Generational Studies

So it's been too long since I've posted - but don't worry, my brain hasn't gone stale! So much is going on right now...where to start...

Well, I did talk a bit about Kolb's theory in my last post. It's a shame I didn't talk more about typology theory, like the always fun MBTI. Talking about it in class still hasn't helped me settle my J and P battle. That's okay. It was fun that Kiana and I demonstrated to the class some differences between her S and my N. :)

As each week of class passes by we're seeing more and more of the complexities of development and what the implications are for colleges and universities. This week's readings on generational studies added even more food for thought!

In some ways I think the generational readings explain more about how students behave and think, the values they have, and the issues they face than some of the other theories we've read in class. (Though be forewarned that I was a sociology major and my take might be a little biased since I do tend to see the world as a series of interacting social systems....)

Generation = social & historical context! All these readings got my mind ticking so let me share with you some main points from the readings as well as my two cents here and there.....

In Go to College, Howe & Strauss discusses some characteristics of the "Millennials" including their focus on teamwork, achievement, modesty, and good conduct. There was much talk about historical context in relation to different generations (i.e. World War II, the assassination of JFK, 911, etc.) as well as the differences between generations. Serving the Millennial Generation by Coomes and DeBard added even more to this, describing the Millennials as ambitious, sheltered, optimistic, and pressured to perform. I think this article provides a good amount of background that would help not only student affairs practitioners and professors but also anyone at all in the world that works with Millennials. This article made me thinking about how politicians could use their knowledge of different generations to craft their messages differently depending on whether they're addressing a group of college students or the senior population!

Go figure that right after I get to thinking about how to use knowledge of generations for political campaigns, here comes Generation Me by Jean M. Twenge (by the way, DrM was right, you should seriously read this one if you haven't) which even discusses marketing towards this generation! I thought this article had a great discussion about the whole self-esteem movement and how it can lead to anxiety and depression once GenMe hits adulthood. I completely agree with some of her recommendations including the following:
-Ditch the self-esteem movement to encourage students to deal with criticism and learn empathy and self control
-Avoid overthinking (who am I to talk though, right???)
I semi-agree with a couple of her other points which are:
-Ditch the love yourself before you love others movement
-Not everyone should go to college so improve options and the stigma against those that choose not to
The reason why I only semi-agree with these are because yes, while we do learn about ourselves from our relationships with others, I think we still need to have a certain level of awareness. (How many of you know someone who just keeps dating the exact same type of person and have their relationships end the same way every time? It sounds like perhaps someone in this predicament could stand some more personal time than continually dating...just saying...)
As for the not everyone should go to college argument, yes, I agree with that - and yes, I support efforts to improve opportunities for young people to learn other career skills (i.e. carpentry, electricity, etc.). I just want to make sure that I preface this to say that not everyone has the same access to or opportunity for education. I think it would be best to give students the best education possible in their younger years so they can find what their strengths are - and you know, if that leads to becoming a skilled laborer, that's great. I just don't think it's right that these career paths seem to fall along socioeconomic divisions. Okay. I'm getting off my soapbox now. *steps down*

Students and Their Parents by Karen J. Forbes was definitely interesting and it gave us a nice history of in loco parentis and how (perhaps) parent/student relationships while at college may be particularly reflective of the generations that the parents come from! The parent/student relationship while in college is definitely a difficult one to navigate and I'm sure as time goes by, this will only get more and more complex!!!

Interdisciplinary Thoughts

So, Kiana’s comment got me thinking more and more about the importance of interdisciplinary awareness. I think it would be safe to say that there is no such thing as a particular field of study or major that is entirely a stand-alone discipline.

 

Each field of study has a history and many (if not all) have underlying philosophies. Most require the ability to have a good grasp of a language. Some fields are naturally more “interdisciplinary” than others, such as international relations, or environmental studies. Then there are other fields like journalism that almost demand some base of knowledge in another field (you better understand politics if that’s your beat, same goes for other areas like sports and arts.) Overall however, I think we often forget how all these different fields of study are connected, and that the ties between them all are important.

 

I heard somewhere that the average American changes their career roughly 3-5 times in their lifetime and that this number is expected to increase in the future. Yes, that’s “career” change, not “job” change. This kind of makes me wonder why anyone would want specific training in something incredibly specific? What if your knowledge base is in something that could become obsolete in 10 years (i.e. a computer programming language)?

 

Here are a few things to consider:

-Think about the different areas within our own field of study (or career) and the ways they are connected.

-Think about other fields of study and how they are connected to our own focus.

-Stay “on top” of the trends in your field! Will you need to gain new skills to keep up with the growing knowledge base?

 

So…now to tie this in to our class readings… J

 

Kolb (experiential learning theory) observed that fields of study tend to have a prevalent way of thinking (which is then passed on to everyone within that field or major). On one hand, I agree that it’s important to have the necessary skills within your area of study and continue to develop those skills…on the other hand, imagine what can be gained if you’re able to expand from your point of view! This is where I will put in my plug for the liberal arts education. If I’m not mistaken, the idea behind the liberal arts curriculum is to help students develop analytical skills that can be applied to any knowledge base, as opposed to being immersed in just one area of study. Yes, you have your “major” (and actually, my college required that you minor in something else as well…to further promote the idea of interdisciplinary learning), but the core of the curriculum is one is one that encourages you to analyze these ties and these different ways of thinking.

 

As I continue this blog, I’m seeing a big trend in my thoughts and discussion regarding the influence of technology on society. Technology influences everyone. I’m getting increasingly interested in technology as it relates to a mode of thinking. The Seattle Post is now strictly an online newspaper, and given the current economic crisis, more and more papers may have to turn to the online mode. We can find out about almost any topic with a few keystrokes and a click. Yes, this all feeds into our consumerist, “I want to know NOW!” mindset, but what other things are being influenced? I was talking to a friend a couple weeks ago about online dating – I encouraged her to give it a try – why not? Many of them require you to take some type of personality inventory of sorts to “match” you with someone else – maybe it does a better job for you than you could by meeting people at a bar, you know?

 

Anyhow, I digress. This is where I was going…back in 8^th grade I wrote my papers by hand, and then typed it on some sort of type-writer or word processor. Then once I got to college, I would write a little by hand, then type it out. Then I’d print the page out, read it and edit it, then write more by hand, then type it in, etc. At this point, I was still writing it out by hand, but typing it out in sections, editing as I went. Since I started graduate school, I’ve found that I’m capable of writing and editing papers almost entirely online. Instead of thinking with pencil in my hand, I now think with my fingers resting on my keyboard, my eyes on a bright screen. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about what this change means! –But it’s certainly got me thinking. It almost makes me feel even more reliant on my computer. (Remember those days before everyone had a cell phone? Wow.)

 

That’s all for now!

 

Research Models

So in my EDEA 629 (Ed Stats) class this past Monday, we had a great class on multiple regression. The class got to talking about models and variables and that there really isn't a way to account for everything...human nature is just too complex. DrH said that we have to remember that research models are "a reduction of reality." --That stuck with me and has been marinating in my head the past few days.

This got me thinking about all the theories we've been studying in this class (EDEA 646 - The American College Student). No matter what, there is "fault" to find with every theory and that while it's important to be aware of the criticisms, one can argue that the simple fact that we are a particular construct under a microscope reduces the reality of the model. Again, not that they are not important, and not that there isn't much to gain from these theories (on the contrary, actually...) -But the idea that most of these theories are focusing on something specific, thereby reducing the reality of what you are actually studying.

I often find myself looking through readings and thinking of other variables that may be factors beyond what is examined by the research. -What about birth order? What about family dynamics? What about SES?

Given the fact that no research model can account for everything (or even all of the particular construct they're studying), I think the idea of eclecticism becomes increasingly important. When I was an undergraduate I started out assuming I was going ot be a psychology major, but I switched to sociology - for many reasons, one of which is that people seemed to cling so closely to their one area of study. Many psychologists specialize in one specific area of psychology (i.e. psychodynamics, cognitive behavior) not that there aren't people out there that have a more eclectic perspective, but many hold firm convictions about one specific area and that is something I found to be absurd! -Think about it: as a psychologist, you would be working with a variety of clients that will respond better to different styles of counseling. -While you may have your "speciality," you would hopefully have an awareness of other styles that might enable you to help clients when they don't respond well to the kind of therapy you traditionally provide.

I think the same goes for working with students in higher education - which is why having a broad understanding of many theories is important.

Class Last Week --> This Week's Readings

CLASS LAST WEEK

In class, we applied Baxter Magolda’s epistemological reflection model to the academic classroom perspective. We talked about what students at different stages of development would prefer regarding teaching and learning styles. –I had a flashback to some of my undergraduate classes. I remember how I was in a psychology stats class in my sophomore or junior year. I aced the exams, but was appalled that we had homework assignments. I remember thinking to myself, “Homework is for high schoolers! I am a college student and I write papers and do projects!” Unfortunately for me, homework was required as part of the grading rubric and even though I aced all the exams, I ended up with a B in the class solely because I didn’t do my homework.

I particularly enjoyed our discussion about critical thinking – as skill acquisition vs. development as well as the way it’s defined. Critical thinking do seem to be buzz words (especially in education) and people often mean different things when they use the term. When I read Kitchener and King’s reflective judgment model, they discussed reflective judgment in relation to epistemology and critical thinking. As I read, I remember thinking that I had assumptions about what “critical thinking” was – I had just assumed there was an epistemological component to critical thinking.

Discussions like these are important. When doing research it’s always important to provide the operational definitions of your research. (Have you ever seen a debate where two people are arguing about something where each has defined the central topic of debate differently and they end up arguing about the definition and not the topic?) Anyhow, main point is that it’s important to understand that different concepts are defined differently by different people - so make sure to define them in your own research and when others use these terms, ask them to give you their operational definition as well.

THIS WEEK'S READINGS

This week’s readings were on moral development. The article in our reader was about the “just community” set up at Simmons College. I think experiences like these are great ways to provide lessons in moral development for students.

My college was pretty “open” regarding policies (in the dorms as well as in general) and we had an honor code and an honor system that (I think) helped to promote moral development as well. Now, I don’t think you can just go into a college and say, “Here is our honor code!” and have it work – it’s not that simple. It needs to be respected and upheld by those in the community. We were given so much leeway due to the honor code (self-scheduled finals without proctors was one of the best things - you could go and pick up your exam almost whenever you wanted to during finals period and take your final in almost any academic classroom and return it when you’re done). I think the flexibility of the rules on campus helped students to make their own decisions and learn their own lessons.

Another great thing about the honor code is that depending on the situation you were in and depending how you looked at your problem, no matter what you did, you would be in violation of the honor code as behaving responsibly can take on different meanings!

Our text readings were on Kohlberg and Gilligan’s theories of moral development. Here’s the gist of it:
Kohlberg came up with a 6-stage theory of moral development based predominantly on ideals of justice and was from a very autonomous perspective. Gilligan criticized Kohlberg’s theory as she saw it as androcentric and lacking a female voice. Gilligan’s model is based on the ethic of care from a more interdependent perspective. I think both perspectives are important to have in mind, regardless of who you’re working with and that perhaps these different perspectives of morality complement each other more than they conflict.

I particularly liked the discussion of the criticisms of Gilligan’s work because it touches a bit on the differences in feminist perspectives (which Baxter Magolda mentioned briefly in her book as well). When I was in high school, I had assumed there was one meaning of “feminist” but – as with everything else – I learned of the differences within the larger community.