Alverno's research on learning outcomes has been an integrated effort in which
faculty, researchers, advisors, administrators and others collaborated
in a program dedicated to the deep and durable learning of students
from a variety of backgrounds. This work, spanning over 20 years,
was published under the title Learning
That Lasts to emphasize the focus on the complex and enduring
character of college learning.
In the formal research, full cohorts of women were followed from entry
to college to five years after graduation. Longitudinal data were
collected from a battery of human potential measures, representing
different dimensions of intellectual, moral, and holistic development,
at multiple points across college and then years later as alumnae.
A much smaller sample of participants (100) participated in intense
perspective interviews to gain fuller insight into the experience
of their learning. Performance data were collected from college
records and extrapolated from a Behavioral Event Interview with
the alumnae.
The integrated analysis of these data combined with collaborative studies
in the curriculum and interpreted by educators across the college
provided the basis for an educational theory of the person. For
us, the learning-to-teaching connection proceeds through educator
conversations into a theory of learning that lasts. This website
is under development to examine select portions of that research,
stimulate further conversation, and provide recurring commentary
on related learning research. We will also provide updates from
our current studies as they become available, and we encourage you
to return here periodically.
If you are interested in ordering the book-which provides full documentation
for the formal research, the collaborative inquiry, and the curriculum
processes that led to the learning that lasts formulation-go here.
