Dan Berrett of the Chronicle of Higher Education reports this morning that good teaching and exposure to students from diverse backgrounds are some of the strongest predictors of whether freshmen return for a second year of college and improve their critical-thinking skills, say two prominent researchers.
Patrick T. Terenzini, a professor of higher education at Pennsylvania State University, and Ernest T. Pascarella, a co-director of the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education at the University of Iowa, are co-authors of a highly influential book, How College Affects Students, and at a conference on Sunday they sought on Sunday to synthesize what recent research says about student learning, while also weighing in on recent controversies in higher-education research.
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