First-Year Seminar | University of Houston-Clear Lake

First-Year Seminar | University of Houston-Clear Lake
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First-Year Seminar
First-Year Seminar
In this section
Common Reader
The First-Year Seminar is crucial to the UHCL experience.
PSYC 1100 and PSYC 1300 Learning Frameworks (First-Year Seminar) are courses designed
to promote the intellectual readiness that ensures students thrive in college.
Seminar students and faculty engage in a shared process of inquiry around the broad,
interdisciplinary topic of
civic engagement
in a learning community combined with a core curriculum course. Through their investigation
of this topic, students are explicitly taught how to engage in skilled critical thinking.
By attaching these critical thinking skills to real world problems, students become
convinced of the importance of critical thinking to their own educations and lives.
These small seminar-style classes are taught by experienced faculty who use varied
and engaging pedagogies to help students make the transition to academic life at UHCL.
Faculty achieve this objective by developing creative and critical thinking abilities,
cultivating effective communication skills, and introducing students to a variety
of research tools.
The Seminar also promotes intellectual readiness by helping students build and find
the resources which will enable them to overcome the challenges they may face as students,
by providing many opportunities to make connections with faculty and other students,
by discovering the wide range of resources UHCL provides its students, and by becoming
active members of the university and local community.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I take this course?
Learning Frameworks is unique to UHCL and prepares you to be successful here. Unlike
some other colleges and universities, where it is taught primarily as a study skills
course, our course is designed to make you an active learner, a critical thinker and
a good researcher. You will also learn how to take advantage of the resources available
at UHCL so that you have the support to meet any challenge you face on your road to
graduation.
Do I have to take the Seminar?
Students take PSYC 1100 or PSYC 1300 during their first year at UHCL as a required
part of the core curriculum. However, some students have taken a course that will
complete this requirement at another institution—Ask your academic advisor.
Who will my professor be?
UHCL dedicates its resources to having full-time faculty, recognized as excellent
teachers, teach this course. Anne Gessler, Ph.D., a cultural historian who researches
grassroots cooperative organizations, is the director of the First-Year Seminar Program
and full-time instructor for the course. Wanalee Romero, Ph.D., a literary scholar
who researches Latina women writers, is the other full-time faculty member. Additional
faculty are recruited as needed from other university programs in a selective process
that ensures a lively and engaging classroom with quality instruction.
What will I do in the Learning Frameworks course?
In the Seminar, you will learn what the commonly used phrase "critical thinking" actually
means and how to really do it. You'll use your new knowledge of critical thinking
to engage in articulate discussions of each year's UHCL Common Reader. You’ll learn
how researchers build knowledge by having conversations with each other through scholarly
publications and how to become part of these conversations. You'll build relationships
with a core group of peers and have access to students who have been successful at
UHCL. Most of all, you'll learn why a university education is valuable and how to
make the most of it.
Learning Frameworks Faculty
Learning Frameworks is taught by faculty who work full-time in the program. Also,
guest faculty are selected from different programs in the University who teach sections
of the course. These guest faculty members are recognized for their scholarship, exemplary
teaching, and innovative approaches in the classroom.First Year Seminar Peer Mentors
Anne Gessler
Anne Gessler
Director of First-Year Seminar Program; Coordinator of UHCL Common Reader Program;
Clinical Associate Professor of First-Year Seminar, Humanities, and Women’s and Gender
Studies,
Human Sciences and Humanities
Contact number:
281-283-3471
Email:
gessler@uhcl.edu
Office:
Bayou 2121.03
Anne Gessler Faculty Bio
Wanalee Romero
Wanalee Romero
Clinical Associate Professor, Director of First-Year Seminar Program, Director of
Women's and Gender Studies,
Human Sciences and Humanities
Contact number:
281-283-3423
Email:
romero@uhcl.edu
Office:
Bayou 1508.10
Wanalee Romero Faculty Bio
First Year Seminar Peer Mentors
To model a path of student success though which incoming students will develop a deep
understanding of and appreciation for university life. We strive to create, through
our encouragement and support, a safe environment in which our mentees can thrive.
We are guides who encourage our mentees to take risks, reach out for support services,
build new skills, explore new ideas, and forge new identities. We believe that our
mentees have much to teach us and that our eagerness to learn with our mentees, as
partners, will empower them with the confidence to become our community’s next generation
of leaders and mentors.
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