THE WAY ADVISING SHOULD BE DEPENDS PERRYS THEORY
THE WAY ADVISING SHOULD BE, DEPENDS: PERRY’S THEORY OF INTELLECTUAL AND ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT Samantha Palombizio, M. S. ∙ Student Services Specialist ∙ Northwestern CT Community College
This presentation is dedicated to Dr. Jane Fried who taught me everything I know about Student Development Theory and much more.
To Do ◦ Historical Overview ◦ Theory ◦ Activity! ◦ Applications for Advising ◦ Critiques ◦ Questions and Comments
Historical Overview ◦ Engaged in research examining how students interpret and make meaning of the teaching and learning process ◦ Acknowledged indebtedness to Piaget and other developmental psychologists, such as Kohlberg ◦ Longitudinal study, a series of year-end interviews conducted with students over the course of their college stay
The Theory
Dualism/ Received Knowledge The world is viewed dichotomously 1. Basic Duality: ◦ All problems are solvable ◦ Student’s task is to learn the Right Solutions 2. Full Dualism: ◦ Some Authorities disagree; others agree ◦ There are Right Solutions, but some teachers’ views of the answers are obscured ◦ Student’s task is to learn the Right Solutions and ignore the others
Multiplicity/ Subjective Knowledge Honor diverse views when the right answers are not yet known 3. Early Multiplicity: ◦ There are two kinds of problems: ◦ Those whose solutions we know ◦ Those whose solutions we do not know… yet ◦ Student’s task is to learn how to find the Right Solutions 4. Late Multiplicity: ◦ Everyone has the right to their own opinion ◦ Some problems are unsolvable
Relativism/ Procedural Knowledge Initiated by recognition of the need to support opinions 5. Contextual Relativism ◦ All proposed solutions are supported by reasons ◦ Some solutions are better than others, depending on context ◦ Student’s task is to learn to evaluate solutions 6. Pre-Commitment Student sees the necessity of: ◦ Making choices ◦ Committing to a solution
Commitment to Relativism Integration of knowledge learned from others with personal experience and reflection 7. Commitment Student makes a commitment 8. Challenges to Commitment: ◦ Student experiences implications of commitment ◦ Student explores issues of responsibility 9. Post-Commitment Student realizes commitment is ongoing
Activity!
1. Read each student description 2. Identify which of Perry’s Developmental positions the student most resembles 3. Describe how you would use theory to help assist the student
Applications for Advising ◦ Understanding the differing expectations students bring to the Advising/ Career Development process ◦ Use of challenge and support strategies can foster students’ movement to the next developmental position ◦ Better understanding of group process ◦ Assist intellectual growth ◦ Understanding how students interpret their experiences ◦ Support further cognitive growth ◦ Staff supervision
Critiques ◦ Lack of inclusiveness ◦ This study was conducted in the 1950 s and 1960 s ◦ Inclusion of two constructs ◦ May be measuring students’ socialization ◦ Simply labels students
References ◦ Dr. Fried’s Student Development in Higher Education course, Central Connecticut State University, Fall 2010 ◦ Evans, N. , Forney, D. , Guido, F. , Patton, L. , & Renn, K. (1998). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice (2 nd ed. ). San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass. ◦ Kohlberg, L. (1975). The cognitive-developmental approach to moral education. Phi Delta Kappan, 56, 670 -677. ◦ Perry, William, G. , Jr. (1970), Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston). ◦ Perry, William G. , Jr. (1981), “Cognitive and Ethical Growth; The Making of Meaning”, in Arthur W. Chickering and Associates, The Modern American College (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass): 76 -116. ◦ Piaget, J. (1950). The psychology of intelligence. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Questions and Comments
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