the programs of ........ necessary for the development of student and individual
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Student Development (A Personal View)
MIKE RIDLEY
University of Guelph Librarian and ORION Board Member
November 15, 2012
mike ridleyAs some of you know, I’m enrolled in an MEd program at the University of Toronto. Currently I’m taking a course on student development from Peter Dietsche. Excellent teacher/researcher, and as always, wonderful colleagues in the class.
The initial assignment in the course was to submit a personal reflection on the concept of student development (based on a series of specific questions). It was interesting to think about this so I thought I’d post my assignment.
– Mike
Student Development: A Personal Reflection
Provide your own brief definition of student development in higher education.
Student development in higher education is the integration of academic learning programs with the larger issues of personal improvement and individual growth. It is a student centered, holistic experience focused on understanding (and demonstrating) values, nurturing skills, and moving towards knowledge.
Describe what you believe to be the role of the individual student in promoting his/her development. Are there particular student characteristics that help or hinder development?
Current undergraduates are sometimes viewed as disinterested consumers purchasing an accreditation for the sole purpose of getting a job. If this is so, it is because we, the universities, have made it so. My experience with undergraduates suggests that while they are concerned about getting a job they are also interested in being active learners, exploring ideas and gaining new experiences, and being reflective about what they are doing and seeing. They are open and willing to take risks. They are curious. These are essential characteristics of an effective learner and a self-aware individual. Where these characteristics have been sublimated by high school or personal circumstance, it important that the university find ways to nurture them.
Students must be partners in their own learning. Taking responsibility for their own learning and development is something many students wrestle with. Their educational experience prior to university has been too passive and universities often provide little support in transitioning to this new perspective on their own learning. We, universities, assume independent, self-directed learners when the typical undergraduate is still a novice learner.
Students who already know what they want from their undergraduate experience can be the least open to new experiences. I worry about them more than I do about those who say they don’t know what they want from university (the so-called “aimless” learners). While a career focus and explicit educational outcomes are valuable, they can also blind a student to exploring unfamiliar or challenging ideas, concepts or experiences. University, for our typical 17-24 year old undergraduate cohort, is a time of increasing self-awareness. We need to unsettle students as much as we need to help them find coherence. Students themselves need to be open to new ideas and we, as an institution, need to allow them to be novices.
Some students never accept this responsibility. A colleague told me about a student of his that rarely spoke in class. When he pressed her to contribute she said “but I don’t know what you want me to think.” His heart sank not just because this student had accepted her role as a vessel to be filled up by the institution but because this student had expressed a desire to become a teacher herself.
I teach a first year undergraduate course ostensibly about the end of literacy (it’s really a course about helping students become better learners). The material is very provocative; intentionally so. One of the results that I am most pleased about is that students openly challenge my ideas. I am delighted (and only slightly perturbed) by this. The class insists on informed discourse (alternative ideas must be supported with intellectual rigour) and as a result it promotes critical thinking and, most importantly, breaks down the separation of teacher and student. I know these students will move on to large classes with little opportunity to express themselves or challenge their instructors. However, in a small way, they have been allowed to find their academic voice and with it the realization that they are responsible for their own learning.
Describe what you believe to be the role of the learning institution in promoting student development. Are there particular institutional characteristics that help or hinder student development?