Eduction 6155 discussions

1. In this week’s media segment, a diverse group of college students comment on their decision to attend college, the most difficult part of the transition, the best and most surprising aspects of the college experience, what they hope to get out of college, and how they are different from previous generations of college students.

Post your reflections on their experience, as well as observations on your own college experience, for this week’s Discussion. Please focus on the following questions:

Based on the media interviews, reading assignment, and your own personal/professional experience, how are today’s undergraduate college students different from undergraduates when you first entered college?Select a student in the media segment whose experience seems interesting to you. How can student development theory be used to describe his or her experience? Cite references from the Evans or Skipper texts.

The students in the media segment represent many different subgroups—they vary in age, family background, ethnicity, and culture. Select one student and discuss how membership in that group may have affected his or her college experience.

2a.This week’s media segment traces the developmental journey of one college student. Jillian talks about the issues she has faced in defining herself, her path in life, and her relationship with others.

For this week’s first discussion, select the psychosocial development theory that, in your opinion, best describes Jillian’s journey (Chickering, Marcia, Josselson, Bronfenbrenner, Renn, or Helms).

Post your responses to the following questions:

Utilize the theory to describe Jillian’s journey. How do key issues or events in her life “fit” with the theory? Reflect on one of Jillian’s decisions or choices. According to the theory you’ve chosen, how would her life have been different if she had not acted or if she had made a different choice? What role did Jillian’s environment (e.g., friends, family, college) play in her developmental process? Would Jillian have changed in the same ways if she had not attended college?

2b.In Chapter 1, Skipper describes educational practices that are designed to support first-year students as they struggle with identity development issues. Recall this week's media segment, "Jillian's Story," and discuss programs or services that might have helped Jillian in her first year.

3.Social identity development and individual diversity development accelerate when an individual first enters a new and unfamiliar environment like a college campus or even an online university. New faces, new voices, and new ideas often force a reassessment of one's identity in relation to others.

For this week's Discussion, consider the following scenario:

Cassie grew up on the family farm in a small, homogeneous rural community. Virtually all of the students in her high school were white, including Cassie. Cassie did well in high school, both academically and socially. She was active in the Girl Scouts and the Future Farmers of America. This fall she is entering a large, urban university on the West Coast where she will be studying agribusiness. She will be living on-campus in a residence hall for first-year students.

Using social identity development and individual diversity development theory, predict some of the challenges Cassie will face in her new life and provide recommendations for what her advisors and instructors can do to support her. Be sure to cite references from your readings.

4.Analyze the following scenario:

You are working with a group of faculty to re-think the teaching of "Introduction to Social Psychology" at your institution. Your team has divided a class of 150 into five smaller sections of 30 each, and it has incorporated more writing, experiential activities, and group work into the course. The faculty report that students are reacting well to some of the new strategies, but not to others. For example, they seem to like the tutorial sessions led by teaching assistants better than the projects where they collaborate with their peers. In addition, they prefer to interact with their peers online, as opposed to in the classroom. Students also report less satisfaction with assignments where they are asked to express personal opinions.

Change almost always results in some level of discomfort. Students and faculty are both somewhat uncomfortable in this scenario. Cite references from your readings about cognitive development to explain students’ discomfort with the new instructional strategies. How can faculty move students past their discomfort to a new level of understanding?

5.In this week's media segment, a panel that includes faculty, staff, and students discusses "conditions that matter" at Cal State—Monterey Bay (a DEEP school described in this week's book excerpt). The passage below describes a student named Maria who exhibits several of the risk-attributes mentioned in Week 1. Maria is working full-time, financially independent, and a single parent. She has lofty goals, but limited time and energy for school.

Maria is carrying a 15-credit course load at CSU-MB along with working full-time at Subway to support herself and her 3-year-old son. She is struggling to reach her goal of attaining a bachelor's degree and finding a job in retail management. Her manager at Subway frequently assigns her overtime work, and her son requires special care. Maria often arrives home late from school, bone-tired, wondering if it is all worth it. She often feels that taking a break from school would relieve much of her stress.

Based on the media segment and your readings, what kinds of educational practices are most likely to "engage" Maria?

6.In Week 2 you met Jillian, a fourth-year college student. You may remember that, as a first-year student, Jillian was enrolled at a large state university. For this week's Discussion, you will analyze Jillian's decision to leave the university. Present your observations in the context of Tinto's model of college departure. Address the following items in your analysis:

• Using Tinto's model of college departure, explore Jillian's decision to leave the university.

Give specific examples of how her goals and commitments were influenced by her family background, skills, and abilities. Analyze her integration into the academic and social systems of the university by referencing positive and negative experiences that she had during her first year. How did those experiences reshape her goals and commitments, resulting in a decision to leave the university?

7.The increasing diversity of the college student population has been a major theme throughout this course. With diversity comes different sets of knowledge, skills, abilities, and values—in short, a different level of preparation for college work. This coincides with an ever-increasing emphasis on accountability in higher education—a demand that all college graduates demonstrate mastery of the same critical skills.

Consider the following questions:

·Is it reasonable to expect all students to achieve the same learning outcomes?

· Based on Pascarella & Terenzini's description of the research on between- and within-college effects, what kinds of strategies can higher education professionals use to "level the playing field" for diverse students?

8a.In the Chronicle of Higher Education articles from this week's reading assignment, James Lang and Scott Carlson address the topic of the "net" generation. They speculate on the degree to which institutions should accommodate the new learning style of multi-tasking "digital natives."

For this week's Discussion, address the following questions:

How will college students' approaches to learning continue to change in the coming decade?

Will their expectations of the college experience change?

How can institutions prepare for and respond to these changes?

8b.In preparation for this Discussion, please view at least two Course Project presentations from your classmates. (Choose presentations from two student populations that were different from the one on which you focused for your Project.)

Address the following questions:

· How are the other student populations different from the group that you chose to research? How are they similar?

· Based on your peers’ presentations, what have you learned that will influence the way you do your work?

1. What did you learn? What surprised you?

2. How are the populations different or like the one your researched?

3. Have you changed by virtue of your study of this population and this class?

4. Are you going to be able to apply developmental theory to your work? If yes tell us how.

5. What new questions have arisen? What new topics have become of interest to you?

6. What will you use from your experience and learning in this class to future classes in your program?