IS DIFFERENTIAL EXPOSURE TO COLLEGE LINKED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING

This study investigated the influence on critical thinking of differen tial exposure to postsecondary education. The sample was 2,076 first-y ear students attending 13 four-year and 4 two-year institutions from a round the country. First-year students attending college full-time dev eloped a higher level of critical thinking skills than those attending part-time. In the presence of controls for precollege critical thinki ng and academic motivation, the average critical thinking of first-yea r students at the institution attended, gender, race, age, and kinds o f courses taken, the number of semester hours for which the student wa s enrolled had modest but significant positive effects on end-of-first -year critical thinking for both the two- and four-year college sample s. In the two-year, but not the four-year, sample the relationship bet ween semester hours and critical thinking deviated significantly from linearity. Students attending a two-year college full-time still deriv ed the largest critical thinking benefits. However, the lowest levels of critical thinking accrued to those enrolled between 7 and 20 semest er hours. Students enrolled for 6 or less hours actually had somewhat higher end-of-first-year critical thinking.