ABSTRACT
In Freshman Seminar, face-to-face arrangements are necessary, together with the flexibility in subdividing the group that only a room with movable chairs can provide. One-to-one interactions are usually less threatening than a student's participation in the larger group. In a larger group, moreover, an individual member has greater opportunity to remain passive; in a twosome at least some response from the less active member is required. When students report problems involving other people, role playing can help them to see and work on their own behavior. Role playing seems appropriate when other, more traditional ways of understanding a problem lead to a stalemate. The action assignment forges links between what happens within the Seminar class and what happens in the college world outside. It is a necessary counterforce to the protected and non-threatening atmosphere that is often engendered in a Seminar group.
