Creating Contexts for Learning and Self-Authorship: Constructive-Developmental Pedagogy: Amazon.ca: Marcia B. Baxter Magolda: Books

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5.0 out of 5 stars Pedagogy that makes a difference in students' lives, Aug 11 2003

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Howard Aldrich (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Contexts for Learning and Self-Authorship: Constructive-Developmental Pedagogy (Paperback)

Constructive developmental pedagogy, as described by Marcia Baxter Magolda, refers to creating learning contexts in which students are allowed to generate their own ideas and find their own voices. Building on the work of Robert Kegan, Magolda argues that teachers should help students achieve self-authorship, creating individuals who are able to create strong positive relations with others while maintaining their own sense of selfhood. Self authorship is "simultaneously an ability to construct knowledge in a contextual world, an ability to construct an internal identity separate from external influences, and an ability to engage in relationships without losing one's internal identity." Referencing her earlier well-known longitudinal study of college youth, Magolda argues that students have the potential to pass through four ways of knowing, moving from absolute knowing, through transitional-, independent-, and possibly contextual-knowing. (People who know the Perry scheme of intellectual development will recognize this model.) Three of the four modes are gender-related, with men more focused on impersonal knowing and women on connected knowing, but the overall scheme applies to all students.

How do teachers achieve the ambitious goal of helping students achieve self authorship? First, Magolda argues that teachers must create conditions within which students are validated as knowers, rather than as passive receptacles into which experts pour knowledge. Second, pedagogical practices must situate learning in students' own experiences, creating new experiences or drawing on their previous experiences, rather than presenting knowledge as detached and free-floating. Third, teachers must collaborate with students in defining learning as mutually constructed meaning. Magolda takes great pains to point out that this does not mean turning students loose in an anything goes environment. Instead, students must be initiated into the community of knowing within a teacher's discipline or field, with teachers modeling good practices for students and helping them experience the thrill of discovering knowledge for themselves.

Magolda documents the effectiveness of her model by presenting ethnographic and survey data from her own classes and those of three other instructors at Miami University of Ohio. She does a wonderful job of conveying what it was like to be a student in these classes, and is realistic about the limits of what each instructor achieved. Most courses did well in reaching transitional, independent, and contextual knowers, but fell short with absolute knowers.

I highly recommend this book to instructors ready for the challenge of trying to make a real difference in the lives of their students. The book does not shy away from the dilemmas of trying to make this approach work in the face of ingrained assumptions antithetical to its use. Indeed, Magolda identifies and counters the typical false dilemmas thrown against the method by critics, and instead portrays the real dilemmas. Her passionate presentation and honest evaluation of the evidence should convince even the more serious skeptic that constructive developmental pedagogy has a great deal to offer 21st century college instructors.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Pedagogy that makes a difference in students' lives, Aug 10 2003

By Howard Aldrich - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Creating Contexts for Learning and Self-Authorship: Constructive-Developmental Pedagogy (Paperback)

Constructive developmental pedagogy, as described by Marcia Baxter Magolda, refers to creating learning contexts in which students are allowed to generate their own ideas and find their own voices. Building on the work of Robert Kegan, Magolda argues that teachers should help students achieve self-authorship, creating individuals who are able to create strong positive relations with others while maintaining their own sense of selfhood. Self authorship is "simultaneously an ability to construct knowledge in a contextual world, an ability to construct an internal identity separate from external influences, and an ability to engage in relationships without losing one's internal identity." Referencing her earlier well-known longitudinal study of college youth, Magolda argues that students have the potential to pass through four ways of knowing, moving from absolute knowing, through transitional-, independent-, and possibly contextual-knowing. (People who know the Perry scheme of intellectual development will recognize this model.) Three of the four modes are gender-related, with men more focused on impersonal knowing and women on connected knowing, but the overall scheme applies to all students.

How do teachers achieve the ambitious goal of helping students achieve self authorship? First, Magolda argues that teachers must create conditions within which students are validated as knowers, rather than as passive receptacles into which experts pour knowledge. Second, pedagogical practices must situate learning in students' own experiences, creating new experiences or drawing on their previous experiences, rather than presenting knowledge as detached and free-floating. Third, teachers must collaborate with students in defining learning as mutually constructed meaning. Magolda takes great pains to point out that this does not mean turning students loose in an anything goes environment. Instead, students must be initiated into the community of knowing within a teacher's discipline or field, with teachers modeling good practices for students and helping them experience the thrill of discovering knowledge for themselves.

Magolda documents the effectiveness of her model by presenting ethnographic and survey data from her own classes and those of three other instructors at Miami University of Ohio. She does a wonderful job of conveying what it was like to be a student in these classes, and is realistic about the limits of what each instructor achieved. Most courses did well in reaching transitional, independent, and contextual knowers, but fell short with absolute knowers.

I highly recommend this book to instructors ready for the challenge of trying to make a real difference in the lives of their students. The book does not shy away from the dilemmas of trying to make this approach work in the face of ingrained assumptions antithetical to its use. Indeed, Magolda identifies and counters the typical false dilemmas thrown against the method by critics, and instead portrays the real dilemmas. Her passionate presentation and honest evaluation of the evidence should convince even the more serious skeptic that constructive developmental pedagogy has a great deal to offer 21st century college instructors.

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review 5.0 out of 5 stars

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Creating Contexts for Learning and Self-Authorship: Constructive-Developmental Pedagogy [Paperback]

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