How Collaborative Learning Enhances Students' Openness to Diversity

• In Event: 32.035 - Exploring Connections Between Climate, Context, Pedagogy, Diversity, and Outcomes

Abstract

Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, we investigate the influence of collaborative learning on students’ openness to diversity and challenge in the first year of college. Even in the presence of a host of potential confounders, we find that exposure to collaborative learning activities has a net positive impact on students’ openness to diversity regardless of their individual background characteristics. Further, this relation appears to be mediated through students’ interactional diversity experiences. That is, exposure to collaborative learning leads to a greater frequency of students interacting with others who are different from themselves, which in turn leads to a greater openness to diversity.

Authors

• Chad Loes, Mount Mercy University

• KC Culver, The University of Iowa

• Teniell L. Trolian, University at Albany, State University of New York