QUICKLINKS
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LEARNING GOALS How well do our Freshman Seminars accomplish our learning goals for students? What do students think of their Freshman Seminars and Instructors? |
OVERVIEW
In a commitment to enhance the transition experience of University of California, Irvine transfer students, Dean Sharon V. Salinger launched in 2006 an initiative to create a Transfer Seminar Program to parallel the existing Freshman Seminar Program so as to make seminars available to interested upper-division transfer students. These one-unit seminars introduce students to the research university and encourage them to become active participants in intellectual interactions with their peers and professors. With small classes of fifteen students led by Academic Senate and research faculty, the seminars emphasize analysis and communication, and give faculty and students a chance to explore academic topics and new lines of inquiry in a supportive, interactive, and congenial setting. Since these seminars are aimed at upper-division students, they may assume basic disciplinary knowledge and are aimed towards launching new students more quickly into the exciting new environment of the research university. Transfer seminars... • ...are conducted in a small group setting, limited to 15 students. • ...typically meet for one hour a week as one-unit courses. • ...focus on academic topics of interest to the faculty member. • ...center on class discussions of selected readings. • ...expose students to fields of research within their chosen discipline. Faculty participants... • ...share their research and scholarly work with undergraduates in a group setting. • ...explore new lines of inquiry with students as active participants. • ...help students understand the culture of the research university. • ...participate over and above their regular teaching assignments. Student participants... • ...broaden their academic horizons. • ...are introduced to the culture of the research university. • ...learn in a supportive and congenial atmosphere. • ...have close contact with professors and future mentors. • ...develop communication skills through class give-and-take. • ...can, in most cases, receive a letter grade or elect the pass/not pass option. |
Transfer Seminar Program |
