This study, aimed at supporting the work of assessing college students' spiritual formation in Christian higher education, looked at relevant empirical studies from psychology of religion and higher education student development. The review of the literature allowed the researcher to identify findings about college students' religiousness and…

Academic advising has been researched and linked to student retention and completion in numerous studies. New state initiatives, legislative funding pressure, and financial aid changes have increased pressure on accurate, timely, and intrusive advising to increase timely graduation and student success. As academic advising played a vital role in…

This conceptual model emerged from the need to balance multiple purposes and perspectives associated with developing an ePortfolio designed to promote student development and success. A comprehensive review of literature from various disciplines, theoretical frameworks, and scholarship, including self-authorship, reflection, ePortfolio pedagogy,…

I have worked with students at-risk for the greater majority of my career. The term has a number of meanings. Officially, it means they are at-risk of failing, but often the risks are much greater. At one extreme they are at-risk of losing their lives to substance abuse or suicide. Less drastically they are at-risk of making their way through the…

Beyond the traditional notions of intelligence and academic achievement, the successful development of noncognitive or "soft" skills (e.g., personality factors, motivation, creativity) among school-aged youth represents an important objective for any educational system. Such skills have been shown to be significantly predictive of…

The purpose of this study was to describe and examine a model for assessing student learning through reflection in service-learning courses. This model utilized a course-embedded process to frame, facilitate, support, and assess students' depth of learning and critical thinking. Student reflection products in two service-learning courses (a…

This article describes the development of a systematic and practical methodology for assessing program effectiveness and monitoring student development in undergraduate decision sciences programs. The model we present is based on a student's progression through learning stages associated with four key competencies: technical, analytical,…

It is understandable that parents, policy makers, educators, etc. want to know how schools are functioning. Extensive resources are expended on the educational enterprise and it is only reasonable that the impact of those resources be determined. However, determining the amount of change in students' skills and knowledge is not easy. Further,…

Reviews strengths and weaknesses of value-added model of outcomes assessment in higher education. Explores important measurement issues that student development specialists who are currently involved in assessment may confront. Makes recommendations for researchers choosing the value-added outcomes assessment model. (NB)

An unfolding model was selected for the scores on the Scale of Intellectual Development to take into account that, for stage-based instruments, agreement with a statement first increases as the student approaches the stage represented by the statement, then decreases as the student progresses beyond that stage. (Contains 21 references.) (Author)

Students often arrive at universities ill-prepared for the reflective practice needed to derive maximum benefits from a Freshman Seminar. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, portfolio projects are semester-long assignments in which the portfolio serves as a capstone activity to help freshmen more thoroughly analyze their first year…

An experience involving graduate students enrolled in a student development preparation program in the direct assessment of undergraduate students' psychological development is described. Two views of student development found in the literature are presented and results of assessment procedures are presented along these lines. Generally, data…

This article is concerned with the complex role played by student assessment in the formation of the human subjects that are the product of higher education. Using a framework informed by the work of Foucault, it explores the productive effects of assessment regimes. Drawing on narrative data collected during in-depth, semi-structured interviews…

Presented here is volume one of a catalog developed by the Toledo, Ohio Public Schools and the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University and designed as a tool for the evaluation of student growth and learning. The introduction and preface provide information concerning the development and use of these materials which are said to be…

The focus of this paper is the effect of teachers' expectations for their students on their own behavior, on the classroom environment, and on learning. Literature is reviewed and integrated, and an assessment system for matching individual students with learning environments is presented. Section one reviews literature on the following topics:…