Impacts of Good Practices on Cognitive Development, Learning Orientations, and Graduate Degree Plans During the First Year of College

Journal of College Student Development, Jul/Aug 2006 by Cruce, Ty M, Wolniak, Gregory C, Seifert, Tricia A, Pascarella, Ernest T

The effects of the good practice dimensions and composite good practices also differed by the type of institution attended. These results also suggest a compensatory effect of good practices on the cognitive development and learning orientations of students attending institutions where the mean levels of these pre-college measures were often lower. Effective Teaching and Interaction with Faculty had a significant effect on the odds of aspiring toward a graduate degree for students only at research universities, whereas Interaction with Peers had a positive effect on the mathematics knowledge of students only at community colleges. Challenge/High Expectations and the good practices composite, however, had a positive effect on the positive attitude toward literacy of students at all institution types but liberal arts colleges.

Finally, the effects of the good practice dimensions and the composite good practices measure differed by the students' gender and ethnicity. Although Effective Teaching and Interaction with Faculty had a significant effect on the first-year reading comprehension, mathematics knowledge, and positive attitude toward literacy of females, the effects of this good practice dimension on the reading comprehension and positive attitude toward literacy of males were non-significant, and, in the case of mathematics knowledge, the effect of this good practice dimension was significant and negative. That the effect of this good practice dimension on the mathematics knowledge of students was statistically significant and in the opposite direction for females and males may also explain why its general effect was statistically non-significant (see Table 2). Interaction with Peers had a significant effect on the first-year reading comprehension of males, whereas the Challenge/High Expectations of faculty had a significant effect on the first-year positive attitude toward literacy of males. For both student outcomes, the effects of these good practices were statistically non-significant for females. With regard to ethnicity, Effective Teaching and Interaction with Faculty and the good practices composite both had a significant positive effect on the positive attitude toward literacy of students of color. The effect of Effective Teaching and Interaction with Faculty on the positive attitude toward literacy of White students was non-significant, whereas the effect of the good practices composite was positive and significant but roughly half the size of the effect for students of color.

DISCUSSION

The primary purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of good practices in undergraduate education on the cognitive development, orientations to learning, and educational aspirations of students during their first year of college. Analyses of longitudinal data from 23 institutions located in 16 states from around the country were conducted. The longitudinal data permitted us to introduce statistical controls for an extensive battery of student pre-college characteristics and other confounding influences during the first year of college. The results of our analyses suggest several conclusions.