Case Study: Applying Developmental Theory to College Students
Assignment Overview and Protocol Instructions
The purpose of this assignment is to apply critical theoretical understandings and their educational implications to the development of a specific college student.
The assignment calls for you and your partners to develop a case study of an undergraduate student which you then analyze in terms of student development theory and critical perspectives. Your team will develop an interview protocol and conduct an in-depth interview with an undergraduate student you select. You will also write a case study describing the student's development and a theoretical analysis of the case. The analysis should also include recommendations for educational conditions or interventions.
INTRODUCTION
:You know the student you interviewed very well. You know a lot about student development theory. You care about fostering student growth through higher education. This assignment asks you to put these pieces together. The final product will be an integrated paper of approximately 20 pages—approximately 5 pages per section/person.
CASE STUDY
:The case study should be a prose account of the student's characteristics and experiences. Use direct quotations as necessary to develop the narrative. The case study should include descriptive information about the student (gender, race, age, background, major, year in school, etc.) and about the college experiences they recounted. In order to ensure confidentiality, please use a pseudonym rather than the student's real name, and do not use any descriptors that are so specific that the student could be identified. (For example, say they held a high leadership position in the student government, not that they were Fresno student vice-president.) This portion should not include your interpretations, just the "story." Make sure that you include in the case portion the information you plan to draw on in the theoretical section. The purpose of the case study is to provide an accurate and rich description of the student.
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
:Choose one or maybe two student development theories and analyze the case from this perspective. For instance,you could look at the experiences of an adult student from the perspective of adult development (Schlossberg) and/or from the perspective of cognitive development (Perry, Kitchener and King). You might view the development of a student from the perspective of racial identity development or cognitive or moral development theory. I'd urge you to be quite specific rather than broad. Try not to water down theoretical concepts, make sure to draw directly from the readings on theory, and make clear connections between theory and case material. Also, include a critical analysis of the theory, drawing from one or more of the critical perspectives discussed in class, and highlighting some of the limitations of the theory with regard to its application to the student you interviewed. The purpose of this section is to see how a theory (or two) can be used to understand the experiences and meaning-making of a particular individual.
***THEORY TO APPLY: Sanford'sSupport and Challenge Theory and how it applies tothe student that was interviewed. The student went through many challenges through her 9 yearjourney to graduate from Allan Hancock College and now attends Cal Poly.
***Attached is the audio file for the interview. Use this to write the paper.