This literature review examines the service learning (SL) and self-authorship bodies of literature to frame them as mutually supportive within the context of college student development. This review is a section of the Chapter 2 of the researcher's dissertation, which guided by the following research question: "How do college students make…

While researchers have suggested that mentorship positively affects academic and learning outcomes in higher education, little is known about the impact of peer mentoring on graduate students' academic experiences. We conducted a systematic review to explore the impact of peer mentorship on graduate students' learning, and formal approaches to…

Although international attention to understanding college student development, learning, and experiences has increased, leading higher education journals do not seem to have kept pace. We examined 8 higher education and student affairs journals (5 from the US, 3 from Europe) from 1998 to 2011. We found overall that 5% of articles addressed…

This study investigates key educational experiences in higher education. Key experiences are short and intense instructional episodes that students remember to have had a decisive effect on their lives. Data comes from a sample of 3045 key educational experiences, focusing on the 11.6% that relate to higher education. The paper uses a qualitative…

Using the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ), surveys 736 university students at the beginning of first, and at the end of third, year to identify the impact of the type of experiences measured in the CSEQ on skill levels. Results indicate that university experiences have a minimal impact on skills development. (Contains 14…

Advances in theory and practice make it possible to measure moral reasoning empirically and offer college-level educational programs enhancing moral understanding. Bases for these advances are reviewed, a longitudinal study and curriculum development effort is described, and the next research frontier, the relationship of moral reasoning to moral…

This report investigates the relationship between child care quality and children's transition into kindergarten. It focuses on four issues: (1) the definition and measurement of child care quality in group settings; (2) the relationship between child care quality and child development; (3) the relationship between child care quality and…

Recent research on how college students learn and what constitutes an effective educational experience is reviewed, and implications for bringing about desired changes in the undergraduate experience are discussed. Topics examined include students' ability to reason with abstractions, development of moral values, extent to which the curriculum and…

The good news is Strange's propositions offer a sharper focus to researchers of student development. The bad news is that the propositions imply a need to reconsider the ways researchers regard student change and the designs adopted to study it. Revisions in each area will challenge researchers' conceptual and methodological predictors. (BF)

A literature review on the impact of college on students is summarized. Issues addressed include: relative impact of elite colleges; role of human, financial, and material resources in student experience; student effort as predictor of impact; importance of interpersonal life on campus; college social and moral environment; and focus on learning.…

This article illustrates the evolution of the concept of student development in the higher education and student affairs literature. The current status of this concept is presented in a framework of 14 propositions as an agenda for scholars and practitioners in the field. (97 references) (Author/RB)

Examines research that studies the effects of students' out-of-class experiences on academic, intellectual, or cognitive learning outcomes. Identifies the following aspects of student out-of-class experiences which student affairs professionals have control over through policy and program interventions: (1) residence; (2) fraternities and…

This study examined the critical thinking skills of resident and commuter students during the freshmen year, controlled for precollege background and ability. Differences in commuter and resident students' experience, particularly aspects of academic and social integration were also considered. The study sample was a subset taken from a national…

A review is provided of past and present literature on the reactions of students to transfer from primary to secondary school giving rise to a number of hypotheses about the potential difficulties associated with this process. A study is described in which attitudes towards transfer of 207 Year 6 students attending five primary schools in the…

This study examines the relative stability and change in ethnic students' (Asian, Black, and Hispanic) social and academic expectations during their first year at the University of Massachusetts. The paper investigates how students' expectations were met by their actual experiences and whether students of different racial or ethnic categories…