Gary R. Pike

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED LEARNING AND SATISFACTION WITH COLLEGE: An Alternative View

Student and alumni reports of learning and development during college play an important role in research on educational outcomes. An intriguing finding of this research is the positive relationship between perceived learning and satisfaction with college. While studies have documented an association between perceptions of learning and satisfaction, the nature of the relationship is not clearly defined. This study evaluates two competing models of perceived learning and satisfaction. The first model represents a true relationship between learning and satisfaction, while the second treats the relationship as an artifact of a halo effect. Data came from subjects who completed learning and satisfaction questions as seniors and again two years after graduation. Analyses revealed that treating the learning-satisfaction relationship as an artifact of a halo effect provided the best representation of the data. Although not conclusive, results suggested that educational researchers and assessment practitioners should be careful in interpreting self-reports of learning and development, particularly as they relate to satisfaction with college.

DOES HIGH SCHOOL MATTER? An Analysis of Three Methods of Predicting First- Year Grades

This research evaluated the usefulness of 3 approaches for predicting college grades: (a) traditional regression models, (b) high-school-effects models, and (c) hierarchical linear models. Results of an analysis of the records of 8,764 freshmen at a major research university revealed that both the high-school-effects model and the hierarchical linear model were more accurate predictors of freshman GPA than was the traditional model, particularly for lower ability students. Counter to expectations, the hierarchical linear model was not more accurate than the high school effects model.

First-Year Students' Employment, Engagement, and Academic Achievement: Untangling the Relationship between Work and Grades

This study examined the relationships among first-year students’ employment, engagement, and academic achievement using data from the 2004 National Survey of Student Engagement. A statistically significant negative relationship was found between working more than 20 hours per week and grades, even after controlling for students’ characteristics and levels of engagement. An examination of the indirect relationships between work and grades revealed that working 20 hours or less on campus was significantly and positively related to grades, acting through student engagement.

Adult Undergraduate Students: Evaluating the Appropriateness of a Traditional Model of Academic Performance.

Adult learners (age 25 or older) now comprise approximately 40 percent of under-graduate enrollment. However, predictive models of undergraduate academic success are usually based on traditional young undergraduate students, presenting a problematic picture for the adult undergraduate population. Past research indicates that many older adult learners enter higher education from family backgrounds that tend to place them at an academic disadvantage, bring with them deficiencies in academic skills, and are less involved in academic and social aspects of campus life. Therefore, conventional wisdom would suggest that older students should have lower cumulative grade-point averages than younger students. However, past research on academic performance of adult undergraduates does not substantiate this prediction. This study focused on the validity of generalizing a traditional model of academic performance to older adult students. Results from this study indicate that a traditional model of academic performance prediction is inappropriate for use with older adult undergraduates.

The relationship between alumni satisfaction and work experiences

Although alumni surveys frequently include questions about work experiences, little information is available about the relationship between work experiences and alumni satisfaction with college. The results of the present research indicate that work experiences are significantly related to alumni ratings of their college experiences. Specifically, alumni who are satisfied with their jobs are more likely to report being satisfied with their education experiences. The results of this research also indicate that women are less satisfied with their pay than men. Compared to men, women are neither more dissatisfied with the types of work they are performing nor more likely to be looking for another job. Counter to expectation, dissatisfaction with pay has a more significant effect on ratings of college experiences for women than for men.

Back to the Basics: Regression as It Should Be

Sir Francis Galton (1885) introduced the idea of “regression” to the research community in a study examining the relationship of fathers’ and sons’ heights. In his study he observed that sons do not tend toward their fathers’ heights but instead “regress to” the mean of the population. He thus formulated the idea of “regression toward mediocrity”, and with the development of the method of least squares procedures by Carl Friedrich Gauss (Myers, 1990), multiple regression analysis using ordinary least squares procedures (OLS) has become one of the most common statistical techniques for investigating and modeling relationships among variables. Applications of regression occur in almost every field, and one can hardly pick up an issue of a higher education journal without running across at least one study in which OLS regression was the methodology of choice. Similarly, there is a plethora of work presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Division J of the American Educational Research Association, and the Association for Institutional Research utilizing multiple regression techniques. Such widespread use of this powerful technique encourages us to revisit the basic principles underlying this “workhorse” of higher education research in an effort to identify ways in which it can be used to deliver more refined analyses, thereby further enhancing the credibility of our research.

Rethinking the Role of Assessment.

The prevailing wisdom is that by gathering information about outcomes, we can improve what we are doing and how we do it. But can information about outcomes alone help us make important changes to strengthen our programs and services? This is the question people at the University of Missouri–Columbia began to ask themselves. The answers they came up with are described in the following pages.