Sustained Dialogue and Civic Life: Post-College Impacts

This study examined the civic outcomes of the Sustained Dialogue model. Qualitative interviews investigated the perceived impacts of dialogue experience on post-graduate civic life, generating an inventory of 29 dialogue civic outcomes across five domains: 1) cognitions, 2) behaviors, 3) attitudes 4) skills, and 5) hopes and plans for the future. Results extend past research by finding that perceived dialogue impacts lasted into the post-college years and affected future hopes and plans. Additional impacts were identified: (1) across various civic arenas of society, and (2) a transformative restringing effect, in which participants reported they were changed or transformed in subtle, complex, and pervasive ways

Dialogue on Campus: An Overview of Promising Practices

Higher education institutions are recognizing the value of dialogue in engaging diverse perspectives and experiences while providing the necessary skills and knowledge for students to become effective citizens. Colleges and universities are incorporating the theory and practice of dialogue across different dimensions of the curriculum, co-curriculum, pedagogy, and administration and governance. Examples include nation-wide intergroup dialogue programs, community standards processes in residence halls, and institution-wide decision making on curricula. Seen as a whole, these and other examples provide a vision for a comprehensive approach to integrating dialogue on campuses

Civic Engagement Assessment: Linking Activities to Attitudes

In the March-April 2005 issue of Assessment Update, Trudy Banta issued a call to readers to provide information on individual campuses’ efforts to assess civic engagement. This call has prompted us to share the multifaceted approach that Tuffs University has taken to describe and assess this area of student endeavor. Specifically, we will describe an in-depth study designed to investigate undergraduates’ participation in and attitudes toward civic engagement

Civic Engagement: a Study of Changes in College

Using a mixed method longitudinal cohort design, the Tufts University study is examining student involvement in and attitudes towards civic engagement during the undergraduate years and beyond. It does this by using baseline data from students’ levels of community service in high school and then analyzes a variety of curricular and co-curricular experiences in college. This article focuses solely on the research design and some preliminary findings of students’ civic attitudes during their first two years of college