Understanding difference through dialogue: A first-year experience for college students.

Research (Gurin, Nagda & Zúñiga, 2009) on Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) has primarily focused on student outcomes in traditional semester-long, three-credit courses, documenting the positive impact IGD has on college students’ (a) intergroup understanding, (b) intergroup relationships, (c) intergroup collaboration and action, and (d) perceived relevancy of diversity in higher education. The University of Illinois at Chicago First-Year Dialogue Seminar (FYDS) was designed as a one-credit, half-semester course based on traditional IGD courses and associated outcomes. Approximately 100 freshman students participated in the pilot of the seminar, completing both pre- and posttest measures of intergroup understanding, intergroup relationships, intergroup collaboration and action, and relevancy of diversity in higher education. Additionally, a comparison group of approximately 80 freshman students, not enrolled in the course, were administered the posttest survey at time 2. The results showed significant gains across measures of intergroup understanding, intergroup collaboration and action, and relevancy of diversity in higher education. Furthermore, FYDS students had significantly higher means across several of the same measures of intergroup understanding and intergroup collaboration and action than the comparison group. These results suggest the potential efficacy of a new model of IGD-based pedagogy and learning.