| Interest in undergraduate student involvement outside the classroom dates back to the colonial days of American higher education. In addition, colleges and universities have long claimed that a primary goal of higher education is to help students develop critically thinking ability. This study examined the growing body of literature linking co-curricular student involvement and its effect on critical thinking.; A meta-analysis was conducted on 18 studies from 1991 to 2000 to determine the possible effect of athletics, Greek life, clubs and organizations, faculty interaction, peer interaction, living on-campus, and employment on critical thinking. The findings indicated that students involved in a variety of activities may have experienced an overall .14 effect gain (Pearson r) in critical thinking compared to students who were not involved. Expressed as a Binomial Effect Size Display, this gain was equivalent to stating that involved students may have experienced an increase in critical thinking ability from 43% to 57% as compared to students who were not involved in a variety of activities.; An analysis of specific involvement areas also suggests that undergraduate students involved in clubs and organizations, peer interaction, living on-campus, and employment may have experienced critical thinking gains of .11, .14, .23, and .13, respectively. Specific moderator variables were also examined and these findings suggested that various institutional and research design characteristics may have also contributed to gains in critical thinking.; The findings for overall and specific involvement in clubs and organizations, peer interaction, living on-campus, and employment have three implications for student affairs practitioners. First, a new foundation of knowledge is now available for student affairs scholars and practitioners, as this is the first study to quantify the overall and specific effects of extracurricular student involvement on critical thinking from 1991 to 2000. The second implication is that this information may help guide student affairs administrators toward budget and policy decisions that support various co-curricular activities on their campuses. Third, these findings may help student affairs personnel build and strengthen their institutional relationships by demonstrating to academic affairs personnel that both parties share a common goal of increasing undergraduate critical thinking ability. |
