April 26, 2024
24-43
Jessica Pope
Communications and Media Relations Coordinator
马辅助学习为vs上学生的成功做准备
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美高梅博彩’s new STRIDES (Students Together Reaching Individual Development and Educational Success) Equine-Assisted First-Year Student Experience is designed to help students develop self-awareness, goal-setting strategies, as well as problem-solving, team-building, and communication skills. 在过去的几个星期里，学生们通过一系列的课堂课程和谷仓活动来学习。
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米兰达·艾迪生，学生，带领一匹马通过障碍赛挑战。 
学生劳伦·莫罗在练习套马。 VALDOSTA — 美高梅博彩 is harnessing the wisdom of horses to help students develop the essential skills needed to achieve their educational, professional, and personal goals.
vs上’s new STRIDES (Students Together Reaching Individual Development and Educational Success) Equine-Assisted First-Year Student Experience is designed to help students develop self-awareness, goal-setting strategies, as well as problem-solving, team-building, and communication skills.
“Our hope is that students leave this course with an academic mindset that is growth oriented, wherein they perceive academic challenges as doable with the appropriate strategies,” says Dr. Gwen Scott Ruttencutter, an assistant professor in vs上’s Department of Leadership, Technology, and Workforce Development. “We also want them to develop grittiness in their academic pursuits, wherein they understand that talent is important but focused, hard work is worth twice as much, and agency to take primary responsibility for their own learning.”
Ruttencutter designed the equine-assisted experiential learning opportunity with Dr. Kate Warner, associate dean of vs上’s 詹姆斯L.和多萝西H.杜瓦教育与人类服务学院. 这两位同事热衷于与马一起工作，并帮助学生踏上自我发现之旅，这将使他们更好地理解自己的行为对自己和他人的影响。
“We know that horses are animals with a discerning gift for detecting intention and authenticity in those around them,” Warner says. “They are highly social, super sensitive, and quick to respond to changes in their environment, and they have a strongly attuned sense of awareness. People often describe them as ‘mirrors’ because of their ability to detect human behaviors, emotions, and intentions. Because of this, equine-assisted learning is a valuable tool for helping students develop authenticity, mindfulness, sincerity, assertiveness, effective communication, reliability, and other valuable skills.”
Throughout Spring Semester 2024, Ruttencutter and Warner have led students through a series of classroom-based lessons on campus and barn-based activities at Jacobs’ Ladder Therapeutic Riding Center in Hahira, Georgia. This unconventional class is one built on trust — from student to student, student to horse, and horse to student.
On barn days, the students participate in a variety of non-riding equine-assisted learning activities — grooming and haltering a horse, building an obstacle course and leading a horse through it, observing herd dynamics and equine behavior, and more.
课堂日的重点是讨论阅读和概念，学生们反思他们的马辅助学习活动，并将所有内容与整体学术经历联系起来。 这包括分析他们在未来如何做一些不同的事情。
“This experience has helped me learn to not give up when I feel like a failure,” says Miranda Addison, an elementary education major from Adel, Georgia. “It has taught me to have a growth mindset and not a fixed mindset because I can do anything I put my mind to. It has also taught me to forgive, have confidence in myself and my abilities, and learn from my mistakes.”
Ruttencutter describes another student who was significantly impacted by a horse’s forgiveness during a barn day exercise. 她说，这段经历促使这位学生思考，宽恕和愿意信任他人是她过去一直在努力克服的问题，这可能会对她的大学和生活产生负面影响。
这样的反馈激励着Ruttencutter和Warner寻找方法来扩展他们的项目和他们积极影响学生体验的能力。
“The goal for the class is for first-year students to know, in deep and meaningful ways, that they belong at vs上 and that they have the ability to encounter, overcome, persist, and succeed academically,” Warner says.
“The risk of attrition is highest among students of color and first-generation college students, both of which constitute a substantial portion of vs上’s undergraduate population,” Ruttencutter explains. “This class is one way vs上 is increasing student success through innovation and helping students develop the skills needed to persist in higher education. It’s about more than good grades and high test scores. We want our students to develop the ability to adapt and solve problems, to build healthy relationships and effective communication, to think critically and creatively, and to deal with the demands and challenges of life in healthy ways.”
This course is supported by vs上’s Quality Enhancement Plan Experiential Learning Seed Grant program and endorsed by the QEP’s Experiential Learning Endorsement initiative.
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