Course Overview
Numerous scholars, over many years, have explored a wide array of topics about college students—their preparation for college, their generalized and particularized characteristics, their behaviors in college, their attitudes about social issues, their relative success in achieving learning outcomes, their engagement (or lack thereof) with various components of the collegiate learning experience, their persistence, and the list goes on and on. This course probes a few of the many relevant avenues of inquiry that comprise ongoing efforts to study college students. More specifically, we will utilize Alexander Astin’s Inputs-Environments-Outcomes (IEO) model (1991) as a useful way to organize an analysis of college students, perhaps with slightly more emphasis placed on the Inputs component of Astin’s model. To the extent that the work of the learning leaders of colleges and universities—both curricular and co-curricular professionals—may be strengthened insofar as they understand various characteristics of college students and the educational environments that may contribute to their progress towards hoped-for outcomes, this course and all that it may spawn is a useful resource worthy of significant and thoughtful investment.
Course Objectives
Students will make progress towards;
- Appreciating the scope and complexity of the study of college students, including an ongoing curiosity to understand more
- Articulating “general” descriptions of contemporary American college students while, at the same time, understanding the limitations of such “generalizations” and the importance of considering subpopulations of students in various ways
- Developing a working IEO-type model that accounts for nuances among college students, learning environments, and educational outcomes
- Understanding a specific student subpopulation including particular considerations that may enhance the educational experience for this subpopulation
- Making stronger connections between research and practice in higher education/student affairs