Promoting the assessment of student support interventions in higher education: Between conceptual clarification and methodological discussion
Transition into higher education is a challenging period for most students. A wide diversity of support interventions emerged during the last three decades. Yet, their heterogeneity implied a conceptual haziness on their aims and their effects are still superficially analyzed. The current paper aims to overcome these two limitations. First, a theoretical investigation of 60 support interventions was carried out in order to propose a taxonomy of support actions encompassing four forms of practices and seven targets of support. Second, we share several guidelines to settle a proper and rigorous assessment of the effects of a support intervention.