First-year Transition in Teacher Education: The Pod Experience

Research on student retention and transition in higher education has been an ongoing focus since the 1950s and during the past decade research into this area has gathered momentum as institutions of higher education increasingly recognise the economic and social costs of failing to retain and transition future graduates. Measures to improve transition and retention rates have generally focused on developing strategies to engage students in their studies and tertiary discourses by providing institutional, academic and/or social support. In this paper we discuss ‘Pods’ as an effective and innovative approach to transitioning first-year pre-service teacher education students in regional Victoria. This paper argues that students’ sense of connectedness is greatly enhanced through the grouping of students into Pods in order to promote social and academic engagement and a sense of belonging.