First-Year Students

Ten Tips for Success in Teaching First-Year-College Students

  • Understand your students
  • Clarify your objectives
  • Attend to the first class
  • Establish a climate for learning
  • Abandon the non-stop lecture
  • Involve students with varied activities
  • Provide opportunities for reflection
  • Take risks
  • Include upper-class students
  • Develop a support group

Strommer, D.W. (1999) Teaching first-year college students: ten tips for success. In M.S. Hunter & T.L. Skipper (Eds) Soild Foundations, Building success for first-year seminars through training and development (Monograph No.29)(pp.39-52). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.

Additional Information on First-Year Students