bridging - an instructional method which uses analogies to bridge the gap between students' prior knowledge and the intended learning outcome (Brown 1992; Brown & Clement 1989; Clement 1993)
course climate - the intellectual social emotional and physical environments in which our students learn
In multiplicity knowledge is simply a matter of opinion. Professors then are not authorities with the right answers; they're just people with opinions. And in this still-naive stage be cause everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion the students' are as good as the instructor's or anyone else's. All opinions they adamantly declare from their vantage point are equal. Consequently they are baffled at instructors' criticisms of their work believing that prejudice whim and personal feelings are the criteria for judgment.
In relativism they learn to weigh evidence and distinguish between weak and strong support. What has previously been just ritualistically pleasing the instructor by following abstract academic rules for argument now be comes a way of thinking and students achieve new insights about what it means to know and to learn. They now understand?those few who reach this stage during a college career?that knowledge is contextual: What one knows about anything or concludes about something is colored by one's perspective assumptions and methods of inquiry. Most questions and problems thus become more complex. Faculty members now become resources to help students learn disciplinary methods of analysis; learning itself becomes use of the methods to understand complexities.
Perry's final phase is commitment in relativism. This requires them to integrate the relatively objective removed and rational procedures of academia with their more empathized and experiential approaches to all other aspects of their lives.
The first stage of the Hardiman-Jackson model corresponds to early childhood where individuals start out in a naïve stage devoid of any preconception or prejudice. They see differences in the people they observe such as skin color but they do not attach value to those.
It is only in a second stage that through persistent and systematic societal reinforcement conscious or unconscious acceptance of certain messages about different groups sets in—the socially constructed ideas about which groups are healthy normal beautiful lazy smart sinful and so on. Many students stop here unless their worldviews are challenged by more information different perspectives recognition of injustice or meaningful work with people from different groups. If they are challenged it can move them forward to a stage of resistance.
In this stage students are acutely aware of the ways in which isms affect their life and the world. In addition members of dominant groups usually experience shame and guilt about the privilege resulting from their own membership in it. Conversely members of minority groups tend to experience pride in their own identity often valuing their group more than the socially dominant one which is sometimes seen as the source of societal evils.
If students successfully move through this stage they arrive at more sophisticated stages those of redefinition and internalization. In these stages students redefine their sense of self moving beyond the dominant–minority dichotomy. These identities become one part of their make-up but not the defining feature. They no longer experience guilt or anger but they might commit to work for justice in their spheres of influence.
Chickering model — a comprehensive model that systematically examines the range of issues students are dealing with in their college years
Chickering (1969) provides a model that tries to systematically account for all the developmental changes students experience through the college years. He groups them in seven dimensions which he calls vectors. They build on each other cumulatively:
- Developing competence
- Managing emotions
- Developing autonomy
- Establishing identity
- Freeing interpersonal relationships
- Developing purpose
- Developing integrity
integrity - the tension between self-interest and social responsibility