Montana State University associate education professor Tricia Seifert has spent the majority of her professional academic career studying the experiences students have while attending college and the role the college environment plays in facilitating students’ learning, growth, development and, ultimately, success.

As part of her research, Seifert – who came to MSU in 2014 – has asked hundreds of high school students about their questions and concerns related to higher education. Many of the students with whom she has spoken – students from both inside and outside Montana, and from schools both large and small – have anxieties about college, she said. Those anxieties range a gamut.

“Many students – even those who live in Bozeman – are worried about living away from home, without their parents,” noted Seifert, who also serves as head of the Department of Education in the College of Education, Health and Human Development. She added that students often have questions about how to choose a major, if they’re choosing the right major, how to finance college and what to do when they’re homesick.

Many students also are unsure how to navigate the support systems available to them through their colleges and universities, Seifert said. What she refers to as the “hidden curriculum” of higher educational institutions can be baffling, particularly for students who are the first in their family to attend college.

What she has found, Seifert said, is that there is room to provide additional information to help students learn to navigate college life and tap into the support that is available to them.

Seifert will discuss her research findings and her current work developing methods to address students’ anxieties and help them succeed when she delivers the fourth lecture in this year’s Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Series at MSU. The lecture, “Re-defining Success: An Important Quest for Students and the Academy,” will be given at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the Museum of the Rockies’ Hager Auditorium. It is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow.

Early in her career, Seifert said she was particularly interested in colleges’ and universities’ organizational culture.
“Students rarely realize campuses are their own cities, with their own culture, organizational structure, rules, norms and values,” she said. “They don’t know necessarily how to navigate that hidden curriculum. … I was interested how students and staff and faculty and senior leaders at institutions would describe how they are organized and who works together to support student success on their campus.”

In the process of listening to students and collecting data, Seifert noticed that many students talked about how they learned about programs and services available to support them through friends and in moments of crisis. It was concerning that the students weren’t aware of those support services earlier, or in other ways, Seifert said.

“We have hundreds of people throughout MSU who work in (student support) offices and are there to help students,” Seifert said. “But still, oftentimes students will say, ‘I didn’t know that existed.’ It’s part of the hidden curriculum.”

And, that hidden curriculum can have a large effect on students’ ability to stay in college, their success while in school and their job prospects after college, Seifert said.

Now, after years of researching how organizational structure affects students’ success, Seifert said she is beginning to develop tools to help students succeed.

“Simply understanding what questions those high school students have is not sufficient,” Seifert said. “My work now is in developing interventions to address those questions.”

One of the tools Seifert is developing is a mobile-enhanced website designed for parents that provides easy-to-find information. The idea behind the website is that when a student encounters a challenge at college, the first person that student calls for help is one of their parents.

“We want to have an easy, quick, at-your-fingertips way for parents to find ways to help their son or daughter,” Seifert said. “If their son or daughter is having a hard time in classes, they could click on a link that says ‘succeeding in college classes,’ and it will show all of the resources that the student can check out.”

A second resource Seifert is developing is a game to help students learn about college’s so-called hidden curriculum.
“This game takes real-life challenges that we know first-year students experience,” she said. “The vision is that it will become a space where students will play, fail, learn, play the game again, and grow. The game will help those students learn about the hidden curriculum when the stakes are low.”

Three MSU computer science students enrolled in Software Factory, a senior capstone course, developed a prototype of the game last year. Seifert praised the students’ work.

“What these students did was so tremendous,” she said. “They taught themselves how to develop games from scratch. Because of their work I now have (a prototype) to share with a potential funder.”

College of Education, Health and Human Development Dean Alison Harmon said Seifert brings unique and valuable experience in higher education to MSU.

“Dr. Seifert views student success through a broader lens that many of us have in the past, and her ideas have the potential to change the MSU college experience and to foster student resilience and growth,” Harmon said. “It is a privilege to work with her in the capacity of an EHHD faculty member and also as the academic leader of the Department of Education.”

Carrie Myers, an associate professor in the Department of Education, noted that Seifert is an internationally recognized researcher who is well-regarded for her “tireless work ethic, forward-thinking, collaborative energies, and integrity as a scholar and researcher.

“She is known for her innovative and cutting-edge approaches, rigorous use of complex research methodologies, translation of empirical findings to meaningful practice, and integrity, passion and zest that she brings to all of her professional commitments,” Myers said. “She is one of those rare scholars who can balance idealism with pragmatism to promote change and affect policy and practices that have significant impacts on how colleges create conditions to improve the student experience."

The Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Series recognizes faculty distinguished at MSU for their scholarship and creativity. Faculty members presenting during the series will reflect on the inspirations for their work in lectures suited for professionals and lay people alike.

For more information, contact the MSU Office of the Provost at 406-994-4371 or provost@montana.edu.