The Intentionally Structured Group Freshman Seminar: A Collaborative Model.

A model using intentionally structured groups in freshman seminars is discussed. Collaborative efforts among academic departments and student affairs practitioners can enhance students' academic and intellectual development. Additionally, a rationale for how collaboration offers special opportunities for promoting positive educational and developmental experiences for both faculty and student affairs staff members is presented. Using collaborative methods, such as the one outlined in this article, offers diversity in classroom instructional presentations and assists student affairs practitioners with programs designed to nurture student development. Collaboration among academic departments is an idea long espoused but seldom practiced on most college and university campuses. Joint efforts provide opportunities whereby "scholar-practitioners are constructing their own knowledge about student and teacher learning, teacher education, school change, and applied research methods. They are developing theory in practice" (Stoddart, 1993, p. 19). A major advantage includes the merging of expertise and perspectives by a variety of professionals. Although collaboration can expand the arena for discussing "ideas, texts, pedagogy, and the meaning and purpose of higher education" (Moseley, 1992, p. 12), it is not an uncomplicated process. Providing a rich, comprehensive, academic experience for an increasingly diversified student population requires that academic administrators and faculty work together, often using multidisciplinary approaches and innovative methods. Not only can interdepartmental collaboration result in enhanced educational opportunities for students, it provides advantages for participating faculty as well. Benefits include increased intellectual stimulation, opportunities to acquire new skills, and achievement of a sense of shared community. Difficulties arise, however, when professors are asked to use teaching methods with which they have no experience or are contradictory to approaches they have used in the past (Stoddart, 1993). Collaboration, to be effective, demands that academic administrators be supportive and encouraging of its use. Such support includes granting financial assistance, hiring additional personnel, allocating faculty time to collaborative efforts, and providing incentives for faculty collaboration (Moseley, 1992). Cooperation can best be achieved when all parties have a common desire to work through the scheduling and policy differences that almost certainly will arise. Most importantly, those involved must share a mutual vision of the outcome potential (Stoddart, 1993). Although faculty collaboration within academic departments is sometimes difficult, it will likely be even more problematic when implemented across academic departments and disciplines. Nevertheless, several collaborative programs do exist. Kochenour et al. (1997) discussed an academic support program called Supplemental Instruction. This program was designed to enhance student learning, expand student academic development, and form collaborative relationships among faculty and academic departments. The Supplemental Instruction program, which used student peers, focused on college freshmen and their learning communities. Further, the program focused on high risk courses rather than on high risk students. Another collaborative program was the Learning Communities Model, "designed to foster a collaborative environment that involves students in their own learning" (Levine, 1998, p. 22). This model required faculty to think differently about teaching, incorporate collaborative learning activities, and redesign courses. The impetus for successful collaborative partnerships was the result of senior administrators' support and validation coupled with the knowledge and skills of faculty and student development personnel (Engstrom & Tinto, 1997). According to Picklesimer and Miller (1998), "academic courses designed to facilitate relevant skill development are limited in scope and given low priority in the higher education community" (p. …