Hewlett Project Results

The following abstracts are taken from manuscripts written about the Hewlett Project results. Click on the title of each manuscript to view the entire document in PDF fomat.

Summers, J.J., Svinicki, M.D., Gorin, J.S., & Sullivan, T. (in press). Students feelings of connection to the campus and openness to diversity and challenge at a large research university: Evident of Progress? Innovative Higher Education.

Previous research conducted by Pascarella and his colleagues (1996) has shown that undergraduate students tend to change toward greater openess and tolerance to diversity from their freshman to their sophomore year. Although the study by Pascarella includes many different types of universities in the United States, the average size of the entering freshman class in their research was reported to be approximately 4,000 students. We believed that, while these findings are extremely valued in a general sense, they might not be replicated at very large universities. Our findings indicated that large universities might be an exception to Pascarella's previous findings.

Summers, J.J., Woodruff, A.L., Tomberlin, T.L., Williams, N.J., & Svinicki, M.D. (under review). Cognitive processes of cooperative learning: A qualitative analysis.

The goal of this project was to investigate cognitive processes, specifically socially shared cognitions that may be associated with cooperative learning in higher education. By conducting a two-part study for which we collected observational data and interview from undergraduate students who participated in cooperative learning groups, we developed a model of cooperative learning interaction using the grounded theory approach that features student perspectives, context, social structure, group roles, and goal-oriented strategies - elements that we believe are major contributors to the cognitive processes of group work.

Summers, J.J., Beretvas, S.N., Svinicki, M.D., & Gorin, J.S. (to be submitted Fall 2001). Tools for evaluating cooperative learning.

Few measurement instruments have been utilized to measure the effectiveness of cooperative learning. The purpose of this study was to establish an instrument, combining previously established scales as well as our own scales, that measures the effectiveness of cooperative learning on 4 specific student variables: feelings of campus connectedness, classroom community, openess to diversity, and group processing. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to establish a six-factor model.