Theories of college student and adult intellectual development have shown that learning to interpret, evaluate, and construct knowledge evolves in a developmentally predictable fashion, and have offered explanations for the difficulties some students face when asked to make their own decisions (Baxter Magolda, 1992; Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger,…

Annual interviews with 228 students at 6 diverse campuses in the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education reveal 123 students' developmental growth away from authority dependence between the beginning of the first and second years of college. In the first year of college, 86% of participants relied solely on external authorities to define…

Development defined as increasingly complex and adaptive forms of seeing, knowing, and caring sheds light on how to identify aims of educational programs designed to foster development. Educators who aspire to promote development as well as content mastery help students understand the basis for their decisions, explore alternative bases and…

Despite the priority higher education institutions have given to multicultural initiatives, little attention has been given to examining the multicultural experiences and other life events that influence those charged with developing and facilitating these initiatives. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how multicultural…

This article presents two interview strategies used to assess college students' developmental growth toward self-authorship. We illustrate that self-authorship is a foundation for achieving many college learning outcomes and argue that designing practice to promote self-authorship requires understanding how to assess it. We offer a brief overview…

This article focuses on the development of intercultural maturity, which is frequently cited as a desired collegiate outcome. We position our work on intercultural maturity in the context of a holistic approach to human development using Kegan's (1994) model as a foundation and relating this outcome to other collegiate learning outcomes. We…

Presents a response to Evans et al.'s "Guiding Principles: A Review and Analysis of Student Affairs Philosophical Statements" (this issue). Disagrees with the assertion that the core values and themes of the student affairs profession have generally remained consistent over the last century. (GCP)

Originally published in March/April 1996, advances an integrated perspective on learning and personal development by viewing the cognitive and affective dimensions of development as related parts of one process. Proposes that from this integrated perspective, a successful educational experience simultaneously increases cognitive understanding and…

Proposes an integrated perspective on student learning and personal development by viewing the cognitive and affective dimensions of development as related parts of one process. Suggests that this perspective will provide college students with a successful educational experience by increasing cognitive understanding, sense of self, personal…

Examined degree of involvement and effort that African-American and white students at a predominantly white university expended in range of college activities. Findings from 162 African-American and white students revealed few differences in levels of involvement between African Americans and whites. Where differences were found, African Americans…

This article evaluates the concept of student development from the perspective of the adequacy of its theoretical knowledge base and with reference to the 14 specific propositions about student development identified by Strange (1994). (71 references) (Author/RB)