Will the Hype about HIPs (High-Impact Practices) Help Higher Education?

Michael B. Reiner

University Fellow

CUNY

Grade Inflation?

Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1987)

Best Practices (1995)

High-Impact Practices (2008)

Has Undergraduate Education Improved That Much in the Past 30 Years?

HIP

PIH

•P – What are the Practices?

• I – What are the Impacts?

•H – How high is High?

HIP

PIH

•P – What are the Practices?

What is HIP?

AAC&U List • First-Year Seminars • Learning Communities • Service Learning • Writing Intensive Courses • Common Intellectual

Experiences • Undergraduate Research • Diversity/Global Learning • Collaborative Assignments • Internships • Capstone Courses

CCCSE List • First-Year Experience • Learning Communities • Orientation • Assessment & Placement • No Late Registration • Class Attendance • Accelerated Developmental Ed • Goal Setting/ Planning • Tutoring • Supplemental Instruction • Alert & Intervention

Is Everything HIP?

HIP

PIH

•P – What are the Practices?

• I – What are the Impacts?

George Kuh, CUNY CUE Conference (Comprehensive Undergraduate Education)

May 2014

• These results are based on student “self-reports” on the NSSE, not performance measures of learning or achievement

• “Gains” refer to student self-perceived improvements, not pre/post gain scores studied longitudinally

• “Deep Learning” is not a measure of knowledge acquisition or competencies attained, but student self-reports about their engagement in activities presumed to promote learning

No matter how well delivered, everyone benefits in a positive

way!

Educationally Purposeful Activities (19 NSSE items)

• Asked questions in class or contributed to discussion

• Made a class presentation

• Used an electronic medium (listserv, chat group, Internet, etc.) for assignment

• Used email to communicate with instructor

• Discussed grades or assignment with instructor

• Received prompt feedback from faculty

• Had serious conversations with students of a different race or ethnicity than your own

HIP

PIH

•P – What are the Practices?

• I – What are the Impacts?

•H – How high is High?

Data From Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, & Kinzie (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades & persistence. Research question – Does engagement add value to academic performance, over and above one’s established academic record? • …”student engagement in educationally purposeful activities had a small but statistically

significant effect on first-year grades. Specifically, a one-standard deviation increase in “engagement” during the first year of college increased a student’s GPA by about .04 points.” (0.038 GPA, p. 547)

• Is this what we mean by HIGH IMPACT?

• The increase was slightly higher for those who studied 6 to 20 hours per week (0.044 GPA points) • The increase was 3X higher for those who studied 21 or more hours per week (0.118 GPA points)

Research question – Does engagement add value to sophomore year persistence, over and above one’s established academic record? • Engaging in educationally purposeful activities had a small but statistically significant effect on

persistence. Specifically, a one-standard deviation increase in “engagement” increased the probability of returning in year 2 by 0.014 (p. 551)

• Is this what we mean by HIGH IMPACT?

• In contrast, those who spent >20 hours in co-curricular activities were 0.071 more likely to return than those who spent 5 hours or less (thus, students very active in co-curricular were 2.5 times more likely to persist than those 2 SD above the mean on academic “engagement”)

First-year seminars Learning communities Service learning Undergraduate research Capstone courses

Brownell & Swaner (2010). Five High-Impact Practices: Research on learning outcomes, completion, & quality

Single institution studied

Variability of implementation

Data is self-reported

Self-selection bias

Short-term focus

Lack of comparison group

Limited outcomes investigated

Mediating variables unknown

Different student populations not studied

Kilgo, Sheets, & Pascarella (2014). The link between high-impact practices & student learning:

Some longitudinal evidence

• Net of all other influences (9 HIPs & covariates), only two HIPs had significant unique impacts on a majority of the 7 outcomes pre-post over four years: active & collaborative learning and undergraduate research.

• These positive effects on multiple liberal arts outcomes (critical thinking, need for cognition, & intercultural effectiveness) were modest in magnitude, ranging from .06 to .21 of a standard deviation.

• Other HIPs (service learning, capstones, study abroad, internships) had more narrowly focused, modest positive effects.

• “Future studies must continue to research these practices to uncover additional empirical evidence to compare to the plethora of anecdotal assertions that these practices have vast benefits for student learning.”

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

Community College Survey of Student Engagement

(CCSSE)

“Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what

the student does to learn.”

Herbert A. Simon, a pioneer in cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and

Nobel Laureate in Economics

Chickering & Gamson (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in

Undergraduate Education

• Encourages contacts between students and faculty

• Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students

• Uses active learning techniques

• Gives prompt feedback

• Emphasizes time on task

• Communicates high expectations

• Respects diverse talents and ways of learning

High-Impact Practices and the NSSE “Educationally Purposeful Activities” appear to employ Chickering & Gamson’s Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1987), packaging these teaching/learning behaviors in things like learning communities, service learning, common intellectual experiences, undergraduate research, etc.

• Even if we assume HIPs engage students in “good practice,” are they all equally effective in promoting learning?

• What is the cost/benefit of one HIP versus another? • Are there “conditional effects” such that HIPs vary in their efficacy with

different student populations? • If so, how might we target the effective HIP to the right student

population to close achievement gaps?

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