The college marching band provides students with opportunities that foster student development, defined as the personal growth and identity development of students due to environmental factors in higher education. However, previous research has not focused on the role of college marching band participation in student development. The goal of this…

First-year seminars (FYS) are well-tested and trusted programs to facilitate students' transition to college. This study adds to the body of evidence about the value of seminars through analysis of a large multi-institution dataset and documentation of the positive association between participation in a first-year seminar and student engagement in…

High-impact practices in education can have a transformative influence on students' educational growth and personal development; however, research suggests that not all students participate in these educationally purposeful activities. Some institutions have integrated high-impact-practice programs into the curriculum to center these opportunities…

This study explored the impact of a living-and-learning program (LLP) in a residential college of an Asian university on a freshmen cohort. It utilized a theoretical framework based on Astin's input-intermediate outcome-environment-outcome model. We examined survey data collected at two time points a year apart to understand how the freshmen's…

The current study explored the impact of students' residence hall experience in terms of academic, social and personal development and students' motivation to join residence hall activities at a Hong Kong university. The results revealed significant differences, with females, local and non-first-year student groups reporting more gains from their…

Internships for college students are widely promoted as a "high-impact" practice, yet the academic literature is limited by terminological imprecision, lack of data on intern demographics, and insufficient attention to the impacts of program format on student academic and developmental outcomes. In this mixed-methods study we analyze…

We used quantitative data from the National Study of LGBTQ Student Success to investigate if participation in high-impact educational practices influenced lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ+) students' academic development. We also examined if these effects are mediated by perceptions of the campus environment. Our findings suggested that…

Canadian educational jurisdictions require teachers to assess and report upon aspects of student performance beyond academic achievement. These skills and competencies are often called "non-cognitive skills" (NCS). This study used document analysis to determine which NCS are assessed across provinces, identifying commonalities,…

Using data from a random sample of first-year students in the 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), we compared engagement in educationally purposeful activities in college, a set of educational outcomes, and the relationship between student engagement and educational outcomes for nonathletes and student-athletes participating in low-…

Although many findings related to study abroad point to the myriad benefits of such experiences, these studies focus more exclusively on direct effects (Engberg, 2013; Vande Berg, Connor-Linton, & Paige, 2009), overlooking a number of process-oriented variables that mediate the development of different outcomes associated with study abroad…

Using longitudinal data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, this study measured the impact of first-year seminars on college students' life-long learning orientations. The findings suggest that first-year seminars enhance students' life-long learning orientations and that the effect of first-year seminars is mediated through…

In this article, the author narrates her experience of meeting a Montessori kid for the first time and shares the characteristics she observed in Montessori students. The author was working as director of academic resources in university housing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and met Jason, a pre-med sophomore who was the resident…

Using data from the Wabash National Study, authors examine how students' perceptions of campus climate influence growth in students' social and political activism. The goal of this article is to determine to what extent, if any, students' perceptions of the campus environment affect their orientation toward social/political activism over 4 years…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between participation in student activism and leadership development among college students. This study applied the social change model of leadership development (SCM) as the theoretical model used to measure socially responsible leadership capacity in students. The study utilized data…

This study was one of the first in the field of school activities to combine psychological variables with previously researched personal variables to attempt to answer questions raised by Rehberg in 1969. It produced psychological profiles of students who participate in school activities; it also dispelled the myth that school activities appeal…