This study estimates the effects of a deep approaches to learning scale and its subscales on measures of students' critical thinking, need for cognition, and positive attitudes toward literacy, controlling for pre-college scores for the outcomes and other covariates. Results suggest reflection is critical to making gains across the outcomes.

Using a multi-institutional sample of undergraduate students, this study found that the relationships between engaging in high impact/good practices and liberal arts outcomes differ based on students' precollege and background characteristics. Findings suggest that high impact/good practices are not a panacea and require a greater degree of…

This article reports on a study that explored whether diversity experiences influence students' attitudes toward literary activities during the first year of college. Interactional diversity and attending a diversity workshop had a positive net influence on the outcome measure. Exposure to curricular diversity, however, had only a chance…

This study analyzed longitudinal data from 19 institutions to determine if the net effects of diversity experiences on orientation toward social/political activism and political views are discernible as early as the first year of postsecondary education. Statistically controlling for other influences, including precollege measures of each outcome,…

Academic selectivity plays a dominant role in the public's understanding of what constitutes institutional excellence or quality in undergraduate education. In this study, we analyzed two independent data sets to estimate the net effect of three measures of college selectivity on dimensions of documented good practices in undergraduate education.…

The growing demographic diversity of the under-graduate student body in American postsecondary education has been well documented over an extended period of time. One result of this increased diversity is the substantial number of "first-generation" college students from families where neither parent had more than a high-school education. For…

This multi-institution, longitudinal study investigated relationships between various experiences in the second and third years of college and students' openness to diversity and challenges to their beliefs and attitudes. The strongest positive influences on openness to diversity and challenge were precollege openness to diversity, student…

Analyzing data from 56 4-year colleges, this investigation employed a cross-sectional design with statistical controls for confounding influences to estimate the net impact of college on 5 standardized, objective measures of student learning: English, mathematics, science, social studies, and a composite of all four tests. Women in the sample…

Controlling for precollege aptitude and other influences, a study found male intercollegiate football and basketball players tended to have significantly lower levels of second-year writing skills and third-year critical-thinking and reading-comprehension skills than nonathletes and athletes in other sports. There was little evidence of similar,…

A study of 3,331 college freshmen in 18 institutions investigated the factors influencing their openness to cultural diversity and challenges to their beliefs and values. Results indicated a nondiscriminatory racial environment, on-campus residence, participation in a racial or cultural awareness workshop, and involvement with diverse peers had…

Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis that student informal interaction with faculty significantly influences freshman-year "over-" and "underachievement." After controlling for pre-enrollment characteristics, interactions focusing on intellectual and career concerns were found to have significant, but diminishing returns…

This study tested Tinto's theoretical model of attrition. After controlling for student sex, academic aptitude, and personality attributes, freshman persisters were found to have a significantly higher frequency of interactions along six dimensions than were voluntary leavers. (Editor/LBH)

A variable causal model was used to estimate the influence of college on the development of humanitarian/civic involvement values. The findings suggest the importance of social involvement during college as a positive influence on the humanizing of values. Influential types of social involvement differed by student race and gender. (Author/MLW)

The influence of attendance at predominantly Black and predominantly White colleges on Black students' early status attainment was assessed with a national sample of Black men and women. College race had trivial effects on Black male attainment and modest positive impacts on Black female educational attainment and occupational status. (Author/MLW)

A sample of 5,162 undergraduates at 74 institutions was surveyed to identify the effect of the college environment on students' educational aspirations. Several environmental factors had modest but significant effects on aspirations; however, the magnitude of the effects differed somewhat by gender and institutional selectivity. (Author/MLW)