SOURCE
Vol. 16
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No. 3
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July 2019
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Maintaining Motivation and Preventing First-Semester Burnout
Ryan Korstange
Finding success in college can be complicated. During their first semester, students face a litany of challenges (some unexpected), including recognizing the structural differences between high school and college, understanding the hidden curriculum, and handling a different academic schedule and workload (Erickson, Peters, & Strommer, 2006; Smith, 2013). Moreover, learning in a postsecondary setting requires high-level and sustained effort over a semester (Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013). A central question, then, is, What can be done to motivate students to complete all the work required of them (curricular and cocurricular) in their first semester?
Middle Tennessee State University
Assistant Professor, University Studies Coordinator, UNIV 1010 and UNIV 2020
Students who enroll in the first-year seminar (FYS) at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) have a one-year retention rate close to 75% (74.5% in 2016-2017; 76.5% in 20172018), nearly matching the university rate as a whole, which was 74% in both 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. However, students who earned a grade of C, D, F, or W in our FYS have a one-year retention rate nearly 40 percentage points lower (37% in both 2016-2017 and 2017-2018). While retention depends on a variety of institutional, academic, and personal factors, these statistics indicate that students who do not complete the FYS with a grade of B or better are significantly less likely to be retained. This article describes a curricular intervention used in two sections of MTSU’s first-year seminar. The modest goals of this intervention were to: (a) remind students of their initial goals for their time in college, (b) normalize conversation about college’s challenging aspects, (c) identify varied challenges that students face, and (d) allow them to dialogue about effective strategies they are using to moderate their burnout and maintain motivation effectively. The intervention took place within an 85-minute synchronous class session in the final third of the semester.
Instructional Design The intervention itself has three phases: priming, categorization, and discussion. In the first phase (priming), because learning becomes more significant in authentic situations (Eyler, 2018), students are asked to explain their motivation for attending college, specific challenges they have experienced thus far, and strategies they have used for motivation. Students have five minutes to answer each of the following prompts on a 3x5 note card or Post-it note. Card 1: Why are you at college? Card 2: One specific challenge you face toward achieving your academic goals. Card 3: Another specific challenge you face toward achieving your academic goals.
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