Tinto's Model and Successful College Transitions

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article compares the themes of academic integration and social integration in Tinto's model (1987) with the themes of vision and sense of community as described in a recent ethnographic study (Tucker, 1998). Tinto's model has been used in a variety of college settings to develop Freshman Interest Groups as a method of improving student persistence (Upcraft & Gardiner, 1989). However, Tinto himself notes that while “… retention programs have helped some students complete their college education, their long-term impact on retention has been surprisingly limited” (1996). I argue that vision and sense of community contain more useful theoretical considerations to help us address the issue of student retention programs at colleges. Tinto (1987) has developed a theoretical model which may need to be reconsidered.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: