First Year Students: Development of the Whole Person – Why Bother?

May 11, 2009

“A supported and understood student becomes an engaged student, an engaged student is a retained student, a retained student with continued support is a

successful student.”

ACAD 101 NEW INSTRUCTOR TRAINING

Frank Ardaiolo, Ed. D.

Vice President for Student Life

Winthrop University

2005: 2005: How College How College Affects Students (Vol.2):Affects Students (Vol.2):

A Third Decade of A Third Decade of ResearchResearch

(1989-2002)(1989-2002)

What can we conclude about What can we conclude about knowledge acquisitionknowledge acquisitionand cognitive growth?and cognitive growth?

1. Significant between-college effects on knowledge acquisition and cognitive growth are inconsistent and, when found, quite modest in magnitude.

2. Learning and cognitive growth during college is due much more to within-college academic and nonacademic experiences than to the characteristics of the college attended.

(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)

Developmental Theories of Student Change

• Psychosocial development, including identity formation theories focus on content of development, e.g., vectors identity statuses, dimensions (Erickson, Chickering)

• Cognitive-structural theories seek to describe nature & processes of change (Piaget, Perry, Kohlberg, Gilligan)

• Typological models categorize individuals according to distinctive characteristics (Kolb, Holland, Briggs)

• Person-environment interaction theories & models focus on environment that influences behavior of individual (Astin, Kuh)

CHICKERING’s CHICKERING’s VECTORS OF DEVELOPMENTVECTORS OF DEVELOPMENT inin EDUCATION AND IDENTITYEDUCATION AND IDENTITY

• DEVELOPING COMPETENCE: INTELLECTUAL COMPETENCE, SOCIAL COMPETENCE, AND PHYSICAL AND MANUAL COMPETENCE

• MANAGING EMOTIONS: THE INCREASING AWARENESS OF ONE’S FEELINGS WHICH MUST BE INTEGRATED WITH ONE’S ACTIONS IN ORDER TO ALLOW FLEXIBLE CONTROL AND EXPRESSION

• MOVING THROUGH AUTONOMY TOWARD INTERDEPENDENCE: ESTABLISHING EMOTIONAL INDEPENDENCE FREE OF CONTINUAL AND PRESSING NEEDS OF REASSURANCE, AFFECTION OR APPROVAL

• ESTABLISHING IDENTITY: REFERS TO A CLEAR SELF-CONCEPT AND COMFORT WITH THE SELF OR PERSON ONE FEELS ONESELF TO BE

CHICKERING’s CHICKERING’s VECTORS OF DEVELOPMENTVECTORS OF DEVELOPMENT in EDUCATION AND IDENTITY EDUCATION AND IDENTITY (2nd ed., 1993)

• DEVELOPING MATURE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS: INVOLVES INCREASED TOLERANCE, ACCEPTANCE AND APPRECIATION OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND THEIR CULTURAL DIFFERENCES WITH INCREASED CAPACITY FOR MATURE RELATIONSHIPS BASED UPON GREATER TRUST, INDEPENDENCE, AND INDIVIDUALITY

• DEVELOPING PURPOSE: THE ASSESSMENT AND CLARIFICATIONS OF ONE’S INTERESTS, EDUCATION AND CAREER OPTIONS, AND LIFE-STYLE PREFERENCE

• DEVELOPING INTEGRITY: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DEFINED AND INTERNALLY CONSISTENT SET OF VALUES THAT GUIDE ONE’S ACTIONS

Students’ out-of-class interactions with Students’ out-of-class interactions with peers and the nature of their extra-peers and the nature of their extra-

curricular experience: curricular experience: Important implications for Important implications for

cognitive growth & learningcognitive growth & learning

1) Extend and reinforce the ethos of the academic program

2) Expose one to people, ideas, and perspectives that challenge assumed views of the world

*Importance of student affairs professionals*Importance of student affairs professionals(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)

Physical Presence BUT Psychological Absence on Campus!

• Many students systematically fail to recognize the value of learning:

“What we can say with fair confidence at this point is that most students who leave high school and enter college bring with them a set of attitudes and beliefs about schooling and their interaction with educational institutions that tend to insulate them against learning rather than to prepare them for it” p.47.

J. Tagg (2003), The learning paradigm college. Bolton, MA: Anker

Students existexist on campus but fail to engageengage with campus … to overcome

this we must understand: “Learning is a complex, holistic, multi-centric

activity that occurs throughout and across the college experience. Student development and the adaptation of learning to students’ lives and needs are fundamental parts of engaged learning and liberal education” (p. 8).

LEARNING RECONSIDERED: A CAMPUS-WIDE FOCUS ON THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE, ACPA/NASPA, 2004

Liberal Education must be…• one that prepares us to live responsible, productive, and creative

lives in a dramatically changing world. It is an education that fosters a well-grounded intellectual resilience, a disposition toward lifelong learning, and an acceptance of responsibility for the ethical consequences of our ideas and actions. Liberal education requires that we understand the foundations of knowledge and inquiry about nature, culture and society; that we master core skills of perception, analysis, and expression; that we cultivate a respect for truth; that we recognize the importance of historical and cultural context; and that we explore connections among formal learning, citizenship, and service to our communities.

Association of American Colleges & Universities, October 1998

• concerned with habituation in moral conduct as well as with its theoretical analysis. It must educate the whole person, the appetites as well as intellect.

John Brubacher, On the Philosophy of Higher Edcation,1977, p. 82

Learning Reconsidered is …

• an argument for the integrated use of all of higher education’s resources in the education and preparation of the whole student. It is also an introduction to new ways of understanding and supporting learning and development as intertwined, inseparable elements of the student experience.

• student centered as a comprehensive, holistic, transformative activity that integrates academic learning and student development, processes that have often been considered separate, and even independent of each other.

(LEARNING RECONSIDERED: A CAMPUS-WIDE FOCUS ON THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE, ACPA/NASPA, 2004)

So what is LEARNING?

• Learning is a complex, holistic, multi-centric activity that occurs throughout and across the college experience. Student development, and the adaptation of learning to students’ lives and needs, are fundamental parts of engaged learning and liberal education. True liberal education requires the engagement of the whole student – and the deployment of every resource in higher education.

LEARNING RECONSIDERED: A CAMPUS-WIDE FOCUS ON THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE, ACPA/NASPA, 2004

The key components of learning areCOGNITION & MEANING MAKING

• Cognition involves the thought processes that people use to analyze and synthesize information in order to make meaning of a situation or to decide how to respond to it. Cognitive development builds the capacity for reflective judgment, which describes a person’s increasing ability to take information and context into account when developing judgments or making decisions.

• Meaning making comprises students’ efforts to comprehend the essence and significance of events, relationships, and learning; to gain a richer understanding of themselves in a larger context; and to experience a sense of wholeness. Meaning making arises in a reflective connection between an individual and the wider world.

(LEARNING RECONSIDERED: A CAMPUS-WIDE FOCUS ON THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE, ACPA/NASPA, 2004)

It’s about learning, not just teaching• The idea of transformative

learning reinforces the root meaning of liberal education itself – freeing oneself from the constraints of a lack of knowledge and an excess of simplicity. In the transformative educational paradigm, the purpose of educational involvement is the evolution of multidimensional identity, including but not limited to cognitive, affective, behavioral and spiritual development.

• Transformative education, instead of the singular emphasis on information transfer of much traditional teaching, places the student’s reflective processes at the core of the learning experience and asks the student to evaluate both new information and the frames of reference through which the information acquires meaning.

(LEARNING RECONSIDERED: A CAMPUS-WIDE FOCUS ON THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE, ACPA/NASPA, 2004)

It’s Really About It’s Really About Deep Learning Deep Learning and the and the Abilities to:Abilities to:

Attend to the underlying Attend to the underlying meaning of information as well meaning of information as well as contentas content

Integrate and synthesize Integrate and synthesize different ideas, sources of different ideas, sources of informationinformation

Discern patterns in evidence or Discern patterns in evidence or phenomenaphenomena

Apply knowledge in different Apply knowledge in different situationssituations

View issues from multiple View issues from multiple perspectivesperspectives

(George Kuh, (George Kuh, Engaged Learning Communities: Engaged Learning Communities: Students, Faculty, and InstitutionsStudents, Faculty, and Institutions , AAC&U , AAC&U Institute, Burlington, VT, 2005)Institute, Burlington, VT, 2005)

““Deep LearningDeep Learning is is learning that takes learning that takes root in our root in our apparatus of apparatus of understanding, in understanding, in the embedded the embedded meanings that meanings that define us and that define us and that we use to define the we use to define the world.”world.”

J. Tagg (2003). J. Tagg (2003). The learning paradigm college (p. 70).The learning paradigm college (p. 70). Bolton, MA: AnkerBolton, MA: Anker

Student Learning Outcomes

• Cognitive complexity

• Knowledge acquisition, integration, and application

• Humanitarianism

• Civic engagement

• Personal and interpersonal competence

• Practical competence

• Persistence and academic achievement

LEARNING RECONSIDERED: A CAMPUS-WIDE FOCUS ON THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE, ACPA/NASPA, 2004

HOW DO YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN as ACAD 101 instructors?

• “Engagement is the proxy to learning.”

Lee Schulman, Change, 2002, pp. 36-44

• Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H., Whitt, E. J. & Associates (2005). Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter

It’s about ENGAGEMENT … focusing on what students do during college is the

best way to enhance student success!

• “The contribution of out-of-class experiences to student engagement

cannot be overstated” … if an “institution wishes to emphasize student achievement, satisfaction, persistence,

and learning.”

(Elizabeth Whitt, About Campus, January-February, 2006, p.2)

To successfully engage students, YOU:

• Focus on student learning. Period. By being partners in the educational enterprise, team

teaching with faculty, creating enriching educational opportunities for students, fostering student success, with policies and practices that create seamless learning environments where boundaries between in-class and out-of-class learning are fuzzyfuzzy.

By hiring, training, and rewarding staff committed to student learning.

(Elizabeth Whitt, “Are All Your Educators Educating?” About Campus, 2006)

To successfully engage students, YOU:

• Create and sustain partnerships for learning.By creating cross-functional collaborations and

responsive units.

By having cocurricular programs that foster and not compete or undercut students’ academic achievement.

• Hold all students to high expectations for engagement and learning, in and out of class, on and off campus.

(Elizabeth Whitt, “Are All Your Educators Educating?” About Campus, 2006)

To successfully engage students, YOU:

• Implement a comprehensive set of safety nets and early warning systems.

By insuring all these systems and services are not working in isolation; rather all (faculty, student life staff, residence life staff, and student paraprofessionals) have the attention and draw upon resources of everyone who comes into contact with students in difficulty.

By understanding how students spend their time and communicating relevant information to faculty and student life educators.

(Elizabeth Whitt, “Are All Your Educators Educating?” About Campus, 2006)

To successfully engage students, YOU:

• Teach new students what it takes to succeed.By raising expectations for academic challenge and

engagement in educationally purposeful activities.

By requiring students to participate in experiences that lead to learning.

• Recognize, affirm, and celebrate the educational value of diversity.

• Invest in programs and people that demonstrate contributions to student learning and success.

(Elizabeth Whitt, “Are All Your Educators Educating?” About Campus, 2006)

To successfully engage students, YOU:

• Use data to inform decisionsUse data to inform decisions

• Create spaces for learningCreate spaces for learning

• Establish learning communitiesEstablish learning communities

(Elizabeth Whitt, “Are All Your Educators Educating?” About Campus, 2006)

Sources of Effects on LearningSources of Effects on Learning1. Class size and content knowledge (-)2. Instructional approaches and content acquisition

• Learning for mastery (.41 - .68 sd; +16-25 %ile points)• Computer-based instruction (on avg.: .31 sd, or +12 %ile

pts)• Supplemental Instruction (.39 sd, or +15 %ile pts)• Collaborative/Cooperative learning

(.47 - .54 sd, or +18-20 %ile pts)• Active learning (.25 sd, or +10 %ile pts)• Small-group learning (.51 sd, or +19 %ile pts)• Service learning (+, but size unknown)

(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2004)(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2004)

Sources of Effects on LearningSources of Effects on Learning

3. Effective instructor behaviors:• Preparation and organization• Clarity and understandableness• Expressiveness/Enthusiasm• Availability and helpfulness• Quality and frequency of feedback to

students• Concern for, and rapport with, students

(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)

Sources of Effects on LearningSources of Effects on Learning

4. The Curriculum• An interdisciplinary, integrated core

curriculum emphasizing links across courses and ideas (+)

• Higher-order thinking skills can be taught:• Critical thinking (+.23 SD; 9%ile pts.)• Postformal reasoning (+.65 SD; 24 %ile

pts.) (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)

Sources of Effects on LearningSources of Effects on Learning

5. Social and out-of-class involvement:• Quality of student effort/engagement (+)• Interactions with peers (+)• “Diversity” experiences (+)• Interactions with faculty members (+)• On-/off-campus work (neutral, if part-time)

(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)