Student development theories

By; Admin

Student development theory refers to the body of theories related to how student gain knowledge in post-secondary education environtments. As we all known that traditionally schools is acted on behalf of parents for the good of their students and concentrated on character development  which mostly equalled to instilling students with traditional values (such as religions) through strictrules and enforced by rigid discipline. The development of students’ character was substantially more important than the development of their intellect.

In the middle of the twentieth century the student service paradigm started to be replaced by the student development paradigm. This paradigm was influenced by the growing body of psychological and sociological theories, reflecting the idea that students learn both in-class and out-of-class, and are influenced both by their genetics and social environtment.Student development theories stress that every student is a different individual with unique needs. Students should be provided with services they require in order to better gain knowledge.

Basic assumptions guiding the student development movement:

1. The individual student must be considered as a whole.
2. Each student is a unique person and must be treated as such.
3. The total environment of the student is educational and must be used to help the student achieve full development.
4. The major responsibility for a student’s personal and social development rests with the student and his/her personal resources.

Student development theories generally can be divided into five categories:

1. Psychosocial. Psychosocial theories life-long issues that tend to occur in sequence and are correlated with chronological age, concentrating on individuals progress through various ‘life stages’ by accomplishing certain deeds.
2. Cognitive-Structural. Cognitive-structural theories address how student perceives, organizes, and reasons about their experiences.
3. Person-Environment. Person-environment theories address interaction between conceptualizations of the college student and the college environment, looking at behavior as a social function of the person and the environment. Those theories are particularly common in career planning.
4. Humanistic Existential. Humanistic existential theories concentrate on certain philosophical concepts about human nature: that humans are free, responsible, self aware, potentially self-actualizing and that education and personal growth is facilitated by self-disclosure, followed by self-acceptance and self- awareness. These theories are used extensively in counseling.
5. Student Development Process Models. Student development process models can be divided into abstract theories and recommended practical sets of action steps for the practice of student development. They outline the process steps of how to use theories.