Foundational Research for LLPs

Around the same time Meiklejohn and others were beginning to establish general seminar courses to better support student transitions and nurture academic skills, the work of Dewey was emerging as a prominent voice in the field of education. While his work focused primarily on K-12 education reform, Dewey (1902) did call for a greater integration of “general education” or “general culture,” arguing there was a lack of cohesion within the disjointed programs of study offered at the time. What was needed was a curricular approach providing a larger frame of reference for students, effectively integrating areas of study in a holistic way so interdisciplinary connections could be more easily identified and absorbed by students (Dewey, 1902). A fundamental assumption of Dewey’s (1902) work is the concept that the school is a “social center” of a community, thereby making the individual and society inextricably linked, which should be accounted for when educating youth (p. 73). There are many parallels between the work of Dewey

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and Meiklejohn, as both viewed schools “as important laboratories for democratic citizenship” (Smith, 2011, p. 2). According to Caple (1998), the work of Dewey would also provide a theoretical framework for much of early college student personnel movement in the decades to come.

In the 1970’s, Astin’s ground-breaking work on student engagement reinforced how living on campus has a positive effect on individual persistence and aspirations. His longitudinal, multi-institutional study included over 300 colleges and universities and surveyed over 200,000 students. With his findings, Astin (1977) demonstrated positive experiences in the residence halls lead to an increase in student involvement with co- curricular activities, academic involvement, and faculty-student interactions, all of which foster a higher level of individual student satisfaction. These findings provided further support to the LLP movement.

The work of Tinto, focusing on student departure, built off Astin’s findings by reinforcing the importance of student engagement. Just as relationships are a

fundamental building block of institutional culture, they also form the basis of why students choose to stay or leave a college or university. Tinto (1987) developed what he calls a Theory of Student Departure by arguing it is critical for students to successfully integrate into the formal and informal academic and social structures of an institution in order to succeed. In other words, developing deep interpersonal connections with faculty and peers allows students to successfully navigate academic difficulties and resolve educational and occupational goals (Tinto, 1987). Students who fail to do so will likely transfer or drop out of school entirely. The integrated nature of LLPs offer students an

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ideal environment to foster these necessary interpersonal connections with the formal and informal academic and social structures of an institution. Tinto followed-up his work on student retention by conducting an important study of LLPs at two very different

institutions – the University of Washington and Seattle Central Community College. The findings shed further light in the effectiveness of LLPs, with Tinto (1993) demonstrating that student engagement could be fostered through collaborative learning, and that an academically stimulating academic tone can be purposefully cultivated – regardless of the institutional setting or students involved.

Another prominent research effort in the early 1990’s was the work of Pascarella and Terenzini. They reviewed more than 3,000 studies addressing both cognitive and affective outcomes. After an exhaustive meta-analysis, including comparing data between highly competitive institutions and non-“elite” colleges and universities, Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) arrived to the following conclusion:

To a certain extent, all of the preceding discussion boils down to the issue of psychological size. With few exceptions, institutional size by itself does not appear to be a salient determinant of student change. There is evidence, however, that size is indirectly influential through the kinds of interpersonal relations and experiences it promotes or discourages. (p. 654)

Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) went on to identify programs such as “cluster colleges and other purposeful housing arrangements” (p. 654) as structural changes that appear to make a difference. This research influenced more colleges and universities, particularly larger research universities, to implement LLPs.

When discussing student engagement, it is vital to mention the work of Kuh. At roughly the same time Astin, Tinto, and Pascarella and Terenzini were enhancing the

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knowledge in this field, Kuh, Schuh, Whit, & Associates (1991) published their book

Involving Colleges. This qualitative study involved 14 colleges and sought to “discover

institutional factors and conditions that promote student learning and personal development” (Kuh et al., 1991, p. 17), and collected almost 1,300 responses from faculty, administrators, and students. The findings reinforced the notion that personal development can be enhanced through student engagement and learning outside of the classroom is a critical component of the college experience (Kuh et al., 1991). Kuh et al. (1991) concluded that institutions needed to make classroom experiences more

productive, while also encouraging students to devote more of their time to out-of-class activities that are academically engaging and purposeful. In 1998, Kuh would build off this scholarship and established the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), a widely-used assessment tool of student engagement by colleges and universities. Kuh has since used NSSE (2015) to developed a series of engagement indicators (EIs), as outlined in Table 4. EIs can be achieved through a series of high-impact practices (HIPs), also identified by NSSE. HIPs represent “enriching educational experiences that can be life-changing” (NSSE, 2015) and include curricular innovations such as learning communities, service learning, research with faculty, internships or field experiences, studying abroad, and a culminating senior experience.

Boyer also identified similar characteristics institutions should strive for in his book, Campus Life: In Search of Community. Published in 1990, this book outlines the findings of a year-long study where Boyer and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching asked, “What should be the values of a true learning

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Table 4: NSSE Engagement Indicators

Theme Engagement Indicators

Academic Challenge Higher-Order Learning

Reflective & Integrative Learning Learning Strategies

Quantitative Reasoning Learning with Peers Collaborative Learning

Discussions with Diverse Others Experiences with Faculty Student-Faculty Interaction

Effective Teaching Practices Campus Environment Quality of Interactions

Supportive Environment

community?” In response, six distinct characteristics were identified; campus communities should be educationally purposeful, open, just, disciplined, caring, and celebrative (Boyer, 1990). First and foremost, a college or university should be

educationally purposeful, a “place where faculty and students share academic goals and work together to strengthen teaching and learning” (p. 9). Campuses should also be open and just, wherein all members of the community can feel free to express themselves and the sacredness of each person is honored and diversity is “aggressively pursued” (Boyer, 1990, p. 25). Boyer (1990) also articulated the importance of individuals to accept their obligations to the greater community and for there to be a well-defined governance system that ensures a healthy level of discipline. It is critical for each college or

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university to be a caring community, where the well-being of each individual is supported as well as service to others (Boyer, 1990). Finally, Boyer (1990) advocated for

institutions to be celebrative communities, where culture is recognized and “the heritage of the institution is remembered and where rituals affirming both tradition and change are widely shared” (p. 55). The work of Kuh and Associates, NSSE, and Boyer each

provided cultural characteristics and benchmarks that would prove helpful to many college and universities seeking to improve student learning and engagement through the establishment of LLPs.