The benefits of student engagement in diversity experiences on a range of college outcomes have been well documented. However, the potential influence of involvement in diversity experiences during college on the cognitive and intellectual outcomes of post-secondary education is only beginning to be understood. Gurin et al. (2002) made a…

This study analyzes longitudinal data from 17 four-year institutions in the United States to determine how the distinctive instructional and learning environment of American liberal arts colleges accounts for the positive impact of liberal arts college attendance on four-year growth in critical thinking skills and need for cognition. We find that,…

The current paper used data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education--a longitudinal, pretest/posttest design--to estimate the effects of participation in the ten "high-impact" educational practices put forth and endorsed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) on a variety of liberal arts…

Over the last several decades student affairs and assessment scholars who study college impact have utilized a number of different research design and statistical procedures in an attempt to control for the characteristics and propensities that lead students to self-select themselves into a particular intervention or experience. This is…

The publication of Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's influential new book, "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses," the findings of which were summarized in an article by the same authors in the March/April "Change," has caused a national furor centering around their multi-institutional findings that the…

Regarding collegiate experiences, several studies have examined the effects of diversity experiences on educational, psychosocial, and other college outcomes (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). However, there exists a limited body of research, which has focused on the impact of those types of experiences on leadership development among students…

This study applies an integrated model of college choice to better describe students who do and do not intend to study abroad. Although internationalization through study abroad is widely touted as a preferred means of developing globally competent college graduates, very little is known about the factors that influence students' predisposition to…

Despite substantial efforts across postsecondary education to increase minority participation in study abroad, the homogeneity of study abroad participants remains largely unchanged (Dessoff in Int Educ 15(2):20-27, 2006; Shih in http://diverseeducation.com/article/13193/study-abroad-participation-up-except-among-minority-students.html, 2009).…

The research literature on how college affects students is expanding at an exponential rate. This paper identifies and discusses ten directions for future research on college impact that have the potential to enhance the quality and importance of the evidence produced.

This paper demonstrates that pretest-posttest designs provide more information than is commonly assumed. What is typically overlooked is that even when the posttest is the outcome measure, such designs also reveal if different interventions or experiences account for variations in pretest-posttest gains. (Contains 12 references.) (GCP)

With statistical controls in place for confounding influences, students' involvement in diversity experiences during college had statistically significant positive effects on their scores on an objective, standardized measure of critical thinking skills. However, different diversity experiences influenced critical thinking for students in…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the interactive effects of prior mathematics preparation and instructional method on achievement in an introductory calculus course taught by both Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) and conventional approaches. Subjects were 248 university students, 60 from the self-paced method and 188 from…

Used data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program national surveys of a national sample of college students to examine impact of intercollegiate athletic participation for Black (n=290) and White (n=1,716) American men. Found that athletics had a positive impact on social involvement, interpersonal and leadership skills, and motivation…

Increasingly higher education is confronted with the task of educating a population of students whose entry aptitudes and skills have grown more heterogeneous. Perhaps nowhere is this diversity of abilities more apparent, and at the same time more difficult to deal with, than in courses in introductory calculus. This paper outlines an experimental…

Summarizes findings from the National Study of Student Learning (NSSL), including findings that challenge conventional wisdom and findings that, in part, support it. Considers the findings' implications for faculty and administrators. Includes sidebars describing the design and conduct of the NSSL and listing other publications addressing NSSL…