Higher Educational Impact on Student Objectives: Longitudinal Change in Clark-Trow "Educational Philosophies"

This study explores the impact of higher education on 3,942 arts and sciences students as measured by change in their freshman and senior ratings of four Clark-Trow "educational philosophies": vocational, academic, collegiate, and nonconformist (Clark and Trow, 1966). A repeated measures analysis of variance was applied to each of the four philosophies, controlling for sex, entering year, major, parents' educational background, scholastic aptitude, and academic motivation. As expected from Clark-Trow theory, students showed significant increases in academic and nonconformist philosophies, and decreases in vocational and collegiate philosophies. Relationships between independent variables and freshman-senior change suggested post hoc reinterpretation of the dimensions underlying the Clark-Trow "phenotypes": i. e., from "identification with the college" and "involvement with ideas" to "social interests" and "academic interests" (the latter suggested by Terenzini and Pascarella, 1977).

The Impact of Greek Affiliation on Students’ Educational Objectives: Longitudinal Change in Clark-Trow Educational Philosophies

Change in 4,119 students' freshman to senior ratings of four educational philosophies (vocational, academic, collegiate, and nonconformist) provided four measures of educational impact. Repeated measures analyses of variance compared changes in philosophy as a function of Greek affiliation, controlling for sex, historical era, major, parents' education, scholastic aptitude, and academic motivation. Small but significantly different degrees of change in the collegiate and nonconformist philosophies suggested that Greek affiliation increased social interests and inhibited some forms of intellectual interests. These small differences across all students masked the moderating effect of major. In the nonconformist philosophy, for example, the Greek × major interaction reflected substantial Greek–independent differences among humanities majors, and progressively smaller differences or reversals among social science, physical science, and engineering majors. Possible interpretations of this interaction are offered.

Pedagogical techniques and student outcomes in applied instrumental lessons taught by experienced and pre-service American music teachers.

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of teacher experience on student progress and performance quality in an introductory applied lesson. Nine experienced teachers and 15 pre-service teachers taught an adult beginner to play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ on a wind instrument. The lessons were videotaped for subsequent analysis of teaching behaviors and performance achievement. Following instruction, a random sample of teachers was interviewed about their perceptions of the lesson. A panel of adjudicators rated final pupil performances. No significant difference was found between pupils taught by experienced and pre-service teachers in the quality of their final performance. Systematic observation of the videotaped lessons showed that participant teachers provided relatively frequent and highly positive reinforcement during the lessons. Pupils of experienced teachers talked significantly more during the lessons than did pupils of pre-service teachers. Pre-service teachers modeled significantly more on their instruments than did experienced teachers.