Your College Experience, Concise Tenth Edition Strategies for Success

by Gardner, John N.; Barefoot, Betsy O.

• ISBN13: 9781457606311
• ISBN10: 1457606313
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-26
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

This less expensive, streamlined edition of Your College Experience presents a straightforward, realistic, and intelligent review of the skills students need to succeed in college. The text focuses on the academic skills taught in college success courses, providing students with tools and strategies for building a solid base of critical thinking, time management, research, study, and test-taking skills. Additional coverage of emotional intelligence, learning styles, diversity, and money help students get off to a great start.

Goal setting has always been central to this text, and the Tenth Edition has been revised with added coverage and activities to strengthen this material throughout. In addition, a new focus on assessing their own strengths will help students see where they are already succeeding so they get off to a great start and stay in college.

A full package of instructional support materials – including an Instructor’s Annotated Edition, an Instructor’s Manual, PowerPoint slides, videos, and a Test Bank – provides new and experienced instructors all the tools they will need to engage students in this course and increase student retention.

Author Biography

John N. Gardner brings unparalleled experience to students as an author. The recipient of his institution's highest award for teaching excellence, John has over forty years of experience directing and teaching in the most widely emulated first-year seminar in the country, the University 101 course at the University of South Carolina (USC), Columbia. John is universally recognized as one of the country's leading educators for his role in initiating and orchestrating an international reform movement to improve the beginning college experience, a concept he coined as "the first-year experience." He is the founding executive director of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at USC, as well as the Policy Center on the First Year of College and the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (www.jngi.org), both based in Brevard, N.C.

 

Betsy O. Barefoot is a writer, researcher, and teacher whose special area of scholarship is the first-year seminar. During her tenure at USC from 1988 to 1999, she served as codirector for research and publications at the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. She also taught University 101 and graduate courses on the first-year experience and the principles of college teaching. She conducts first-year seminar faculty training workshops around the world and is frequently called on to evaluate first-year seminar outcomes. Betsy is codirector and senior scholar in the Policy Center on the First Year of College and Vice President of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education both in Brevard, N.C. In her Policy Center role she led a major national research project to identify institutions of excellence in the first college year. She currently works with both two- and four-year campuses in evaluating all components of the first year.

Table of Contents

1. Exploring Your Purpose for Attending College
The College Experience
Setting Goals for Your College Experience and Beyond
Tech Tip: Plug In
Aligning Your Sense of Purpose and Your Career
Outcomes of College
Making the Transition
What Is Your Purpose in College?
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

2. Managing Your Time
Taking Control of Your Time
Getting Organized
Making Sure Your Schedule Works for You
Tech Tip: Get Organized
Respecting Others' Time
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

 

3. Understanding Emotional Intelligence
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Assessing Your Emotional Intelligence
Identifying Competencies
Tech Tip: Stay Connected
How Emotions Affect Success
How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

4. Discovering How You Learn
The VARK Learning Styles Inventory
The Kolb Inventory of Learning Styles
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Multiple Intelligences
Tech Tip: Branch Out
When Learning Styles and Teaching Styles Conflict
Learning with a Disability
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

5. Thinking Critically: The Basis of a College Education
What Is Critical Thinking, and Why Is It Important?
Becoming a Critical Thinker
How Collaboration Fosters Critical Thinking
Thinking Critically about Arguments
Tech Tip: Research Wisely
Critical Thinking in College and Everyday Life
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

6. Being Engaged in Learning: Listening, Taking Notes, and Participating in Class
Using Your Senses in the Learning Process
Preparing for Class
Participating in Class
Taking Effective Notes
Tech Tip: Take Notes like a Rock Star
Reviewing Your Notes
Becoming Engaged in Learning
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

7. Reading to Learn: Learning to Remember 
A Plan for Active Reading
Strategies for Reading Textbooks
Tech Tip: Embrace the E-Book
Monitoring Your Reading
Studying to Understand and Remember
How Memory Works
Improving Your Memory
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

8. Improving Your Performance on Exams and Tests
Getting Prepared for Tests and Exams
Taking Tests and Exams
Types of Tests
Tech Tip: Fear Not the Online Test
Overcoming Test Anxiety
Academic Honesty and Misconduct
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

9. Writing and Speaking Effectively
WRITING
Using Freewriting to Discover What You Want to Say
Tech Tip: Blog for Brilliance
The Writing Process
Choosing the Best Way to Communicate with Your Audience
SPEAKING
Preparing a Speech
Using Your Voice and Body Language
The GUIDE Checklist
Speaking on the Spot
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

10. Developing Library, Research, and Information Literacy Skills
Information Literacy
Choosing, Narrowing, and Researching a Topic
Using the Library
Electronic Resources
Tech Tip: Check Your Engine
Evaluating Sources
Making Use of What You Find
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

11. Appreciating Diversity
Understanding Diversity and the Source of Our Beliefs
Forms of Diversity
Seeking Diversity on Campus
Discrimination, Prejudice, and Insensitivity on College Campuses
Tech Tip: The Case for Volunteering
Challenge Yourself to Experience Diversity
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

12. Managing Your Money
Living on a Budget
Getting Financial Aid
Achieving a Balance between Working and Borrowing
Managing Credit Wisely
Tech Tip: Protect Your Identity
Planning for the Future
Build Your Experience
Where to Go for Help

 

Epilogue: Taking the Next Steps to Success