Abstracts of Papers Presented
at the ASHE Annual Meeting

6-8 November 1997
Alburquerque, New Mexico

Each year contributors at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education are requested to submit their papers for review and possible inclusion in a special ERIC collection of ASHE presentations. Included in this issue of The Review are summaries of selected papers. These papers are indexed in the Resources in Education (RIE) Subject Index under "ASHE Annual Meeting" with a publication date of 1997.

Microfiche (MF) or paper copies (PC) of individual papers can be ordered through the ERIC Document Reproduction Service, 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite 100, Springfield, VA 22153-2852. VISA and MasterCard orders are accepted at 1-800-433-ERIC. Prices quoted are not prepaid.

Jann E. Freed
Central College (Iowa)

Leading Continuous Quality Improvement on Campus: This Train Is Going North. Explores the role of leadership, especially that of the college president, in applying continuous quality improvement (CQI) principles through interviews with senior leadership teams and analysis of documents. Identifies primary themes of the CQI effort as related to personal characteristics of the president and interpersonal dynamics. (ERIC ED 415 794, 37 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

J. Fredericks Volkwein, Alberto F. Cabrera
University at Albany
Pennsylvania State University

The Undergraduate Classroom Experience: Factors Associated with Its Vitality. Uses measures of academic and social integration, student effort and involvement, encouragement of family and friends, financial need and ability to pay, race and campus climate, and goal clarity to examine factors in the undergraduate classroom experience that students associate with classroom vitality. Important qualities are a campus climate of tolerance, faculty concern for students, and students' own academic effort and involvement. (ERIC ED 415 795, 12 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Yukiko Innoue
University of Guam

The Educational and Occupational Attainment Process for American Women. Uses the Wisconsin model to evaluate data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 concerning outcomes for 2,160 seniors 14 years after high school graduation. Finds that educational attainment is the strongest predictor of occupational attainment; that the primary influence on educational attainment is educational aspiration and gender; and that academic performance is primarily a function of ability. (DB) (ERIC ED 415 796, 32 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Daniel W. Lang
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Amos Brown and the American Land Grant College Movement. Reviews the effects of the Agricultural College Act (1862), which established land grant colleges, on higher education in the United States, focusing largely on the role of Amos Brown, president of The People's College in New York, which served as a model for the act. Concludes that Brown might appropriately be considered the "adoptive father" of the act and the land grant university concept. (ERIC ED 415 797, 37 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Robert J. Stout
Palmer College of Chiropractic

The Effectiveness of Economic Impact Studies by Liberal Arts Colleges: A Case Study. Uses the case study method and focus group interviews to examine the effects of economic impact studies on the community of a small liberal arts college. Results suggest that such studies may be ineffective for public relations as they do not promote consumption benefits, they estimate unimportant impacts, and they do not change attitudes about the economic importance of colleges. (ERIC ED 415 798, 23 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

John S. Levin
University of Arizona

The Cultures of the Community College. Reviews the literature on specific and multiple organizational cultures in the community college. Identifies four dominant cultures: traditional, service, hierarchical, and business. Analysis from functionalist and interpretive perspectives suggests multiple cultures with considerable variance among community colleges. (ERIC ED 415 799, 26 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Elizabeth G. Creamer
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Knowledge Production, Publication Productivity, and Intimate Academic Partnerships. Analysis of interviews with 27 tenured faculty members who had coauthored one or more scholarly publications with a spouse or partner identifies three patterns of collaboration: short term, intermittent, and long term. Findings suggest that respondents felt the physical proximity of the collaborating partners allowed for on-going, informal feedback. (ERIC ED 415 800, 24 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Christopher C. Morphew
University of Kansas

Understanding the Acquisition of New Degree Programs. Examines the process of developing new degree programs through interviews with 39 faculty at 13 universities. Faculty cited three major impetuses for new degree programs: intra-university competition for stature, competition for new faculty members, and community need/student demand. Results support both resource-dependence theory and institutional theory. (ERIC ED 415 801, 19 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Linda S. Knudson
Johnson County Community College

Team Leadership in Three Midwestern Community Colleges: The President's Cognitive Frame of Reference and Its Relationship to Real Versus Illusory Teams. Uses qualitative methodology to examine how presidents at three medium-sized community colleges built and influenced their leadership teams. Findings were organized into five categories: team composition, cognitive frames of reference, functional domains, team leadership effectiveness, and team cognitive and functional complexity. (ERIC ED 415 802, 24 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Katie B. Douglas
University of Rhode Island

Impressions: How First-Year African American Students Pictured a Research University. Ten first-year African American students took photographs that illustrated their perceptions of the predominantly white research university they attended and discussed their pictures in interviews. Data analysis identifies themes of: natural, physical aspects; institutional size; racial consciousness; Greek-letter organizations; racial and cultural interactions; and preparation for the future. (ERIC ED 415 803, 38 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Christine M. Cress
University of California, Los Angeles

Multiculturalism in the Classroom: Predictors of Faculty Efforts to Diversify Course Content. Analysis of data from 33,986 full-time college/university faculty members at 384 institutions finds Puerto Rican/American faculty the most likely and Asian Americans the least likely to include racial and ethnic readings in courses. Also finds gender differences and greater effects from individual rather than institutional characteristics. (ERIC ED 415 804, 32 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Melissa B. Eljamal, Joan S. Stark, Gertrude L. Arnold, Sally Sharp
University of Michigan

Intellectual Development: A Complex Teaching Goal. Analysis of data from previous studies of introductory college courses identifies six major aspects of intellectual disciplines. Finds that faculty members in most disciplines mention intellectual development as a goal, with literature faculty stressing it the most. (ERIC ED 415 805, 35 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Elizabeth C. Grigoriu
Cornell University

Qualitative Transformations within the Student-Teacher Relationship. Uses constructivist-developmental theory in discussing how establishing and maintaining the student-teacher relationship can be epistemologically transforming for both college students and faculty. Offers suggestions for facilitating structural transitions in students' learning and teachers' practice. (ERIC ED 415 806, 30 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Jay Basten, John Cole, Ricardo Maestas, Katherine Mason
University of Michigan

Redefining the Virtuous Cycle: Replacing the Criterion of Race with Socioeconomic Status in the Admissions Process in Highly Selective Institutions. Uses data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program to examine student body characteristics of highly selective and less-selective colleges and universities, especially those related to race and socioeconomic status. Considers possible effects of replacing race and ethnicity with SES as a method for ensuring student diversity. (ERIC ED 415 807, 29 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Alexander C. McCormick
MPR Associates, Inc.

Changes in Educational Aspirations after High School: The Role of Postsecondary Attendance and Context. Uses data from the High School and Beyond study to examine how individuals' educational expectations change after high school. Finds that such changes reflect two underlying dynamics: resilience and isomorphism. (ERIC ED 415 808, 37 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Peter Eckel
American Council on Education

Capturing the Lessons Learned: The Evaluation Process for the ACE-Kellog Project on Leadership and Institutional Transformation. Reviews aspects of the evaluation process for this project which examines leadership, planning, and change at institutions of higher education. Analysis identifies a set of propositions that reflect strategies central to effecting institutional change. (ERIC ED 415 809, 11 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Joy S. Rosenzweig
Western University of Health Sciences

The Innovative Colleges and Universities of the 1960s and 1970s: What Keeps the Dreams of Experimentation Alive? Examines the history and durability of educational innovation at six colleges and universities: Pitzer College, California; New College of the University of South Florida; Hampshire College, Massachusetts; University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; University of California, Santa Cruz; and Evergreen State College, Washington. (ERIC ED 415 810, 39 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Marianne T. Bock
Kent State University

The Measure of Professorial Productivity: Using Student Learning Outcomes Criteria. Discusses issues in the use of student learning outcomes as a measure of professorial productivity. Concludes that student learning outcomes should not be the only basis upon which institutions evaluate professors and that such measures need to be institution-specific with internal assessment mechanisms developed to measure them. (ERIC ED 415 811, 31 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Dawn Wallace, Ronald Abel
Louisiana State University

Clearing a Path for Success: Deconstructing Borders in Higher Education Through Undergraduate Mentoring. Analyzes interviews with 20 students who had been involved with student support services, Veterans Upward Bound, and the educational opportunity center at one university. Finds that formal mentoring has a positive effect on student participation, retention, and success in college but finds little support for matching mentors and mentees by race or gender. (ERIC ED 415 812, 22 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Carol R. Himelhoch, Adriana Nichols, Stephen R. Ball, Lana Collister Black
University of Michigan

A Comparative Study of the Factors Which Predict Persistence for African American Students at Historically Black Institutions and Predominantly White Institutions. Analyzes data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program using John Bean's synthetic model of academic persistence. Finds that for historically black colleges and universities, predictors for African American persistence were faculty mentoring, intention to marry, changing a major/career, and intention to leave the institution. At white institutions, faculty mentoring was the sole predictor of African American persistence. (ERIC ED 415 813, 30 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Leonard Springer, Samuel Donovan, Mary Elizabeth Stanne
University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Minnesota

Effects of Small-Group Learning on Undergraduates in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology: A Meta-Analysis. Meta-analysis of 39 studies finds that various forms of small-group learning are effective in promoting academic achievement, more favorable attitudes toward learning, and increased persistence. The magnitude of effects exceeded findings in comparable reviews. (ERIC ED 415 814, 45 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Katherine C. Reynolds, Claudia E. Nunn
University of South Carolina, Central Connecticut State University

Engaging Classrooms: Student Participation and the Instructional Factors That Shape It. Analysis of questionnaires completed by freshmen and upperclassmen enrolled in social science and humanities courses found that freshmen viewed classroom participation more favorably than upperclassmen. Both freshmen and upperclassmen named praise, humor, and a supportive classroom atmosphere as conditions encouraging their participation. (ERIC ED 415 815, 29 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Nancy B. Walters
Minnesota Higher Education Services Office

Retaining Aspiring Scholars: Recruitment and Retention of Students of Color in Graduate and Professional Science Degree Programs. Interviews with 14 students, including 10 Hispanic or African American students, who had completed a summer program designed to improve access to graduate/professional schools for women and students of color, identifies positive program characteristics including: advanced research experience, information about graduate/professional programs, friendships with peers, and mentoring relationships. (ERIC ED 415 816, 36 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Sharyn Janes
University of Southern Mississippi

Experiences of African-American Baccalaureate Nursing Students Examined through the Lenses of Tinto's Student Retention Theory and Astin's Student Involvement Theory. Interviews with eight graduates of either a predominantly black or predominantly white university found that respondents perceived the black campus as comfortable, warm, and nurturing and the white campus as cold and uncaring. Satisfaction with the academic experience was related to a combination of factors such as self-esteem and relationships with other students. (ERIC ED 415 817, 28 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Laura Walter Perna
Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute

The Contribution of Financial Aid to Undergraduate Persistence. Analysis of data from the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study suggests that receiving financial aid is not directly related to completing a bachelor's degree within five years; effectiveness is related to the type and package of aid received with grants. Work study aid is more effective than loans. (ERIC ED 415 818, 40 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Jane L. Lambert
Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis

Feminist Assessment: What Does Feminist Theory Contribute to the Assessment Conversation? Discusses current and potential contributions of a feminist critical perspective to assessment in higher education using nine principles of feminist assessment with examples. Notes the contributions of feminist principles to assessment such as the role of power and politics in knowledge issues. (ERIC ED 415 819, 20 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Scott W. Gilmer
Vanderbilt University

The Winds of Privatization: A Typology for Understanding the Phenomenon in Public Higher Education. Discusses issues of privatization in the context of higher education. Offers a typology which includes: public production with public financing, public production with private financing, private production with government financing, and completely private production. (ERIC ED 415 820, 27 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Patricia Inman, Ernest Pascarella
University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Iowa

The Impact of College Residence on the Development of Critical Thinking Skills in College Freshmen. Comparing resident and commuter college freshmen found no differences in critical thinking skill development between the two groups during their first year of college. (ERIC ED 415 821, 24 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

James J. F. Forest

Ambiguity and Chance: An Alternative Perspective on Teaching and Learning. Discusses the interaction between teacher and learner in terms of "learning moments," a concept from the literature on organizational leadership. Suggests that assessment should focus less on student outcomes and more on what is done by teachers, students, and institutions to create opportunities for learning moments. (ERIC ED 415 822, 23 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Charles E. Nicolson, James L. Bess
New York University

Stress and Anxiety in Adult Learners in Professional and Liberal Arts Schools: An Exploration of Person-Environment Fit Theory. Analysis of questionnaire responses from older adult students found no significant differences in levels of ego development between students in professional schools versus those in liberal arts schools, or between groups in their perceptions of school openness or restrictivity. Notes some factor-specific effects on anxiety and satisfaction. (ERIC ED 415 823, 77 pp., MF $1.42, PC $16.84, + postage.)

Amaury Nora, Barbara Kraemer, Richard Itzen
University of Houston, De Paul University, St. Augustine College

Persistence Among Nontraditional Hispanic College Students: A Causal Model. Applying structural equation modeling found that college-related factors such as social experiences, academic difficulty, and attitudes toward faculty influenced students' stated commitment to degree completion and to the institution but factors outside the institution most affected actual persistence. (ERIC ED 415 824, 47 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Wynetta Y. Lee
North Carolina State University

Transitioning from High School to College: Surviving a Clash of Educational Cultures. Examines focus group evaluation at the North Carolina State University Transition Program which targets academically underprepared African American and Native American students. Found that students appreciated program assistance about financial aid, registration, and special math and writing courses but wanted stronger support for personal development. (ERIC ED 415 825, 17 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Patrick G. Love, Janice M. Simmons
Kent State University, Ursuline College

The Meaning and Mediated Nature of Cheating and Plagiarism among Graduate Students in a College of Education. Interviews with six graduate students of education found that students could not explain how they learned about plagiarism and cheating, what specific behaviors constituted plagiarism, and what sanctions these behaviors incurred. Identifies factors contributing to or inhibiting cheating and plagiarism. (ERIC ED 415 826, 19 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Richard Flacks, Scott L. Thomas
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Hawaii, Manoa

College Students in the Nineties: Report on a Project in Progress. A survey of undergraduate students examines reasons for attending college, concerns about future life chances, social practices and activities, use of alcohol and drugs, frequency of interactions with faculty, and attendance at cultural events. Responses were grouped according to students' race, gender, and social class. (ERIC ED 415 827, 24 pp., MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

Gary R. Pike
University of Missouri-Columbia

The Effects of Residential Learning Communities on Students' Educational Experiences and Learning Outcomes During the First Year of College. Compared to freshmen living in traditional residence halls, freshmen living in learning communities had significantly higher levels of involvement and interaction with faculty and peers, greater integration of information, greater gains in general education, and greater intellectual content of interactions. (ERIC ED 415 828, 28 pp., MF $1.42, PC $8.42, + postage.)

Michael A. Grandillo
Tiffin University

The Local College Booster Movement in Nineteenth Century Ohio. Argues that emerging colleges in the nineteenth century were broad-based local enterprises deeply rooted in their local communities. Shows how local boosterism contributed to the founding and development of Heidelberg College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wooster College, and Case Western Reserve University. (ERIC ED 416 752, pp.,29 MF $1.42, PC $$8.42, + postage.)

Catherine P. Serex
University of Memphis

Perceptions of Classroom Climate by Students in Nontraditional Majors for Their Gender. Analysis of survey responses found that neither male or female students in nontraditional majors for their gender perceived classroom climate to be "chilly" though perception of climate was a function of major. Education and nursing students perceived a "warmer" climate than accounting and engineering students. (ERIC ED 416 753, pp., 23, MF $1.42, PC $4.21, + postage.)

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