Students' Precollege Engagement and the Development of a Global Perspective

Given the growing emphasis on internationalization and the requisite intercultural skills and temperament necessary in a global society, this study examines the relationship between precollege engagement and entering dispositions on a developmentally based set of global perspective outcomes. Based on a multiinstitutional sample of 3,131 entering, first-year students, the results demonstrate significant relationships between students' precollege engagement and the knowledge, affect, and social responsibility dimensions of the Global Perspective Inventory. In particular, results linked precollege involvement in curricular and cocurricular opportunities focused on learning about difference, global issues, and leadership or service opportunities to three dimensions of the inventory, highlighting the influence of such involvement on development across cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal domains.