Too often educators pay too little attention to the psychological and emotional impact subject matter has on students. Teaching effectiveness would be greatly enhanced if educators would consider students' affective reactions to material delivered in courses, workshops, and other collegiate learning experiences.

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…

In this article, the authors describe the experiences of five cadets and college students serving as camp leaders for the United States Air Force Academy's (USAFA) Leaders of Character Camp (LoCC). Additionally, they describe the work in which three other universities are engaged to adapt the LoCC model to their own university contexts. In so…

A growing body of research has found community service learning to have a positive effect upon participating college students' civic development; however, far less scholarship has considered the impact of particular components of a community service learning program. This article presents two preliminary but promising strategies for enhancing the…

How have sociohistorical developments influenced the nature of the college experience over time? In what ways have these changes impacted the responsibilities of higher education relative to the moral and ethical development of students? This article reflects the thinking of a seasoned senior executive regarding these questions.

This ethnographic project explored the extent to which the campus culture at a small liberal arts college was open to student experiences and expressions of the spiritual and the religious. The authors found that despite the college's reputation for valuing diversity and a commitment to social justice, students shared a narrative of religious…

Colleges are under increasing pressure to develop future citizens who are interested in-and capable of-creating positive social change and improving their communities. Using data from the multiinstitutional SERU survey, this study suggests college students' participation in leadership positions can promote their engagement in greater social…

Research suggests that students are becoming increasingly interested in exploring their meaning and purpose (HERI, 2005). How college students understand these terms and how they are prompted to reflect on such existential questions, however, deserves further attention. In this article, the authors share narratives from a qualitative inquiry with…

This article explores a student's expectations and the lived realities of a two-week service learning trip to Honduras. Originally, her expectations were critical and cynical. But through a series of journal entries she made during the program, she shows how her expectations were transformed by the actual experience and how she achieved her own…

The researcher analyzed National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data for over 7,000 first-year students at nearly 450 institutions to examine the impacts on spiritual development. International, Asian, and first generation students reported gains in spirituality. Participating in worshipful activities, engaging in service learning and…

The author of this article explores student affairs's transition from student development to student learning from the standpoint of philosophical hermeneutics. The hermeneutical perspective further centralizes the role and place of student affairs work in the educational process. This perspective challenges the ego- or identity-oriented…

The conversation about essential learning outcomes of college has never been more active or important. Although much of the attention on learning outcomes is narrowly focused on cognitive outcomes, especially critical thinking, the need to educate students for personal and social responsibility has never been clearer. In this article the author…

This article describes a set of lessons learned from a national project on education for personal and social responsibility that can be adopted across a variety of specific institutional contexts and missions.