The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 87

Current Practices in Resident Assistant Training

. . . effective teaching involves
more than information transfer or
knowledge dumping and . . .
requires significant learning
goals linked with feedback
and assessment activities and
sequenced teaching and learning
activities.

topics were included in most academic courses:
community development, peer helping and
counseling skills, communication skills, leadership, and time management, In contrast, six
topics-leadership, conflict resolution, ethics
and professionalism, goal setting, history
of residence life, and homesickness-were
included more frequently in RA academic
courses today than at the time of Bowman and
Bowman's (1995) study. Additionally, there
was a decline in covering seven topics in RA
academic courses: alcohol use/abuse, programming and event planning, racism and
diversity, sexual assault, assertiveness, drug
use/abuse, and hall government advising.
Four topics were rarely included in current
academic courses: active shooter response, fire
safety, gambling, and hazing. In sum, it seems
that the focus of academic courses for RAs has
expanded from improving "interpersonal skills
so that RAs can help students with complex
issues" (Bowman & Bowman, 1995, p. 45) to
enhancing employment-related competencies-such as ethics, professionalism, conflict

resolution, and assertiveness-while continuing to introduce RAs to a broad range of issues
facing college students.

Teaching methods. In their study of academic RA courses, Bowman and Bowman
(1995) found that "respondents indicated a
variety of teaching modalities" (p. 42) including lecture, discussion, role plays, and experiential exercises. The present study explored
how often, if at all, respondents reported use
of 14 engaging teaching methods recommended by Fink (2003). Comparing Bowman
and Bowman's (1995) findings to those of
this study (Table 2) revealed that instructors
most frequently use two traditional teaching
methods-lecture and discussion-as well as
role plays, games, or simulations. Participants
reported occasional use of several engaging
teaching methods: case studies; guest speakers; reflective essays (i.e., blogs, written or
video journals); book or online reading assignments; watching videos, DVDs, or YouTube
clips; peer presentations; or observation. Respondents indicated that field trips, service
learning, and podcasts were rarely used in RA
academic courses.

Pre-Service RA Training
In this study, pre-service RA training, or what
Bowman and Bowman (1998) called retreatbased training, was defined as a single to
multi-day intensive experience occurring immediately prior to the start of the RA experience. A majority of survey participants (70%,
n = 236) responded to questions about the
content and teaching methods used in their
pre-service RA training.

Content. Study respondents indicated that
their pre-service training focused on several
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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