Jeanne: The topic of the seminar today is "Problems of the transition from school
to university." The purpose of the seminar is to think of
ways to help students to better cope with their academic work.
Let's start by talking about two problems faced by first-year students.
They are, time management and working in groups. Well, I think that University students seem to have
a lot of 'free' time available and there could be a whole day without any lectures
or seminars So, in other words, university life is sort of
'unstructured' compared to school, we often have to hold discussions and do assignments
in groups which can cause lots of problems for first-year students
I know you have searched for useful materials in the Library
and on websites, so let's see what we've found out
I'd like to start off by asking Dennis to tell us about time management
Dennis: As I see it, the most important thing is to learn
and use organising and time management skills Jenny: I think you're right. The books say
we should make three kinds of timetables such as the
semester planner, the weekly planner and a diary for everyday work ...
Dianne: Go on. Dennis: A semester planner is for things you
must do and don't change such as tests and exams, and assignment due
dates. A weekly planner is for you to put down classes and extra-curricular
activities; while the diary is an action list which you can tck for everyday
work such as pre-lecture readings, homework, and family functions
They help students organise their time in a systematic way
Dianne: To a certain extent, yes, but they are not always helpful
Research shows that it's maybe difficult to stick to planners, like it maybe
difficult to control time in collecting information for
papers and projects. Jeanne: I couldn't agree more. It's hard
to fit in part-time jobs, extra-curricular activities,
and social life with academic (studies). Some social activities just pop up at the last
minute and you feel bad turning down invitations
Dennis: It seems to me that I spend too much time on
'time wasters' such as chats, phone calls, ICQing,
watching TV, browsing the internet, etc. I must learn to say "No".
Jenny: I've got some tips from university websites
and they say we must also learn how to research effectively,
such as, we can attend workshops organised by the library, we could also ask teachers for help outside
class time and even make use of consultation hours. This is important
because we need to do a lot of reading and assignments in a short
time period. Jeanne: Well, we're running out of
time, so, let's move on to the second problem. What's your view on working in groups, Jenny?
Jenny: As I see it, it is a problem because group work requires
communications in different ways, such as face-to-face, phone calls,
and email, which take up a lot of time. Dianne: As far as I'm concerned, the problem
is you need to work with people that you don't know. Group
work is never easy because sometimes, some people are dominating,
others contribute little, very often I find that the time is spent unproductively
and I often feel frustrated. Dennis: I agree with Dianne about knowing
our team members, it's good to get to know our team members,
find out their backgrounds, strengths and interests so we can know what
they like to do and what they are good at, and so we can build a good working
relationship. Jeanne: Well, my readings say that to get
better grades we should clarify assignment requirements such as the purpose
of the project and the skills we need to demonstrate in the project.
Dianne: I think you're right. And after understanding the task,
then we can break them down into subtasks, and see which parts can be
done on our own and what can be done in a group.
Dennis: Then we need to agree on a plan and the deadlines.
Someone should be chosen to take on a leadership role to guide the process.