Enhancing the Impact of RLCs on Students

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Enhancing the Impact of RLCs on Students Levels
of Civic Engagement What Matters Most, and to
Whom?

• Suhua Dong
• Associate Director of Institutional Research,
  Gettysburg College
• 2007 Conference on Living-Learning Programs
• October 17, St. Louis, Missouri

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Outline

• Background research methods
• What have I found?
• Do RLC students differ from the comparison group
  on their pre-college characteristics?
• Do RLC students differ from the comparison group
  on civic engagement levels after participating in
  their RLC for about 6 months?
• Are participation effects more pronounced for
  certain subgroups within the RLC sample?
• What factors contribute most to this outcome for
  RLC students as a whole? For different subgroups?
• Some interpretations
• Connecting research with practice some
  strategies a tool
• Note RLCResidential Learning Communities

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Background Research Methods

• Research has produced substantial evidence that
  participation in RLCs positively affects student
  learning.
• Previous research mostly focused on such outcomes
  as retention, academic performance, and
  involvement.
• Limited research on RLCs impact on another
  significant outcomecivic engagement

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Background Research Methods

• Data Source a subset of existing data collected
  by the 2004 National Study of Living-Learning
  Programs (NSLLP, funded by ACUHO-I, first
  multi-institutional study of RLCs)
• Instrument self-report on-line questionnaireThe
  2004 Residence Environment Survey
• Variables used fit into Astins (1977, 1993)
  conceptual model for assessment the IEO Model

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Background Research Methods

• Regional sample of 5 universities four-year,
  public, research institutions in the Midwest
• Cross-sectional data Participants include 1,822
  first-year, full-time RLC students and a closely
  matched comparison group of 1,820 students
• Sampling simple random sample stratified
  sampling

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Background Research Methods

• This study measured 5 dimensions of civic
  engagement
• volunteerism and service to the community
• social responsibility
• civic empowerment
• understanding of and appreciation for
  ethnic/racial, religious, political, sexual
  orientation, and class differences
• moral values development
• Include both attitudinal and behavioral measures.

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Do RLC students differ from the comparison group
on their pre-college characteristics?

• RLC students scored significantly higher than the
  comparison group on 5 out of the 6 variables on
  pre-college perceptions
• importance of growth in understanding diversity
  and interacting with peers
• importance of academic and social support in
  residence halls
• importance of participating in co-curricular
  activities and interacting with faculty
• confidence in handling new intellectual
  challenges and appreciating diversity
• confidence in academic and personal growth and
  satisfaction
• RLC students scored significantly lower on
  importance of drinking alcohol during social
  occasions

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Does RLC participation make a difference?

• Participation in an RLC demonstrated a
  statistically significant, positive main effect
  on students overall level of civic engagement
  AND on 3 out of the 5 specific dimensions of
  civic engagement
• volunteerism and service to the community
• social responsibility
• civic empowerment
• However, the effect sizes were all extremely
  small.

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Does RLC participation make a difference?

• Dimension volunteerism and service to the
  community
• RLC group reported a significantly higher mean
  on
• time spent on volunteer work per week
• involvement in one-time and on-going community
  service
• perceptions on volunteerism and service to the
  community

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Does RLC participation make a difference?

• Dimension social responsibility
• RLC group reported a significantly higher mean
  on
• involvement in student government
• sense of social responsibility

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Does RLC participation make a difference?

• Dimension civic empowerment
• RLC group reported a significantly higher
  mean on
• involvement in political or social activism
• sense of civic empowerment

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• Females
• GLB students
• Students of color
• Certain religious subgroups
• Citizenship subgroups
• Students with parents having a higher level of
  education
• Students with higher high school grades

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• Females reported statistically higher scores than
  males on 10 out of 12 outcome variables

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• GLB students reported a significantly higher
  score than heterosexual students on
• involvement in political or social activism
• sense of social responsibility to the common good
• growth in understanding of and appreciation for
  diversity
• growth in moral values development

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• Overall, students of color reported a higher mean
  than White students. Differed on
• involvement in political or social activism
  (OthergtW)
• sense of civic empowerment (BgtA/PI WgtA/PI
  OthergtA/PI)
• growth in understanding of and appreciation for
  diversity (BgtW A/PIgtW BgtOther)
• gains in inter-racial understanding (Students of
  ColorgtW BgtA/PI BgtOther)
• growth in moral values development (BgtW)
• overall level of civic engagement (BgtW)

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• Religious subgroups Differed on 11 out of 12
  outcome variables
• On many variables Christians reported a higher
  mean than those having no religion
• Jewish students also reported spending more time
  on volunteer work than those having no religion
• Christians reported a lower score on political or
  social activism than students having no religion,
  Jewish students, and students whose religion was
  not listed.
• Asian religions students reported a higher
  score on growth in understanding of and
  appreciation for diversity, growth in moral
  values development, and a stronger sense of
  social responsibility than all or some of the
  other four religious groups.

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• Subgroups by citizenship
• Students whose grandparents, parents, and
  themselves were all born in the U. S. reported a
  higher score than students who are foreign-born
  naturalized citizens, resident aliens, or student
  visa holders on perceptions on volunteerism and
  service to the community, sense of civic
  empowerment.
• However, they reported a lower score on gains in
  inter-racial understanding.

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• Fathers education One difference was found on
• involvement in political and social activism
  students whose father earned doctorate or had a
  professional degree reporting a higher score than
  most of the remaining groups, and Bachelors
  students reporting a higher score than Some
  college students.

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Are participation effects more pronounced for
certain subgroups within the RLC sample?

• Subgroups by high school grades
• Students whose high school grade was A or above
  reported a higher score than all or some of the
  remaining groups on
• overall level of civic engagement
• sense of social responsibility
• sense of civic empowerment
• involvement in one-time community service
• perceptions on volunteerism and service to the
  community
• time spent on-going community service

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What factors contribute most to the overall level
of civic engagement for RLC students as a whole?

• 3 blocks of variables contributed most to the
  (positive) predictive power of the final model
• pre-college motivation for participating in
  educationally beneficial activities during
  college
• intellectual development
• diverse peer interactions

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Common and unique predictors for different
subgroups

• See Table 1 (separate sheet)

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Most consistent positive predictors

• pre-college importance of participating in
  co-curricular activities and interacting with
  faculty
• pre-college confidence in academic and personal
  growth and satisfaction
• enjoyment of the integration of academic learning
  with self-discovery, enjoyment of intellectual
  challenge, integrated learning, application of
  knowledge, and multiplicity of thinking
• diverse peer interactions and amount and scope
  and quality of interactions with peers from a
  different racial/ethnic group
• campus commitment to racial diversity
• sense of belonging to the campus community
• use of residence hall advising, faculty, peer,
  and co-curricular resources,
• involvement in religious activities/clubs

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Some interpretations

• Pre-disposition RLC students join their RLC with
  distinctive attitudes and values.
• Marketing and recruiting strategies of RLC
  programs studied here seem to be successful in
  attracting the type of students expected.
• Findings concur with a theory of accentuation

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Some interpretations

• RLCs examined here seem to be achieving their
  espoused goal of enhancing civic engagement.
• Unknown whether such positive impact reflects the
  changes that RLC participants undergo during
  their enrollment in the experience, or it is
  merely a reinforcement of their pre-entry
  inclinations.

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Some interpretations

• Extremely small effect sizes practically
  negligible
• RLC students were 1st year students
• Very brief exposure to their programapproximately
  6 months

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Some interpretations

• Positive impact found on 3 dimensions of civic
  engagement they seem to be conceptually very
  comparable measures
• Perhaps the other 2 dimensionsunderstanding of
  and appreciation for diversity and moral values
  developmentare substantively different, and
  therefore the environmental factors contributing
  to them are qualitatively different from those
  affecting the other 3 dimensions. Perhaps it
  requires a longer participation to rise to a
  level of statistical significance.

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Some interpretations

• Confirms earlier research regarding the positive
  effects of living/learning programs on
  volunteerism

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Some interpretations

• Effects more apparent for females than for males
  
• females pre-disposition higher pre-college
  motivation level for participating in beneficial
  activities
• Gilligans (1982) theory on womens socialization
  and development

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Some interpretations

• Effects on involvement in political and social
  activism, sense of social responsibility, and
  appreciation for diversity more pronounced for
  GLB students and students of color
• Pre-disposition
• As under-represented student groups may have
  higher awareness of importance of appreciating
  diversity and fighting for social justice. Very
  often they are forced to take an activist posture
  in order to create a voice for themselves on
  campus and in society at large.

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Some interpretations

• Effects on volunteerism and civic empowerment
  more apparent among Christian students than
  students reporting having no religion
• might be understood in relation to the
  Judaic-Christian tradition which emphasizes
  service and responsibility to ones community
• previous research attendance at both Catholic
  and Protestant colleges (versus sectarian
  institutions) has direct and positive effects
  over a four-year period on the importance
  students attach to civic responsibility,
  volunteerism, and civic and social values
  (Pascarella Terenzini, 2005).
• those having no religion lower. ?

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Connecting research with practice some strategies

• recruit intentional participants who are willing
  and ready to engage in such programs
• implement strategies to motivate and challenge
  those participants with less apparent
  inclinations for involvement

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Connecting research with practice some strategies

• greater emphases on the integration of curricular
  learning and out-of-class learning might yield
  more benefits (e. g., courses on critical
  thinking and service learning, incorporating
  co-curricular components emphasizing applications
  of what students learn from the coursework and
  explorations of how course content relates to
  students self-identity and life experiences)
• engaging faculty in RLCs

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Connecting research with practice some strategies

• diversifying RLC programs provide opportunities
  to interact with peers from different
  racial/ethnic backgrounds and with different
  social, political, and religious views and
  personal values facilitate discussions of
  multiculturalism, diversity, and major social
  issues

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Connecting research with practice a tool

• opportunities challenges Consider human
  aggregate environments of an RLC when exploring
  interventions
• thinking about RLCs on your campus
• exploring potential additional interventions a
  tool (see a separate sheet)
• sharing your thoughts successes, challenges, and
  lessons learned on your campus

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Thank you for attending my session!

• Questions?
• Want more information? Contact me at
• sdong_at_gettysburg.edu