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Understanding Your College Experience
Third Edition| ©2020 John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye
Understanding Your College Experience addresses the needs of the widest possible range of students through its content coverage and organization, assessment, and design. Informed by decades of research on the first-year experience, the author team provides students who need the most supp...
Understanding Your College Experience addresses the needs of the widest possible range of students through its content coverage and organization, assessment, and design. Informed by decades of research on the first-year experience, the author team provides students who need the most support with the practical help necessary to flourish academically, personally, and professionally. Now available in Macmillan Learning’s online course solution, Achieve, with a 2024 Digital Update featuring the latest research, expanded coverage, and new activities on learning science, mental health, and test-taking strategies and tools.
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ISBN:9781319107475
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Because every student counts.
Understanding Your College Experience addresses the needs of the widest possible range of students through its content coverage and organization, assessment, and design. Informed by decades of research on the first-year experience, the author team provides students who need the most support with the practical help necessary to flourish academically, personally, and professionally. Now available in Macmillan Learning’s online course solution, Achieve, with a 2024 Digital Update featuring the latest research, expanded coverage, and new activities on learning science, mental health, and test-taking strategies and tools.
Features
- New Achieve course space that supports teaching and learning. Achieve for Understanding Your College Experience, Third Edition, is an online course solution that integrates seamlessly with learning management systems. Available standalone or packaged, Achieve contains powerful learning content, quality assessments, and insights and analytics. Available for 2024, new Digital Updates will be available, providing the latest research and expanded coverage on topics such as learning science, mental health, and test-taking strategies and tools.
- The latest research on the First Year Experience. Combining the practical experience of the authors’ extensive careers teaching and directing this course with decades of research, this book contains the latest information available on the First Year Experience.
- A book tailor-made for students who need the most support. Content easily engages linear readers with the following features:
- Language and a reading level appropriate for first-year students, with helpful reading strategies throughout.
- Concise chapters that focus solely on the essential topics for college success. All figures, tables, and data reflect the reality of facing today’s busy, diverse student body.
- Coverage of campus involvement that emphasizes the increased student retention linked with joining extracurricular activities and study groups and encourages students to consider such activities when planning their schedules.
- A clean design that helps students understand key concepts. Systematic headings and color-coding guide students through each chapter. Figures and charts appear in close proximity to the related text so students can make visual connections, and are placed to ease reading flow.
- Organization and coverage that will work for your students—and your classes. The book’s 12 streamlined chapters make it easy to cover in a single term all topics typically taught in the first-year course.
- Models—including digital models—that let students see principles in action. Realistic examples of time management schedules, textbook annotation, note-taking, and other strategies for academic success allow students to learn by example.
- Carefully crafted learning tools, such as Tech Tips, that keep students engaged. Tech Tips ask students to apply the technology expertise they likely already have in an academic setting. These tools help students develop skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and organization.
New to This Edition
2024 Updates - New/updated Achieve features and resources are available for this title:
- New content modules on test-taking and study strategies, mental health, and learning science
- The Summer 2024 Digital Update introduces three new instructor activity guides designed to reinforce and expand upon the skills in Achieve’s goal-setting and reflection surveys, alongside an instructor guide on how to use the survey results to engage students in meaningful conversations about their goals.
- The Fall 2024 Digital Update introduces a module featuring video activities focused on the benefits and limitations of AI and student success, fostering awareness and ethical considerations around AI use.
You can access this new content through your existing Achieve course — no need to create a new one.
New! Achieve courseware for Understanding Your College Experience sets the standard for driving student learning in your college success course with powerful learning content, engaging activities, and actionable insights and analytics. Achieve brings together an interactive e-textbook, LearningCurve adaptive quizzing and other assessments and activities, plus extensive instructor resources–all within a new, enhanced technology platform carefully built over the past five years. In order to support students’ self-regulated learning and success, Achieve includes Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys. This series of quick, actionable pre-built surveys is designed to get students to set goals for themselves and reflect on their learning throughout the semester.
- An increased emphasis on career development and accessing career opportunities. This third edition empowers students to access the information and resources they’ll need to make their college experience fulfilling and meaningful, make good choices, and set themselves on a successful career path.
- Chapter 1 now spotlights career coverage right up front, including a discussion of career pathways and a subsection on how self-understanding enables career exploration.
- Each chapter includes a new "Develop Your Career Story" activity, which empowers students to develop their professional selves and access career opportunities. These activities help to scaffold the often-difficult tasks students are asked to do when writing resumes or going on interviews, such as reporting on their strengths or weaknesses, summarizing their skills and interests, or describing a time they overcame adversity. Each activity provides students with a key building block to their professional portfolio, so that by the end of Chapter 12, students will have worked toward developing the confidence and skills to get the most out of their career center resources, land an internship, and pursue a successful career.
- A fully redesigned opener that begins each chapter. Openers touch on each of the three main areas that are important to students—college, life, and career—and spotlight concrete ways that upcoming material is relevant and useful. Each opener features:
- A colorful, full-page photo
- An "In this chapter…" section that highlights chapter coverage and includes reflection questions to help students connect with the chapter topics
- Interesting statistics on both academics and the workplace, as well as an inspirational quote about life, perseverance, and the human experience.
- New Midterm Check-In feature. This new feature, which is located immediately after Chapter 6 (roughly in the middle of the term), is designed to help students stay on track and recognize the necessary interventions they may need to take to finish the term successfully. On the first page of the feature, students receive tips to help them finish strong, and on the second page, they complete specific activities based on these tips to set themselves up for success.
- Key content updates keep this edition current, engaging, and relatable for students. Specific updates include the following:
- A reorganized section on time-management techniques in Chapter 3, plus new coverage of locus of control, the importance of attending college now rather than later, and an expanded discussion of working versus borrowing.
- A revised and expanded "Become Engaged in Learning" section in Chapter 5 that includes a new assessment asking students to reflect on their level of engagement in learning.
- An expanded section on previewing in Chapter 6, which includes a new Table 6.1 that helps students estimate how long their reading will take.
- A new discrete subsection in Chapter 8 on how to reduce the likelihood of problems with academic honesty.
- A retitled Chapter 9 (now "Developing Information Literacy and Communication Skills") that better emphasizes the two main topics being addressed in the chapter.
- New illustrative photos and earlier examples of how students use critical thinking in their everyday lives in Chapter 10, which help to demystify an otherwise abstract concept.
- New wellness coverage in Chapter 11 on prescription drugs, vaping, and anxiety; and new and updated diversity coverage on nationality and citizenship, sex and gender, and microaggressions.
Updated sections in Chapter 12 on the characteristics of today’s economy, developing the right mindset, planning for your career, and marketability
"I really like the broad range of topics covered here, including the study skills, the career planning, and the topics surrounding motivation and emotional intelligence. Ive taught success classes for thirty years and every topic I like to address is included here.
—Melanie C. Martel, NHTI, Concord’s Community College
"The book is well written and can be easily understood by students of differing academic levels. The content is current and relevant."
—Pamela Bilton Beard, Houston Community College
![Cover: Understanding Your College Experience, 3rd Edition by John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319107437.jpg)
Understanding Your College Experience
Third Edition| ©2020
John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye
Digital Options
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Achieve
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E-book
Read online (or offline) with all the highlighting and notetaking tools you need to be successful in this course.
![Cover: Understanding Your College Experience, 3rd Edition by John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319107437.jpg)
Understanding Your College Experience
Third Edition| 2020
John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye
Table of Contents
Part One: WELCOME TO YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE
1: The Essentials for College Success
The College Experience
Exploring Purpose and Setting Goals
Self-Exploration and Career Planning
Academic Planning
Making the Transition by Connecting with Others
2: Cultivating Motivation, Resilience, and Emotional Intelligence
The Importance of Motivation, Attitude, and Mindset
Resilience and Grit
Understanding Emotional Intelligence
3: Managing Time, Energy, and Money
Managing Your Time
Managing Your Energy
Managing Your Money
4: Discovering How You Learn
How People Learn
The VARK Inventory
The Myers−Briggs Type Indicator
Multiple Intelligences
When Learning Preferences and Teaching Methods Conflict
Learning with a Learning Disability or Challenge
Part Two: SUCCEEDING IN COLLEGE
5: Getting the Most Out of Class
Become Engaged in Learning
Prepare for Class
Participate in Class
Take Effective Notes
6: Reading to Learn from College Textbooks
A Plan for Active Reading
Strategies for Reading Different Kinds of Textbooks
Improving Your Reading
Midterm Check In
Introduction
Mid-Term Check In Audit
7: Studying, Understanding, and Remembering
Studying in College: Making Choices and Concentrating
How Memory Works
Improving Your Memory
Studying to Understand and Remember
8: Taking Tests Successfully
Getting Ready . . .
Taking the Test
Types of Tests
Types of Questions
Test Anxiety
Academic Honesty and Misconduct
9: Developing Information Literacy and Communication Skills
Information Literacy
Choosing, Narrowing, and Researching a Topic
Using the Library
Evaluating Sources
Using Your Research in Writing
The Writing Process
Using Your Research in Presentations
Part Three: YOUR PATH TO SUCCESS IN COLLEGE AND BEYOND
10: Thinking in College
College-Level Thinking
Developing Strong Thinking Skills
Applying Your Critical-Thinking Skills
Bloom’s Taxonomy and the First Year of College
11: Maintaining Wellness and Relationships in a Diverse World
Understanding Wellness
Managing Your Relationships
Thriving in Diverse Environments
12: Making the Right Career Choice
Careers and the New Economy
Planning for Your Career
Getting Experience
Job Search Strategies
Skills Employers Seek
Staying on the Path to Success
![Cover: Understanding Your College Experience, 3rd Edition by John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319107437.jpg)
Understanding Your College Experience
Third Edition| 2020
John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye
Authors
![Headshot of John N. Gardner](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/16170191.jpg)
John N. Gardner
![Headshot of Betsy O. Barefoot](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/16170196.jpg)
Betsy O. Barefoot
![Headshot of Kimberly A. Koledoye](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/800000347.jpg)
Kimberly A. Koledoye
![Cover: Understanding Your College Experience, 3rd Edition by John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319107437.jpg)
Understanding Your College Experience
Third Edition| 2020
John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye
Instructor Resources
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Test Bank for Understanding Your College Experience (Online Only)
John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye | Third Edition | ©2020 | ISBN:9781319263157
The Computerized Test Bank contains more than 700 multiple-choice, true/false, short-answer, and essay questions designed to assess students’ understanding of key concepts. A midterm and final exam are also included, and all questions are accompanied by feedback.
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![Cover: Understanding Your College Experience, 3rd Edition by John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319107437.jpg)
Understanding Your College Experience
Third Edition| 2020
John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye
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