Preparing for Growth Workbook

This workbook helps new university/college students prepare for growth during their upcoming studies.

It’s a hands-on and thought-provoking workbook that has two parts. In Part A, students consider their growth potential in several areas. These are:

• Knowledge and Learning
• Higher-Order Thinking
• Written Communication
• Verbal Communication
• Teamwork
• Self-Management
• Problem-Solving
• Global Citizenship
• A Growth Area of Your Choice

In Part B, initial growth considerations are reconsidered. Themes covered in this part are: 

• Your Strongest Areas
• Some Improvement Areas
• Your Support Network
• A Year from Now

Available from good booksellers.

ISBN: 978-0-6456794-5-8 

This workbook helps new university/college students prepare for growth during their upcoming studies. Universities and colleges create rich environments for their students to grow. Students must consider the many growth opportunities offered to them and prepare for growth in these areas. It is also important that students do this actively rather than passively. Sitting there being told about growth opportunities is one thing. Reading, thinking, and making entries about them is another. It’s an active approach, reflecting how we want our students to approach their studies.

When students have completed this workbook, they should better understand their upcoming growth journey. They will have looked at a core set of growth opportunities and actively engaged with them. They will have considered their current ability levels and identified those areas where further growth is possible. They will also consider how they have grown in the past and how they might best grow in the coming years.

Ideally, students should complete this workbook before commencing their studies. Following this, they should then be given the opportunity to discuss their answers with other beginning students and institutional staff. These discussions might take place in an orientation session or a first-year class. Asking students to complete their workbook before the session/class also models the type of engagement expected of learners in higher education institutions (i.e., completing pre-work that is ready to be discussed in class).

A unique strength of this workbook is the areas in which students are engaging: graduate attributes. Most universities and colleges have sets of attributes they aim for their students to attain by graduation. This workbook covers attributes relevant to most institutions. Completed workbooks provide institutions with valuable insights into students’ current self-perceived ability levels and future growth confidence.
 

A workbook completed to a satisfactory level provides evidence that a student has considered their graduate attribute development. It makes an excellent early artifact that students can use in later years to reflect upon. It could also serve as an early low-stakes assessment task. The administration and collection of workbooks can also contribute to an institution’s quality assurance processes (e.g., evidence supporting student transition and having Time 1 data points to track development).