Getting Critical about Critical Thinking: The Role of Parental Education on First-Generation Students' Cognitive Gains in College

Autor/inn/en	Kilgo, Cindy Ann; Phillips, Carson W.; Martin, Georgianna L.; Campbell, Erica; Pascarella, Ernest T.; Arminio, Jan
Titel	Getting Critical about Critical Thinking: The Role of Parental Education on First-Generation Students' Cognitive Gains in College
Quelle	In: Journal of College Student Development, 59 (2018) 6, S.756-761 (6 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0897-5264
Schlagwörter	Critical Thinking; First Generation College Students; Thinking Skills; Academic Achievement; Educational Attainment; Parent Background; Parent Student Relationship; Parent Influence; College Outcomes Assessment; Parent Role; Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Kritisches Denken; Denkfähigkeit; Schulleistung; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Elternhaus; Parental role; Elternrolle
Abstract	While all students encounter difficulties in transitioning to college, the experience is more pronounced for first-generation college students (Terenzini, Springer, Yaeger, Pascarella, & Nora, 1996). Definitions of "first-generation college student" differ across scholarly studies. Understanding this population's gains in critical thinking skills is essential for helping faculty and administrators to provide better academic and social support. In this article, the authors contend that how "first-generation college student" is operationalized has implications for understanding the critical thinking skills that these students gain in college. They sought to examine the role that parental education has on students' critical thinking gains over 4 years of college. Given the lack of consensus about how to define first-generation status, they also investigated how the influence of parental education varies when operationalized in different ways. Data was collected from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS; Center of Inquiry, n.d.)--a longitudinal, pretest/posttest design study that examined the effects from participation in liberal arts college experiences on both cognitive and affective student learning outcomes varied by institutional selectivity, size, location, and control. Data collection for the WNS occurred in three waves for each of the three cohorts (2006- 2010, 2007-2011, 2008-2012). A series of ordinary least squares regressions was used to test if parental education influenced students' gains in critical thinking over 4 years of college while holding the aforementioned precollege, institutional, and college-level variables constant. Despite the challenges first-generation students face in higher education, findings suggest that first-generation college students show significantly higher gains in critical thinking over 4 years of college when compared to their continuing-generation peers. While first-generation students in the study's sample started with lower precollege critical thinking scores and average ACT scores, they had significantly higher gains than their continuing-generation peers. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01