1

  • Counseling for academic and non-academic issues
  • understanding how to officially withdraw, if necessary 
  • Friday night inspirational movies–“The Karate Kid”; “Stand and Deliver”

S2

  • ownership of NCC–participation in rethinking, revising courses and structures

SU

  • City seminars about what is problematic for students

S1

  • Explicitly moving from the personal to the political in relation to NYC

S2

  • Fitting the NCC and student experience into the larger pictures of education, CUNY and the city

Self-Reflection

SU

  • Discussions and writing: learning from the past (what behaviors and activities have led to success, or lack of success)

S1

  • Reflective letters to teachers when assignments are due
  • Reflective letters to teachers after assignments are handed back, responding to teachers’ comments
  • One-minute reflection at the end of class periods
  • Conferences with teachers
  • Feedback from other students
  • End-of-semester self-assessment (to be handed in to teachers)

SU

  • Faculty-moderated discussions with students across the college
  • Meetings with advisors
  • Periodic questionnaires

S1

  • End-of-semester self-assessment / goals for the next semester (to be handed in to advisors) 

S2

  • E-portfolios

SU

  • Journal of goals and activities (cultural offerings around the city, civic responsibilities like voting, newspaper or online reading for current events, etc.)
  • Periodic questionnaires

Achievement

SU

  • Establish goals involving taking responsibility and communication with peers (e.g. students should get e-mail or phone numbers of classmates)
  • Create opportunities for early successes (e.g., explore the blocks around the school and report back to a small group) 

S1

  • Scaffolding instruction and expectations
  • Mark achievements such as attendance and participation in classes

SU

  • Checklist (in the style of the Brooklyn College Seek Program list) 
  • Development of personal and social skills (e.g. time management, learning to work in groups)

S1

  • Celebration of student achievement (college wide presentations)
  • Use of Group Workspace to structure goals and achievement (through meetings with faculty, advisors and peers)

S2

  • E-portfolios

S2

  • Work experience structured to make achievement evident
  • Acknowledge student achievement in venues beyond the college