A Farewell from Dr. Christina Hardin

A Farewell from Dr. Christina Hardin

Dr. Christina Hardin

Serving as editor of the E-Source for College Transitions newsletter these past four years has been a great personal and professional pleasure. I have had the honor of working with many great and cooperative writers and am grateful for their contributions to the study of first- and second-year college experience and transition programs, courses, faculty, and students. The body of research surrounding student transition to college is ever-expanding, and the work by our community is very important to continued student success.

As the new generation of students, whom Twenge (2017) calls the iGeneration (iGen) because of their heavy reliance on all things technology, grows and transitions into college, discovering new models of excellence in teaching and learning will be integral to their success. Expanding research in educational psychology that focuses on iGen’s academic behaviors, expectations, and learning styles highlights the dramatic changes in these students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for learning (Twenge, 2017). Special attention should be paid to the connections between iGen’s beliefs about learning, their expectations for learning, and the environments in which they learn. Additionally, teaching and learning practices in the first and second year of college will need to evolve in order to support this generation of students. I am encouraged by the contributions to E-Source that describe efforts to improve students’ learning environments, and I look forward to seeing continued work in this area.

I want to thank the team at the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, specifically Tracy Skipper and Todd Money, for their support and dedication to me, the E-Source newsletter, and its readership. The three of us worked together as a seamless team, and I am very appreciative for such a great support system. I also want to thank the E-Source review board members. The rotating members of this board, which was created three years ago, worked closely with me to provide constructive feedback and guidance to contributing authors. I am grateful for their time and hard work to ensure that manuscripts submitted to E-Source were relevant and focused.

I look forward to a continued partnership with the National Resource Center and am encouraged by the number of faculty, staff, and administrators whose dedication to students continues to grow and expand the first-year experience and students in transition network.

Reference

Twenge, J. M. (2017). iGen: Why today’s superconnected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy—and completely unprepared for adulthood—and what that means for the rest of us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Contact

Christina Hardin chardin1@valenciacollege.edu