REDUCING TRANSFER SHOCK THROUGH FACULTY COLLABORATION: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Numerous studies have revealed that students experience declines in grade point averages ("transfer shock") after transferring from 2‐year to 4‐year colleges or universities. An academic model (Eaton, 1990), stressing a close relationship between 2‐ and 4‐year faculties, has been recommended by the American Council on Education (Palmer & Eaton, 1991) as the means to improve the success of 2‐year transfer students. This study investigated whether faculty collaboration has an impact upon the transfer shock commonly experienced when students transfer from 2‐ to 4‐year colleges. Subjects included students who transferred from Highland Community College to Benedictine College over a six‐semester time period. The sample was divided into two categories. The first category consisted of students majoring in education, a field in which faculty collaboration had occurred. The second category consisted of students majoring in fields other than education, in which faculty collaboration had not yet occurred. Results suggest that faculty collaboration reduced transfer shock to a nonsignificant level and thus support the academic model of transfer. Students transferring in education, the field in which collaboration had occurred, did not experience statistically significant declines in grade point averages. Moreover, GPA increases were realized by one‐half of the education transfers. Implications for practice are provided to draw attention to the academic component of the transfer function and for future research.

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