I'll be interested to see the findings from the dorm study too. Back home in the UK it's *not* the norm to share spaces with others in college - to share a bedroom, for example - so I wonder if there's room for some comparative work on cultural expectations around this. (Sharing a room in college always sounded hellish to me!)
Yes, I'd be interested in this too. I think the authors were less concerned about number of people in the bedroom (though that was part of their metric) and more concerned about larger shared spaces ("secondary spaces") like study rooms, common rooms, bathrooms - places where you'd have frequent interactions with larger numbers of people.
Because of spacing issues I myself was assigned to upperclasspeople housing in brownstones when I started college ... I made way fewer friends my first year than others who were in the giant cinderblock warehouse dorms (ha). I think this is also a point in Chambliss' How College Works book/qualitative study....
That makes sense. I lived in a university-owned apartment with four other people my first year. We all had a bedroom, but we shared the bathroom and kitchen. We mostly studied alone. That changed for me after study abroad, because I went abroad with a cohort, and that became my really solid friend group after my first year.
The dorms on my UK campus did have dining halls and study rooms and such, so perhaps that did the trick!
Great post, Sarah, thank you for sharing. Have been thinking myself about the ways that I hope we can redeem friction for our students. I often think about analogies to physical training, which although limited as all analogies are, speak to the idea of progressive overload (and rest!) as essential for growth.
Totally agree that friction gets a bad rap and appreciate the way you explained it here!
I'll be interested to see the findings from the dorm study too. Back home in the UK it's *not* the norm to share spaces with others in college - to share a bedroom, for example - so I wonder if there's room for some comparative work on cultural expectations around this. (Sharing a room in college always sounded hellish to me!)
Yes, I'd be interested in this too. I think the authors were less concerned about number of people in the bedroom (though that was part of their metric) and more concerned about larger shared spaces ("secondary spaces") like study rooms, common rooms, bathrooms - places where you'd have frequent interactions with larger numbers of people.
Because of spacing issues I myself was assigned to upperclasspeople housing in brownstones when I started college ... I made way fewer friends my first year than others who were in the giant cinderblock warehouse dorms (ha). I think this is also a point in Chambliss' How College Works book/qualitative study....
That makes sense. I lived in a university-owned apartment with four other people my first year. We all had a bedroom, but we shared the bathroom and kitchen. We mostly studied alone. That changed for me after study abroad, because I went abroad with a cohort, and that became my really solid friend group after my first year.
The dorms on my UK campus did have dining halls and study rooms and such, so perhaps that did the trick!
Great post, Sarah, thank you for sharing. Have been thinking myself about the ways that I hope we can redeem friction for our students. I often think about analogies to physical training, which although limited as all analogies are, speak to the idea of progressive overload (and rest!) as essential for growth.
Totally agree that friction gets a bad rap and appreciate the way you explained it here!
Yes! Responded in more depth to your Note, thanks for sharing.