The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education: Overview
Integration of Liberal Arts Outcomes and Self-Authorship
Mixed method data collection began with a pilot study on four campuses in January, 2005. A total of 600 students completed surveys and assessment instruments that gathered information about their college experiences and measured liberal arts outcomes respectively. From this sample, 174 students completed individual interviews for the pilot study. Starting in the fall of 2006, a 4-year longitudinal phase was launched, surveying students at 19 institutions and interviewing students at six institutions across the country. This phase of the study will follow approximately 4500 students through their undergraduate years. Of these, approximately 300 students on six campuses will participate in yearly interviews during their time in college.
A primary responsibility for the Michigan research team is conceptualizing, conducting and analyzing the in-depth interview portion of both the pilot and longitudinal phases of the study. Guided by the developmental theory of self-authorship, Dr. King and Dr. Baxter Magolda from Miami University (Ohio) created a conceptual map that guided the development of the interview protocol used in the pilot study and, in a revised form, in the longitudinal study.
Using the interview protocol as a guide to help students bring forth and discuss meaningful events, people and ideas in their collegiate experience, 174 in-depth interviews of first year students and seniors were conducted on four campuses during the winter of 2005 for the pilot study. Each of these approximately one and a half hour-long interviewers have been analyzed using grounded theory methodology to gain insights into the students meaning making, collegiate experiences that the students identify as leading to their development, and determining each interviewee’s developmental level in the three domains of self-authorship (cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal).
Using the insights gained from the pilot phase, the Michigan research team refined their interview protocol and analytical process for the longitudinal phase of the study. The interview portion of the study began in the fall of 2006 with 315 first year students being interviewed on six campuses. These students will be interviewed yearly for the next three years to continue to identify developmentally effective experiences as well as understand their development and evolving meaning making.
The research is funded by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts (CILA) at Wabash College, and is being done in conjunction with colleagues Charlie Blaich at CILA, Ernest Pascarella at the University of Iowa and Marcia Baxter Magolda at Miami University (Ohio).
For more detailed information on either the overall study or the quantitative portion of the study, please visit the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College.
