Review

Reviewed Work(s): How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research by Ernest
T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini
Review by: Nathaniel J. Bray
Source: The Journal of General Education , 2006, Vol. 55, No. 2 (2006), pp. 160-163
Published by: Penn State University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27798045

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to The Journal of General Education

This content downloaded from

134.193.117.53 on Mon, 01 Feb 2021 02:32:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BOOK REVIEW

Ernest T. Pascarella & Patrick T. Terenzini. (2005). How College

Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research. San Francisco: John
Wiley and Sons. 827 pages. ISBN 0-7879-1044-9. $55.00.

Pascarella and Terenzini's How College Affects Students, published

in 1991, has been a staple of courses on college student development
and trends for the past decade. The authors' original effort seeks to
encompass empirical studies and the major theoretical approaches
that have been used to consider the issue of the impact of colleges on
students. Now, they have released a new volume that seeks to update
readers on the trends and findings of studies conducted throughout
the 1990s and into the early years of the current millennium. As the
authors argue in this newest work, the original volume was written
on the cusp of a period in which a new and significantly revised set
of ground rules and understandings of the effects of colleges on stu
dents would be developed. This review, therefore, considers the
offerings found in Pascarella and Terenzini's update, How College
Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research, published in 2005.
The overall premise of the book and what it has to offer to the
field of general education have not changed since 1991, although the
specifics of the content have. Pascarella and Terenzini continue their
sweeping and daunting efforts to capture the intricacies of the stud
ies they review, both indicating how these were conducted and pro
viding a reasoned insight into the meaning one can attribute to the
results of the studies. Furthermore, the authors have managed to yet
again articulate the complexities of the various studies and present
them in a meaningful way by utilizing the same conceptual
approaches as in their original work. The duplication of sections
from the original in the current version makes for easy comparison.
Even more helpful in this regard, within each section is a brief syn
opsis of the findings in the original work followed by new findings
in light of the earlier knowledge.

JGE: THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL EDUCATION, Vol. 55, No. 2, 2006.

Copyright ? 2006 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

This content downloaded from

134.193.117.53 on Mon, 01 Feb 2021 02:32:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Book Review 161

Pascarella and Terenzini also note changes in focus within

strands of research over time. For example, in terms of between
institution effects, there was relatively little research done at the time
the original book was released. Since then, however, there has been
a dramatic increase in the number of studies on this topic. The
authors' acknowledgment of the overarching trends in the research
being conducted is particularly important given their argument that
most meta-analytic techniques would not have been helpful to con
dense the data given different operational definitions contained
within individual studies. Instead, as in the original volume,
Pascarella and Terenzini do not attempt to compute study effect sizes
or similarly aggregate the studies (p. 11). As they so concisely note,
understanding the size and details of the body of literature becomes
important, and they have provided that information so that the reader
may consider this along with the findings.
What Pascarella and Terenzini report is a much more complex
and informed field of study than existed a decade ago. More varie
gated and differentiated theories are brought to bear on the ill
defined questions associated with the overall effect of college on
students. In most cases, they note, prior knowledge is furthered
rather than overturned.
So, with all of this in mind, what does this book offer to those
whose focus is on general education? Primarily, the volume can
serve as a handy reference, guiding an individual's own pursuit of
increased knowledge and helping to inform and target that search.
Although the topics of general education, core curricula, and liberal
arts do not make the index, Pascarella and Terenzini's book still cov
ers a wealth of information that could be beneficial to scholars and
practitioners in this field. For instance, consider their discussion of
coursework pattern studies, which can be informative in evaluating
student development. The authors discuss several helpful studies and
then note that some of the studies are contradictory, leading to
"ambiguity about general education coursework" (p. 93). They state
strongly, however, that they found "no singular instructional or cur
ricular approach that consistently and significantly facilitated the
growth of critical thinking" (p. 173) as measured by general instru
ments. In this manner, they cover many other topics that can also
help those involved in general education. Although in this particular

This content downloaded from

134.193.117.53 on Mon, 01 Feb 2021 02:32:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 162 Bray

example their findings do not provide much specific direction, a

great deal of the information the authors review can be helpful in
general education considerations. For example, peer interactions and
community service can be important in student growth and fostered
within general education curricula.
Pascarella and Terenzini found "relatively few studies focusing
on change or gains in general cognitive skills and intellectual growth
during college" (p. 156), something we in the field need to consider
more deeply. Objective measures also provide different results on
this issue than do student self-reports (p. 170). So, as practitioners
and researchers consider the findings of prior work, this research
suggests that they need to keep an open mind and consider the
approach along with the outcomes of a given study.
A greater number of hours taken in the core curriculum has also
been found to be linked with higher levels of critical thinking skills,
but as Pascarella and Terenzini note (p. 186), the reasons for the gain
are unclear and the study needs to be replicated. This points to a
problem with our current knowledge base in several areas of cogni
tive development, as well as moral reasoning?we need more repli
cated studies conducted across a variety of settings to establish
findings more concretely. Indeed, the volume is quite precise as a
guide in listing needed calls for studies across several areas of
importance to those involved with general education. As described
by Pascarella and Terenzini, the general trend in liberal arts compe
tencies, as well as most other developmental areas, shows growth
from the freshman to senior years (p. 574). However, we are still at
a loss to explain the causes and processes involved as explicitly and
directly as would be helpful. While Pascarella and Terenzini state
that these net gains are attributable to exposure to college, the ways
in which colleges affect this change are not empirically understood.
There is much, therefore, that those interested in general educa
tion can take from this volume. It is a handy reference that con
denses the findings from a plethora of informative studies, with the
added benefit of the reasoned expertise and insights of the two
authors. There are a few weaknesses for utilizing the book as a gen
eral education resource, however. As Pascarella and Terenzini note,
the book is organized around outcomes, such as cognitive gains or
attainment and persistence, rather than approaches used to achieve

This content downloaded from

134.193.117.53 on Mon, 01 Feb 2021 02:32:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Book Review 163

these outcomes. Their approach is a helpful way to address the prob

lem, and their choice is well made. However, the end result is that
there is no easy way to target the specific studies that can offer infor
mation to general education approaches. Instead, one must read
through the sections detailing the outcomes one desires to effect.
The time required to pursue this approach is exacerbated by the fact
that the book does not categorize general education or core curricu
lum in the index. At least some differentiation for the studies that
specifically targeted general education programs or gains would
have been worthwhile.
As Pascarella and Terenzini's volume is a review of other empir
ical research, it primarily serves to condense work that has already
been done, and much of the research included will already be known
to those who follow the issues of general education. However, by
tying it together, Pascarella and Terenzini manage to highlight some
important strands of thought for general education. Overall, this
book is recommended as a reference for those interested in catching
up on the most current understanding of how colleges can influence
students. For those who are already specialists in general education,
however, this volume may not have as much to offer for their own
specific interests.

Nathaniel J. Bray

This content downloaded from

134.193.117.53 on Mon, 01 Feb 2021 02:32:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms