The Most Important Outcomes of College Experience for Students
The two most important outcomes from the college experience are student development regarding understanding their social identity and second student moral development. Social identity is a person's sense of who they are and what they embody. Society identity theory helps us to self-reflect on how our individuality plays a role in how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. Social Identity theory allows us to understand ourselves both externally and internally. Social identity theory in the higher education realm can help aid students with understanding who they are and how their social identity impacts them.
Moral development is linked directly to social identity. Knowing who you are as a person can help shape your morality. Individuals who students in higher education institutions are making huge transitions away from their norm, which questions their social identity and morality. Universities and colleges, I believe, are considered a safe place where students can learn what is morally right or wrong through life experiences via trial and error.
Data to measure practical skills are not tangible in this sense. Allowing the student to make autonomous decisions by enabling them to process and assess their conflicts and resolutions is a way to measure student growth and development. I can demonstrate this to stakeholders by allowing them to see the student's growth by informal observation. Stakeholders can also see the student's growth by letting the student make autonomous and self-starting decisions. Giving students autonomy allows them to handle their conflict on their own, which leads to promoting growth and development.
According to Washington University in St. Louis, 'the pre-college experience is the chance for students to get a glimpse of college life, develop college-readiness tips and equip students for being outside and inside of the classroom'. Schlossberg's Transition Theory serves as a framework to help students understand changes and transitions. The theory examines life events that impact various aspects of an individual's existence and role in society. This particular model focuses heavily on the concept of perception. An individual's knowledge of their transition is vital when it comes to an understanding of how to cope with changes.
Development is not homogenous; every person develops different and perceives life differently. Schlossberg's Transition theory is most applicable for emerging first-year students or any student who is transitioning to a new environment. The idea of transitioning to a new school, state, classroom, etc., can be taxing and become a negative experience for most. Per Evans, Forney, & Guido-DiBrito, Schlossberg defined a transition as 'any event, or non-event that results in altered associations, practices, expectations, and responsibilities.
Schlossberg's theory should be reevaluated to acquire additional research to consider different perceptions of transitions based on a multitude of factors such as intersectionality, etc. From research, there was not much information to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the theory. Schlossberg's Transition Theory does a great job of promoting self-authorship and autonomy regarding students. Although the method promotes independence, as humans, we are all influenced by outside entities. I believe that the theory should tackle the idea of what happens to a student's perception when external forces overpower a student's understanding with their opinions.
To summarize, practical competence skills are abilities that should be emphasized by a college. The development of pragmatic competence skills is a part of student growth and development, it is a part of their college experience. Students come up against challenges that force them to make life-altering decisions. Incorporating lived experiences and implementing them to make informed, rational decision is a direct illustration of having practical decision making and conflict resolution skills.
