Dallin George Young
Dallin George Young
Higher Education Researcher
 

Answering Questions

Research

 

My research is centered on a line of inquiry that focuses on how novices are trained, socialized, and educated as they move from the periphery to full participation in academic communities of practice.  Resultantly, more nascent areas of my research include using activity-based theoretical perspectives to interrogate student transitions into the academy; how graduate and professional students learn the rules, knowledge, and culture of their aspirational professional communities; and the impacts of educational structures on the success of these transitions, including investigating differential effects on student populations.  

Through recent efforts based on this line of inquiry, I have sought to improve on the theoretical space around learning and transition in higher education in the US.  Specifically, my work has started to lead to further development and description of application of learning theories (such as Student Becoming and Legitimate Peripheral Participation) and systems theories (such as Cultural-Historical Activity Theory) in higher education in the US.

Below are selected examples of my research in three main areas of activity: Student Transition Programs, Peer Education, and Graduate Preparation in Student Affairs and Higher Education.

Transition Programs

The area of my research that has been the most productive has been the research around student transition programs. I was responsible for and the chief architect of the original research for the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition from 2012-2021. In this capacity, I constructed, coordinated, and carried out five national surveys on student transition programs. This includes the National Survey of First-Year Seminars (2012-13), National Survey of Sophomore-Year Initiatives (2014, 2019), National Survey of Senior Capstone Experiences (2016), and the newly developed National Survey on The First-Year Experience (2017). I have presented widely on the results of these surveys at local, regional, national, and international meetings. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, this has been the area in which most of my collaborations with other scholars have taken place.

Is First-Year Seminar Type Predictive of Institutional Retention Rates?

Dallin George Young, Journal of College Student Development, 2020

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

First-year seminars (FYS) are courses "intended to enhance the academic and/or social integration of first-year students" (Barefoot, 1992, p. 49). Colleges and universities initiate FYS to help first-year students develop a connection with the institution, provide orientation to campus resources and services, foster the development of academic skills, support the learning and developmental objectives of undergraduate education, and retain students from the first to second year of college (Greenfield, Keup, & Gardner, 2013; Young & Skidmore, 2019). Further, they form a connective thread for first-year experiences such as providing an orientation to campus resources, creating a sense of belonging, developing study skills, and serving as a curricular anchor for other high-impact practices (Greenfield et al., 2013; Young & Skidmore, 2019).

2017 National Survey on The First-Year Experience: Creating and Coordinating Structures to Support Student Success

Dallin George Young, Editor, Research Reports on College Transitions, Vol. 9, 2019

The 2017 National Survey on The First-Year Experience marks a change from previous surveys administered by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition by exploring a broad range of initiatives designed to support success in the first college year. Recognizing that individual first-year programs are connected to extensive bodies of literature and practice, authors representing diverse professional networks focused on college student success contribute their voices to the analyses and presentation of results. The report includes an overview of institutional attention to the first year and the prevalence of and connections between first-year programs, a review of the results relating to selected first-year programs, and implications for practice and future research.

WHAT WORKS: LEARNING OUTCOMES DUE TO DESIGN VARIATIONS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT SUCCESS COURSES

Deryl K. Hatch-Tocaimaza, Crystal E. Garcia, Naomi Mardock-Uman, Sarah L. Rodriguez, Dallin George Young, Teachers College Record, 2019

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

This study examined the scope and design of community college student success courses to address which program features relate to learning objectives of student success skills, college knowledge, and engagement. Findings from this research point to several recommendations for practice by highlighting the reality that one term may be too little to learn some student success skills and that particular features of course designs may result in unintended adverse effects. Results indicate that structural elements are the most impactful features and that the skills-based curricular features that receive the most attention may be in fact the least influential features in realizing desired skills and knowledge outcomes. The study points to methodological ways forward to further explore and unpack the relationship between success course design features and educational outcomes.

CAS CROSS-FUNCTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

Dallin George Young and Jennifer R. Keup, 2019

The CFF for First-Year Experience (FYE) was the first Cross-Functional Framework produced by CAS, in partnership with the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and is essential to the work of people involved with first-year students, programs, and services. The CFF for FYE lays out a flexible, high quality framework for coordinating integrated and intentional campus-wide efforts to support first-year student success. Institutions looking for guidelines to structure partnerships with departments, arrange horizontal leadership, and develop buy-in and sustainability of first-year efforts can look to the CAS CFF for FYE as a trusted resource for best practice developed by experts and promoted by a reliable organization that, itself, is based on principles of cross-functional collaboration.

This paper advocates an integrated approach to transition programmes at South Africa’s higher education institutions through drawing on the US literature on the first-year student experience and specific reference to behavioural interaction theory. The case for developing intentional and vertically integrated transition programmes is tied to: the need to understand the desired behaviours and learning outcomes at each stage of a student’s experience; an appreciation of the cognitive, psychosocial and identity development at different years of study; and a recognition of environmental influences and how they relate to, and can be adapted to, changing student characteristics and needs. Particular reference is made to Chickering and Reisser’s seven vectors of identity development, Baxter Magolda’s work on young adults’ journey toward self-authorship, and Bronfenbrenner’s developmental ecology model. It is concluded that an intentional, vertical integration of transition programmes requires horizontal alignment between objectives (desired behaviour), the developmental needs of students, and educational environments. In this regard, a number of recommendations for higher education instructional and support staff are proposed.

Peer Education

I have carried out research on the impact of participation in peer leadership experiences in higher education.  This has been accomplished through a national survey of peer leaders in the US (2013) as well as coordinating an international administration of a survey on peer leaders in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (2014-2015).  This research has led to peer-reviewed publications and presentations, including a keynote presentation in South Africa.  However, this research has given me the opportunity to use my training in advanced quantitative methods to explore these issues.

The Quality and Quantity of Participation in Peer Leader Experiences and Student Outcomes: A Cross-National Validation of Constructs and Predictive Model

Dallin George Young, Wen Zeng, Jane Skalicky, & Jacques van der Meer, Research in Higher Education, 2023

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Participation in student peer leader roles, roles in which more senior students serve as mentors and educators to their peers, have continued to grow in their application and importance to institutions of higher education around the globe. Using a theoretical approach based in Legitimate Peripheral Participation and drawing from the International Survey of Peer Leaders, our paper explored the role of the quality and quantity of participation in important outcomes of the college experience: leadership development, skill development, and academic success. The results showed that the number of hours per week spent on peer leadership activities and the total number of peer leadership positions contributed to positive quality of engagement and enhanced students’ academic outcomes, overall leadership skills, and career readiness. Moreover, findings showed that the quality of engagement moderated the influences of the quantity of participation particularly for measures of academic success. As students develop relationships with faculty, staff, and peers throughout their time in peer leader roles and feel a deepening sense of connection and belonging to the college or university, students in peer leader roles become fuller participants in the academic community and, as a result, develop the knowledge, skills, and ways of doing, thinking, knowing, and being that are critical for student success.

Focusing on the Development of the Whole Student: An International Comparative Study of the Perceived Benefits of Peer Leadership in Higher Education

Jacques van der Meer, Jane Skalicky, Harriet Speed, & Dallin George Young, Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2022

Student engagement in leadership activities in higher education is becoming increasingly popular and is considered to contribute to the development of the “whole student”. To compare and contrast the ways student peer leaders/educators experience the benefits across different countries, and how this can be useful in cross-cultural/national interpretation and adaptation of lessons learned, a survey was conducted in six different English-speaking countries in the world. This paper presents some of the findings related to the combined dataset of all countries, as well as a comparison between the different countries. The findings overall did provide reasonably similar results across countries as well as some minor differences. Overall, the survey respondents did report increased benefits in various realms including a range of academic and employability skills, interaction with peers, desire to persist and graduate and some other outcomes. Considering the increase in interest related to students’ wellbeing, we also explored the potential impact on aspects related to wellbeing. The findings suggest that participation in leadership activities seems to benefit various aspects of students’ wellbeing.

To Pay or Not to Pay: The Influence of Compensation as an External Reward on Learning Outcomes of Peer Leaders

Dallin George Young & Jennifer R. Keup, Journal of College Student Development, 2018

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Data on 4,016 peer leaders from 49 four-year institutions across the United States were used for this quantitative study. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the impact of different forms of compensation on the skills development, institution interaction, academic commitment, employability outcomes, and academic performance of peer leaders. Results reveal that course credit was a significant predictor of increases in all outcome areas included in this study. With self-determination theory used as a framework, the findings suggest that the ways external rewards are structured in peer leader experiences influence students' outcomes. Further, results point to including fundamental features of high-impact practices in scholarship and practice of peer leadership programming.

 

An exploration of the connection between participation in academic peer leadership experiences and academic success

Dallin George Young, Dory E. Hoffman, & Sara Frakes Reinhardt, Journal of Peer Learning, 2019

This study examined the relationship between peer leader involvement and academic success outcomes in the United States. Results are based on the 2013 administration of the National Survey of Peer Leaders conducted at 49 institutions of higher education in the United States. Findings show that academic peer leadership experience was a strong, positive predictor of self-reported academic performance. The total number of peer leader experiences was also a positive, yet weak, predictor of academic success.

Graduate Preparation in Student Affairs and Higher Education

My first area of research – the topic that led me to my love for research – was investigating learning outcomes of master’s students in graduate programs in higher education and student affairs administration. I have carried out three studies related to this focus, using the CAS standards as a framework for understanding the curriculum’s influence on student’s reported learning and their preparation for professional practice: Foundation Studies (2004), Professional Studies (2011), Supervised Practice (2012).

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Supervised practice experiences exist in nearly every student affairs preparation program and serve as the ideal setting in which master's students in student affairs administration programs make the translation of the theoretical knowledge to the practical skills that are required in their work. Yet few studies have revealed the extent to which supervised practice experiences are used to develop skills and competencies in the preparation of student affairs professionals. I surveyed 245 recent graduates from 14 master's programs in student affairs to better understand how their supervised practice experiences contributed to their overall perception of professional preparation. Participants indicated through self-reported data a strong overall sense of professional preparation. Additionally, stronger confidence in leadership, in application of theory, and in career preparation from supervised practice experiences were associated with increased confidence in preparation for professional practice. Measures of these 3 items alone accounted for 42% of the variance in the overall sense of preparation for professional practice.

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

The results both confirm and challenge the subject areas in as outlined in the curriculum standards for Professional Studies in master’s programs in student affairs as published in the 2009 edition of the CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education. On one hand, the factors that were described through the exploratory factor analysis line up with the five subject areas in the standards; however, two of the subject areas, Assessment, Evaluation, and Research and Individual and Group Interventions, each split into two distinct areas of outcomes. The factor analysis indicated that assessment and research methods are conceptually distinct competency areas from assessment and evaluation practices among alumni of master’s programs. Additionally, the results suggest that the skills related to group-level and individual-level interventions are conceptually distinct.

Alumni (n=109) of master’s student affairs preparation programs were surveyed regarding their mastery of learning outcomes based on the CAS Professional Studies curriculum standards. Results indicated that alumni were confident in most areas of their professional preparation; however, confidence was lower in the areas of assessment, evaluation, and research methods. Further, completion of a culminating experience increased participants’ sense of confidence in their learning. Implications for professional preparation, practice, and curricular standards are addressed.

Using CAS Standards to Measure Learning Outcomes of Student Affairs Preparation Programs

Dallin George Young & Steven M. Janosik, NASPA Journal, 2007

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

A majority of recent graduates from master’s level student affairs preparation programs report having a clear understanding of 58 of 60 foundational learning outcomes derived from the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) guidelines. While there were only two significant differences between selfreported learning of graduates from CAS compliant and non-compliant programs on 60 items, data suggest that recent graduates from CAS compliant programs report greater confidence in their preparation in 48 of the 60 outcomes presented in the questionnaire.