#Theories on #Theories on #Theories

As I was finishing up the assigned reading, I began to feel that there were so many types of student development theories that I was beginning to feel overwhelmed.  Why can't they take all of those theories, put them in a blender, and boom, you have a single, solid malt of student development theory?

(Nothing like a one of a kind, chocolate malt with a student development theory on top...wait what?)

It's a good thing that's not the case despite the simplicity of that possibility.  These many theories outline that we as humans, then as students are much more complicated and intricate than some one-size fits all theory and rightly so.  So why learn about all of these theories then?  Well I feel that to be able to truly grasp anything of Leadership Theory, we need to understand the theory of how we are going to get there (as students) by understanding the foundations of student development that contributed to our being of leaders today.

So in retrospect...Theories on Theories on Theories (in a good way of course!)

All of these theories are meticulously crafted towards student development, but these three theories resonated with me the most as critical factors into truly understanding not only personal growth in student development, but truly reaching upon Leadership Theory's doorstep.


1.  Developmental Theory Families:

Evans wastes no time in his article pointing how just about all of the student development theories fall into these 5 categories.  I found it difficult to continue understanding the rest of the article without being able to classify what type of theory was being described.  So what does this have to do with leadership and facilitations?  Well...everything!  By understanding these 5 different categories, we (as facilitators) can better gear our facilitations to student organizations by following these types of theories.  Since they contribute to the overall understanding of the well-being of a student's development, it will also help us be able to grasp the large vas concept of Leadership Theory.

Here is the Development Theory Families from Elkins:

"Psychosocial theories address developmental issues or tasks and events that occur throughout the life span. These tasks and events tend to occur in sequence and are correlated with chronological age. Individuals progress from one stage to another by accomplishing related developmental tasks or by resolving crises. This is the "what" or "content" of student development" (Elkins 2)

"Cognitive-structural theories address a sequence of meaning-making structures through which the student perceives, organizes, and reasons about their experiences. The stages are hierarchical and each successive stage incorporates the functional parts of the previous stage. This is the "how" or "process" of student development" (Elkins 2).

"Person-Environment theories address conceptualizations of the college student, the college environment and the degree of congruence that occurs when they interact. Behavior is a function of the person and the environment. Many of these theories are used in career planning" (Elkins 2).

"Humanistic existential theories share a common philosophy of the human condition. Humans are free, responsible, self-aware, potentially self-actualizing, and capable of being fully functioning. These theorists believe the forces of growth are within the person and are facilitated by self-disclosure, followed by self-acceptance and self-awareness. These theories are used extensively in counseling and give us a framework from which to practice other theories" (Elkins 2).

Student development process models are either abstract representations of the field of student personnel work or recommended sets of action steps for the practice of student development. They give us the process steps of how to use theories rather than the why, what to do, or how to do it that the theories provide" (Elkins 2).

2. The Grounded Theory:

With all theories regarding student development being able to be thrown into a family, I was drawn to the results from this theory that Project Muse highlights.    

"The grounded theory study resulted in the identification of a developmental process of how students situate themselves in the construct of leadership over time" (Project Muse 403).

As a result, this study helped identify Leadership Identity and the components that support the "who are we" types questions.  I found this study to be particularly interesting and is one that I would like to research a bit more.  Related it back to SLA and our roles as facilitators, it is important to understand this theory and its study because it not only allows us to figure out more about ourselves, but how to help an organization find its identity.  Just like our identity is a single component, so too is a student organization's identity.  If an organization carries many identities, it will be very difficult to find growth in any development area by trying to cater to so many different outlets.  

3. Perry's Cognitive Theory of Student Development:

With general families outlined, an identity being constructed, comes the final theory that stood out to me the most, Perry's Cognitive Theory of Student Development.  

"William Perry's cognitive theory of student development examines nine positions tracing the evolution of traditionally aged students' thinking about the nature of knowledge, truth and values, and meaning of life and responsibilities. Based on Piaget's cognitive development theory, Perry lists steps by which students move from a simplistic, categorical view of the world to a realization of the contingent nature of knowledge, relative values, and the formation and affirmation of one's own commitments. Perry sees change as coming about through cognitive conflict" (Evans 5).

When I read this, all I can imagine is a lightbulb going off in student's minds and beings when coming to their development.  Everything begins to click.  With an identity in the makings for one's self, they can begin to view the world in a new light by understanding where they are at internally and in conjunction with their values, can begin to grow intellectually in their leadership.  This is relevant to SLA and our facilitations because by expanding our knowledge of the world around us, we are able to not only grow in our scope of working with those who may be very different than us and share different beliefs, but that it becomes our responsibility to share the values of SLA and its potential for intellectual and cognitive growth for those being facilitated.

These are more than just Theories on Theories on Theories on student development...

They are the stepping stones in coming together in truly grasping Leadership Theory which we will be covering throughout this class.

Do you think all of these theories work together or do you see just a singular theory from the reading is the most important?