Job Hunt: Infinity

So, cognitive development. I have talked about Baxter Magolda, Piaget, and Kolb. I’ve left out quite a few, like Vygotsky and Bloom. And most of these don’t actually fall into a student affairs group of development theories, not in what we might consider typical college student development. It’s not like they’re developing their identities or anything (they are, but shhhh). But it matters because they’re in college to learn. Learning is the primary goal. We should be adding to the learning going on. And in order to do that, we need to understand how learning happens. We should be building programs based on how learning happens. We should be aware of what the light-hearted, socialization, play, trial-and-error programming teaches our students and how it teaches them. We should be able to articulate what and how the students are learning from us. Here is where we could discuss a co-curricular transcript - because it should document the learning happening outside of the classroom. But, I’...

I recently discovered Kolb, I don’t remember reading about Kolb (or Kolb & Kolb) in grad school, although it’s entirely possible I’ve forgotten. I recently stumbled upon the theory of the learning cycle and corresponding learning theories through doing reading for my role running the tutoring center. There are four stages in the cycle of learning and four learning styles. These are not the disproven learning styles like auditory, visual, and tactile. The four learning styles are based on how a learner processes (abstract or concrete) and how they react to the process (active participation or reflective observation). The learning process is a true cycle, and can be started at any point. Here is a diagram of the learning cycle from https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html : And a quick reference summary of the learning styles also from https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html : 1. Concrete Experience - (a new experience or situation is encountered, or a reinter...

Ok, again this is cheating a bit since Piaget really studied children and his model ends at “11+”, but! I think it’s important for all of us to know how learning happens (theoretically), so that we can continue the development and learning process. Piaget believed that all children, regardless of background, go through the same four prescribed stages. Children progress through the stages after multiple experiences and stimuli. Here’s a nice chart to summarize his theories from https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/piaget-stages/ : Title of theory: Stages of Development Year theory was published: 1936 Students originally studied: He studied children after helping grade intelligence exam and realizing young children answered certain questions differently than older children or adults. He even studied his own three children. Background of the author: He was born in Switzerland and was interested in zoology and biology. He began studying mollusks at just 10 years old and published his research...

I rediscovered Baxter Magolda in the past few months as I’ve been doing reading for my new role as Coordinator of Tutoring. I wanted to dive into the literature of learning and tutoring, and boy have I done that. I’ve gotten through two full books, several articles, and am now into the “additional reading” portion of the Oxford’s Guide for Writing Tutors. The past couple of months have been busy with implementing changes and the new year, but I hope to increase my reading time soon. I have learned or re-learned a whole heck of a lot, which is kind of a fun twist now that I’m writing about learning. Baxter Magolda came up with three principles of learning, outlined here from https://www.geneseo.edu/tlc/baxter : "Validate Students as Knowers" - Students reported they learned better when professors conveyed a caring attitude, which ranged from taking an interest in their extracurricular activities, to talking with them rather than at them, to creating test formats that per...