Identity and Education:
Building the Ground Work for
Integration in the Undergraduate Years
Cathy Buyarski, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Student Affairs
University College
One student’s perspective
“So you get here and they start asking you, ‘What do you…want
to major in? …what courses [do] you want to take?’ and you get
the impression that’s what it’s all about – courses and majors.
So, you take the courses. You get your card punched. You try a
little this and a little that. Then comes GRADUATION. And you
wake up and you look at this bunch of courses and then it hits
you: They don’t add up to anything. It’s just a bunch of courses.
It doesn’t mean a thing.”
electronic Personal
Development Plan (ePDP)
making meaning
A tool for
of
educational progress and career planning
throughout the college experience.
Why did we implement the ePDP?
The personal development plan is designed to foster:
• Goal commitment (student commitment to earning a degree)
•
Academic achievement (through goal setting and planning)
• Curricular coherence and meaning in the first-year seminar
•
Each of these goals is a way to foster student development
and integrative learning
Five Learning Outcomes for the ePDP
1.
Self-Assessment
Students identify success-related competencies
2.
Exploration
Students research and identify realistic and informed academic and career goals
3.
Evaluation
Students analyze their academic progress over the semester in terms of progress toward
academic and career goals
4.
Goal Setting
Students connect personal values and life purpose to the motivation and inspiration behind their goals
5.
Planning
Students locate programs, information, people, and opportunities to support and reality test their goals.
Components of the ePDP
•
Landing Page
•
About Me
•
My Success
•
My Education
• My Career
•
My Financial Plan
•
My Involvement and Impact
The Need for a Conceptual Model
• To differentiate the ePDP from other types of portfolios
• To guide development beyond the FYS
• To guide assessment
• To guide faculty development
• To prioritize technology needs
Folio thinking
is a reflective practice that
situates and guides the effective use of learning
portfolios….folio thinking aims to encourage students to
integrate discrete learning experiences, enhance their selfunderstanding, promote taking responsibility for their own
learning, and support them in developing an intellectual
identity.
(Penny Light, Chen, & Ittelson, 2012)
Literature Reviewed
•
Self-Authorship
•
Reflection
•
Hope Theory
•
Making-Making
•
ePortfolios
•
Student Development (cognitive and affective)
•
Identity Development
•
Life-long and Life-wide Learning
•
Integrative Learning
Overall
ePDP has three primary functions
• Engaging students in a purposeful process of determining why
they are in college and how they will get to graduation
• Recording of disruptions, “ah ha” moments, challenges,
accomplishments and key learning experiences
• Development of meaning and a sense of place in self, life and
the college experience
Key Questions for Students
Who am I?
Where am I going?
How will I get there?
What am I learning along the way?
Who am I?
Self-Authorship
“The
(Baxter Magolda, 2001)
capacity to define one’s self, identity,
beliefs and social relations.”
3 Components
Trusting the Internal Voice
Building an Internal Foundation
Securing Internal Commitments
Where am I going?
Self-Concordant Goals
(Sheldon and Elliott, 1999)
Based on strong interest or
self-identified
personal beliefs
Ownership over goals
Facilitates commitment over time
Provides psychological motivation
to support effort over time (Gandreau, 2012)
How will I get there?
Developing Hope
(Snyder, 2002)
Pathways and Agency
Generate
Plausible
effective strategies
routes and alternatives
Confidence in this route and ability
electronic Personal
Development Plan (ePDP)
making meaning
A tool for
of
educational progress and career planning
throughout the college experience.