Research supports something we know through experience: right around week three, The Honeymoon Is Over for our students. Excitements starts to wear off, reality sets in, and the pressures start mounting. Zeller and Mosier (1993) discuss the “W Curve” regarding the first-year experience for college students, and they call that difficult phase around weeks three and four “Culture Shock.”
From the Journal of College and University Student Housing, Volume 23, No. 2, 1993. “Culture Shock and The First‐Year Experience” by William J. Zeller and Robert Mosier.
Though this research is from nearly thirty years ago, but faculty can attest to the ongoing truth of this research: excitement wears off, and things get tough. Therefore, we have Professional Fluency Week positioned every semester in Week Four.
The idea is to help students. Professionalism is one of LSC’s College-Wide Outcomes, so Professional Fluency week is an opportunity to remind them of the cultural norms that exist generally on our campus regarding professional behaviors generally, and more specifically, in your classrooms. We agree to not only talk about this but teach it because it can help students navigate on campus and beyond, into the working world.
View the Professional Fluency Instructors Packet.
