Abstract
This study investigated the influence on critical thinking of differential exposure to postsecondary education. The sample was 2,076 first-year students attending 13 four-year and 4 two-year institutions from around the country. First-year students attending college full-time developed a higher level of critical thinking skills than those attending part-time. In the presence of controls for precollege critical thinking and academic motivation, the average critical thinking of first-year students at the institution attended, gender, race, age, and kinds of courses taken, the number of semester hours for which the student was enrolled had modest but significant positive effects on end-of-first-year critical thinking for both the two- and four-year college samples. In the two-year, but not the four-year, sample the relationship between semester hours and critical thinking deviated significantly from linearity. Students attending a two-year college full-time still derived the largest critical thinking benefits. However, the lowest levels of critical thinking accrued to those enrolled between 7 and 20 semester hours. Students enrolled for 6 or less hours actually had somewhat higher end-of-first-year critical thinking.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American College Testing Program (1989).Report on the Technical Characteristics of CAAP: Pilot Year 1: 1988–89. Iowa City, Iowa: Author.
Association of American Colleges (1985).Integrity in the College Curriculum: A Report to the Academic Community. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges.
Astin, A. (1968). Undergraduate achievement and institutional “excellence.”Science 161: 661–668.
Astin, A. (1977)Four Critical Years. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Astin, A. (1993).What Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Astin, A., and Panos, R. (1969).The educational and vocational development of college students. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
Ball, S. (ed.) (1977).Motivation in Education. New York: Academic Press.
Bowen, W. (1977).Investment in Learning: The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brabeck, M., and Wood, P. (1990). Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence for differences between well-structured and ill-structured problem solving abilities. In M. Commons, C. Armon, L. Kohlberg, F. Richards, T. Grotzer, and J. Sinnott (eds.),Adult Development 2: Models and Methods in the Study of Adolescent and Adult Thought. New York: Praeger.
Dressel, P., and Mayhew, L. (1954).General Education: Exploration in Evaluation. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Dumont, R., and Troelstrup, R. (1981). Measures and predictors of educational growth with four years of college.Research in Higher Education 14: 31–47.
Furedy, C., and Furedy, J. (1985). Critical thinking: Toward research and dialogue. In J. Donald and A. Sullivan (eds.),Using Research to Improve Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 51–69.
Glass, G., McGaw, B., and Smith, M. (1981).Meta-analysis in Social Research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Harris, J. (1970). Gain scores on the CLEP General Examination and an overview of research. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Minneapolis.
Harris, J., and Hurst, P. (1972). Does college assure academic growth?Change 4: 8–9, 60.
Hyman, H., Wright, C., and Reed, J. (1975).The Enduring Effects of Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Keeley, S., Browne, M., and Kreutzer, J. (1982). A comparison of freshmen and seniors on general and specific essay tests of critical thinking.Research in Higher Education 17: 139–154.
Kuh, G. (1993). In their own words: What students learn outside the classroom.American Educational Research Journal 30: 277–304.
Lehmann, I. (1963). Changes in critical thinking, attitudes and values from freshman to senior years.Journal of Educational Psychology 54: 305–315.
Lehmann, I. (1968). Changes from freshman to senior years. In K. Yamamoto (ed.),The College Student and His Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 376–389.
Lenning, O., Munday, L., and Maxey, J. (1969). Student educational growth during the first two years of college.College and University 44: 145–153.
Light, R., and Pillemer, D. (1982). Numbers and narrative: Combining their strengths in research reviews.Harvard Educational Review 52: 1–26.
McMillan, J. (1987). Enhancing college students' critical thinking: A review of studies.Research in Higher Education 26: 3–29.
Mentkowski, M., and Strait, M. (1983).A Longitudinal Study of Student Change in Cognitive Development Learning Styles, and Generic Abilities in an Outcome-Centered Liberal Arts Curriculum. Final Report number 6, Office of Research and Evaluation, Alverno College, Milwaukee.
National Education Goals Panel (1991).Executive Summary: The National Education Goals Report, 1991: Building a Nation of Learners. Washington, DC: Author.
National Institute of Education (1984).Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Pace, C. R. (1979).Measuring Outcomes of College: Fifty Years of Findings and Recommendations for the Future. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pascarella, E. (1985). College environmental influences on learning and cognitive development: A critical review and synthesis. In J. Smart (ed.),Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol. 1. New York: Agathon, pp. 1–61.
Pascarella, E. (1987). Are value-added analyses valuable? InAssessing the Outcomes of Higher Education: Proceedings of the 1986 ETS Invitational Conference. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, pp. 71–91.
Pascarella, E. (1989). The development of critical thinking: Does college make a difference?Journal of College Student Development 30: 19–26.
Pascarella, E., and Terenzini, P. (1991).How College Affects Students: Findings and Insights from Twenty Years of Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pedhazur, E. (1982).Multiple Regression in Behavioral Research: Explanation and Prediction, 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Robertshaw, D., and Wolfle, L. (1982). The cognitive value of two-year colleges for whites and blacks.Integrated Education 19: 68–71.
Steele, J. (1986). Assessing reasoning and communication skills of postsecondary students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.
Whitla, D. (1978).Value Added: Measuring the Impact of Undergraduate Education. Cambridge, MA: Office of Instructional Research and Evaluation, Harvard University.
Winter, D., McClelland, D., and Stewart, A. (1981).A New Case for the Liberal Arts. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wolfle, L. (1980). The enduring effects of education on verbal skills.Sociology of Education 53: 104–114.
Wolfle, L. (1983). Effects of higher education on achievement for blacks and whites.Research in Higher Education 19: 3–9.
Wolfle, L. (1987). Enduring cognitive effects of public and private schools.Educational Researcher 16: 5–11.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pascarella, E.T., Bohr, L., Nora, A. et al. Is differential exposure to college linked to the development of critical thinking?. Res High Educ 37, 159–174 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01730114
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01730114