Cognitive Development Theories

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Cognitive development theories are important in that they offer ways to look at the thought processes that might be behind specific behaviors or actions. Cognitive process differ from psychosocial process in that cognition by definition explains that there is thought and knowledge behind interpret their surroundings and experiences. Within cognitive and intellectual development, theorists like Perry set out to try and help explain how these processes are developed and how they can be influenced. Perry’s theory explains that intellectual and ethical development happens as individuals move through positions. One thing I love about Perry is that he decided to use the term positions to better represent the movement that happens during development. …show more content…

Duality, multiplicity, and relativism each describe different ways that students will interpret information. This is important because it reminds us that students will process information and learn differently. We have to set up our activities to be able to reach students in different ways. I love the example in the presentation on career counseling. Career counseling is currently part of my job and I have to work with students to help them develop a career plan. Some students come in with a plan already in hand and we just work on reviewing that plan and setting goals. Other students come in to my office with no idea what they want to do and just expect me to tell them what to do with their life. I have several different techniques ranging from interest inventories, card decks, and several worksheets to try and help students navigate this process in ways that work better for them. I also have resources to provide students with specific income and job availability statistics to give them if that is something they need to look at. I think it is very important as student affairs professionals to be able to provide information on the level that the students identify …show more content…

This model takes the information about how students make sense of knowledge, and apply it to problem solving. King and Kitchener developed seven different stages that can be broken down into three different clusters. The pre-reflective, quasi-reflective, and reflective thinking clusters all show different types of reasoning and outcomes. To me, this theory ties back into Perry’s use of the three concepts for meaning-making processes. It shows that at different times in a college career, students have different methods of reason when making their decisions. It also shows that students look at problems differently and do not always see that some problems do not have a definite answer. This is something that student affairs needs to focus on. We need to encourage students to look at the problems that exist in their community and see the possible solutions, or lack of solutions. This is something that could be accomplished by service learning. I think one reason students might not really see the problems is because they have not been exposed to them. College is the time for students to become more engaged with global issues and become more responsible. I think we probably get first year students who are pre-reflective thinkers and by the time they graduate, we should have been able to guide them through the stages of becoming a reflective

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