Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students' Inner Lives

by Alexander W. Astin, Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin

Cultivating the Spirit THIS GROUNDBREAKING WORK IS BASED on a five-year study of how students change during the college years and the role college plays in facilitating the development of their spiritual qualities. Students, the authors argue, grapple with the big questions in life: Who am I? What are my values? Do I have a mission in life? Why am I in college? What kind of person do I want to be? What sort of world do I want to help to create? Their answers to these questions help determine their academic and career choices and are tied to the development of personal qualities such as empathy, caring, and social responsibility. The study finds that, while students' religious engagement declines during college, at the same time they become substantially more caring, tolerant, connected with others, and actively egaged in a spiritual quest. Spiritual growth also enhances academic performance, leadership development, and satisfaction with college. The study provides strong evidence pointing to specific experiences during college that can contribute to students' spiritual growth. The need for spiritual development in college is apparent. Two-thirds of the students in the study express a strong interest in spiritual matters, well over half report that their professors never encourage discussions of religious or spiritual matters, and about the same proportion report that professors never provide opportunities to discuss the purpose and meaning of life. Cultivating the Spirit aims to raise the awareness of academic administrators, faculty, and the public at large to the vital role that spirituality plays in student learning and development. Throughout the book, the authors identify strategies for enhancing students' development and encourage the academy to give greater priority to the spiritual aspects of students' educational and personal development.

Genres: Spirituality

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Dane Radigan]

read for class. I understand their definition of spirituality, but was not a huge fan of it. interesting research that has a lot of applications.

[Laura Engelken · Rating 2 out of 5]

While higher education and student affairs folks have long studied and discussed the student development process, rarely have they discussed the aspect of spiritual development. Consequently, this extensive, multi-year survey process - reaching over 100,000 students - is very important and useful for the field. I just wish the text wasn't so repetitive. You could pretty much read the first and last chapters and you are go to go - as they summarize all the findings and offer a few insights regarding their observations. Everything in between is a bit tedious given its repetitive nature.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you define "spiritual" as "concerned with meaning and purpose, connected to the world around you, intuitive, sensitive to mystery, compassionate, and serene," then this book explains how to create a place in higher education where students can grow spiritually. Three UCLA professors outline the results of their ground-breaking survey. On the basis of their findings, they recommend best practices. Unsurprisingly, they involve more community service, private reflection, and guidance from professors, and less drinking, partying, television-watching, and video-game-playing.

[Erin Oeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is our spring Student Life book club selection. It is a study on the spiritual development of college students. The Astins examine spirituality and religiousity of college students and their in-depth study reveals that spirituality increases during college, as students seek out meaning & purpose, even while religious engagement wanes. This book discusses the implications of these findings as well as provides suggestions for program development to further enhance spiritual development.

[Rj Canillas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would really love to read this book.