Baxter Magolda Research Articles

Recognising a more complete education through a Lifewide Learning Award

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw attention to an educational design developed by the SCEPTrE CETL at the University of Surrey, aimed at encouraging, recognising and valuing learning and personal development gained through students’ lifewide (co‐ and extra‐curricular) experiences.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explores, through a single case study, the development and piloting of a Lifewide Learning Award through which capability that is relevant to being an effective professional can be recognised.FindingsAn award framework and supporting guidance and web infrastructures was devised and successfully piloted. Although feedback from student participants and from external peers employed as independent auditors was positive and encouraging, because of significant cost‐cutting within the University, the Award Framework is not being taken forward.Practical implicationsUniversities that are successful in promoting and recognising such personal learning, personal development and self‐authorship will have a competitive advantage over those that do not. The implication is that all institutions of higher education should include such frameworks in their strategies for preparing students for the complexities that lie ahead of them.Originality/valueThe core concepts of lifewide learning and lifewide curriculum and the application of these concepts through an award framework which enables a number of important learning theories to be connected and integrated. The Learning Partnership Model for “self‐authorship” developed by Baxter Magolda and others in the USA is particularly relevant. While the new educational practices are not being taken forward at Surrey the ideas can be readily adapted to other institutional contexts.

Evangelical Christian Students and the Path to Self-Authorship

This narrative study adopts the lens and language of Baxter Magolda's self-authorship framework to explore the faith development of four evangelical Christian students from their first year of college through their third year. The findings suggest several common elements in the students’ narratives—earnest questions about “what is true?”, the significant roles of family members and peers in the construction of perspectives on truth, and the centrality of various religious communities in propelling or encumbering self-authored faith development—along with some important distinctions. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed.

Teaching for Change: Learning Partnerships and Epistemological Growth

Baxter Magolda’s Learning Partnerships model was used to create a program designed to foster student epistemological development. To assess its effectiveness, the Measure of Epistemological Reflection was administered to the experimental cohort and a comparable group in the traditional general education program. Results indicate that the model enhanced epistemological growth.

A tandem journey through the labyrinth

Good company is beneficial on any journey, particularly in complex journeys. Higher education is a complex journey in which learners refine their purpose, establish a vision for their lives, question long-held assumptions, and construct more complex ways of making meaning of knowledge, themselves, and their relations with others. To be good company, educators must balance providing appropriate guidance with empowering learners to direct their own learning journeys. I have used a tandem bicycle metaphor to describe the learning partnerships that help learners move toward self-authoring their beliefs, values, identities and social relations (Baxter Magolda, 2001, 2009). Educators take the back seat of the bicycle to fulfill the stoker role - to help provide the pedaling power needed to propel the bicycle forward. Learners take the front captain's seat to direct the journey. Learners and educators share authority and expertise in this mutual journey such that the learner is able to achieve the interdependence required to succeed in adult life.

Understanding the Development of the Whole Person

Understanding the Development of the Whole Person John M. Braxton (bio) This special issue of the Journal of College Student Development commemorates the 50th anniversary of the journal. In tracing the development of the student affairs profession, Elizabeth M. Nuss (2003) points to its "consistent and persistent emphasis and commitment to the development of the whole person" (p. 65). Put differently, the development of the whole person constitutes the core function of the student affairs profession. The six articles that comprise this special issue center attention on various factors related to the development of the whole person. Moreover, the topic areas addressed by these articles represent key domains of research and scholarship that directly relate to a wide range of areas of practice in the profession of student affairs. The authors of these articles were charged with providing a historical overview, summary of current research and scholarship, and recommendations for future research and scholarship of the topical area represented by their article. Such a charge provides a befitting way to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a core academic journal, the Journal of College Student Development. Because the development of the whole person forms the core function of the communities of scholarship and practice of the profession of student affairs, the first three articles of this special issue center attention on the development of the whole person. Each of these articles strives for theoretical formulations that view students holistically. The development of identity occupies a central position in perspectives on college student development. Chickering and Reisser (1993) view the establishment of identity as pivotal to other forms of student development. In the first article, entitled "Identity Development Theories in Student Affairs: Origins, Current Status, and New Approaches," Vasti Torres, Susan R. Jones, and Kristen A. Renn discuss the current status of theories of college student identity development. In addition to discussing the commonalities among theories, Torres, Jones, and Renn also describe three new approaches which as they put it "make critical a closer examination of how society defines what is the norm in relation to understanding of race, ethnicity, and sexuality" (p. 14). These three new approaches are critical race theory, Latino critical theory, and queer theory. Torres, Jones, and Renn also urge the study of identity using the notion of intersectionality. They point out that intersectionality embraces multiple identities of the individual within the context of social structures of power and inequality In this article, these authors also delineate methodological challenges of studying identity through the lens of intersectionality. Intersectionality as an analytical lens seeks to view the whole student with complex and intersecting identities (social and personal) rather than segmented by race, gender, or sexual orientation. [End Page 573] In the second article, entitled "Principles of Development and Developmental Change Underlying Theories of Cognitive and Moral Development," Patricia M. King also seeks a more holistic perspective on college student development by forging connections between cognitive and moral development. She forges such a connection by discussing such fundamental elements of development as the construction of meaning about intellectual or moral issues, the processes of development, and similarities in patterns of the type of changes over time. King recognizes content differences between cognitive and moral development, but points to the "striking similarities, suggesting that the development of hearts and minds may be more similar than different, and possibly interdependent" (pp. 39-40). Marcia B. Baxter Magolda voices criticism against what she calls separate silos of theories of student development. In the third article, "The Activity of Meaning Making: A Holistic Perspective on College Student Development," she describes the principle academic traditions that generate separate rather than integrated concepts to describe student development in the literature of student development. To integrate clusters of theories that emanate primarily to take into account gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, Baxter Magolda uses Kegan's formulations of metapsychology to integrate these separate theories and research directions. She concludes this article by presenting six research directions to construct and refine an integrated holistic perspective on student development. The remaining three articles concentrate on factors that directly or indirectly foster or impede the development of the whole person: multiculturally affirming environments, the prevention of unnecessary student departure...

Developmentally Effective Experiences for Promoting Self‐Authorship

ABSTRACTABSTRACT—Many national studies have identified types of experiences that are associated with enhancing college students’ learning. This study contributes to the small but growing body of research on transformative educational experiences that assist and enable college students to develop ways of understanding and being in the world that help them adapt and respond to life's complexities and prepare for future civic, occupational, and family roles. The focus of this exploratory study is on those experiences that had a positive impact on college students’ development toward self‐authorship (Baxter Magolda, 2001; Kegan, 1994). Using interview data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, we analyzed 300 selected experiences from 174 students. We found that students’ approaches to interpreting and understanding their experiences was the major student characteristic that affected their learning (the effect of the experience). We then mapped these findings onto a sequenced developmental curriculum designed to promote self‐authorship.

Self-Authorship: Advancing Students’ Intellectual Growth (review)

Reviewed by: Self-Authorship: Advancing Students’ Intellectual Growth Joan B. Hirt Peggy S. Meszaros (Ed.). Self-Authorship: Ad vancing Students’ Intellectual Growth. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 109. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. 88 pp. Paper: $29.00. ISBN: 13-978-0787-9972-12. The student outcomes that higher education strives to achieve are ambitious: critical thinking, an appreciation for multiple perspectives, and civic engagement, to name but a few. Increasingly, however, institutions are combatting an onslaught of criticism about levels of student learning. Demands to demonstrate student outcomes have resulted in a troubling trend: a narrow focus on knowledge acquisition as measured by standardized tests of skills. In Self-Authorship: Advancing Students’ Intellectual Growth, Peggy Mezsaros argues that the goals of the academy “go considerably beyond mere knowledge of subject matter and require a new lens to view learning and teaching in higher education” (p. 5). This monograph provides that lens and is, in effect, a guidebook for institutions seeking to transform themselves and put student learning at the center of their endeavors. Such transformations must be grounded in theories of intellectual development. In this case, self-authorship (Keegan, 1994, Baxter Magolda, 1999) serves as the theoretical scaffolding. Self-authorship describes the developmental journey that students take as their beliefs about knowledge (epistemology), their relationships with others (interpersonal), and their own identities (intrapersonal) change over time. Development occurs as they move from assuming that knowledge is absolute and relying on others for validation to accepting that knowledge is socially constructed [End Page 278] and integrating others’ opinions with their own internal voice. Meszaros opens the volume by arguing that self-authorship can serve as the catalyst for institutional transformation. She begins by defining intellectual development, learning outcomes, and self-authorship and presents the Learning Partnerships Model (LPM) as the mechanism through which self-authorship can be promoted. The LPM blends cognitive and affective elements of development and is guided by three principles: “validating learners’ capacity as knowledge constructors, situating learning in students’ experience, and defining learning as mutually constructing meaning” (Baxter Magolda & King, 2004, pp. xix–xx). Chapter 2, by Terry Wildman, eloquently points out that the literature describing development is abundant but that research on how to promote development is much scarcer. He therefore lays the foundation for the remainder of the volume by describing how institutions must change to encourage self-authorship. At the heart of any such accommodation is a shift in the way faculty members teach. That, he artfully points out, is “a learning problem in its own right” (p. 24). Wildman’s discussion of the scripts that instructors develop about teaching and the paradigmatic shift that must occur to move from performance compliance to learning is exceptionally compelling. The next four chapters offer pragmatic examples of how self-authorship can be integrated into the work of the institution. If student learning is to be central to higher education, it must be measurable. Jane Pizzolato (Chapter 3) describes the psychometric properties of the Self-Authorship Survey, an assessment instrument that consists of both quantitative and qualitative elements and which shows promise of measuring overall development. Self-authorship in research is the focus of a particularly interesting chapter by Anne Laughlin and Elizabeth Creamer. They describe their study examining self-authorship and career decision-making among adolescent women. The mixed methods they employed led to interesting conclusions about their sample but, perhaps more importantly, to new insights about self-authorship and themselves as researchers. In Chapter 5, Barbara Bekken and Joan Marie offer a rich description of how to design a multidisciplinary series of courses using the LPM. They aptly illustrate Wildman’s admonition about the degree to which institutional structures constrain the teaching and learning process. In addition to research and instruction, self-authorship can be promoted through other programs and services on campus, and Marcia Baxter Magolda (Chapter 6) describes several innovative applications of the LPM that campuses have implemented in recent years in honors programs, academic advising, and residence life, among other settings. Meszaros concludes the monograph by summarizing the current state of the self-authorship movement and identifying concrete steps that institutions can take to advance students’ intellectual development. In...

Transformational Learning and Role of Self-Authorship in Developing Women Leaders

Given the challenges of the workplace and the historic exclusion of women and people of color from positional leadership, this dual case study explores women's experiences in two graduate programs designed to support transformational learning of educational leaders. Data included participants' structured reflections on learning about leadership, examined through the lens of two adult learning theories: self-authorship (Baxter Magolda, 1998, 2004) and transformational learning (Brooks, 2000; Kegan, 2000). Cross-case analysis indicated that participants developed confidence in their own knowledge, articulated the importance of personal support and collaboration, gained voice to advocate for themselves and their students, and experienced a fundamental change in their sense of themselves as leaders in their schools. These findings have implications for the provision of systematic graduate instruction that supports reflection and critique, offers multiple opportunities to step into leadership roles, and integrates informational and transformational learning.

A Reliable Sounding Board: Parent Involvement in Students' Academic and Career Decision Making

With concern over parental involvement in students' academic lives on the rise, research is needed to provide guidance for advisors and parents. In this article, student-parent interactions about academic and career decisions are examined. Data come from the Brown University Office of Institutional Research and semi-structured interviews with students at Brown University. In the interviews, students reported that they rely on their parents for general support and as a source of advice about academic and career decisions. These findings are consistent with institutional data and prior research. Analysis of the findings draws on attachment theory and on Baxter Magolda's self-authorship model of adult development. Implications for advising practice as well as suggestions for fostering constructive parent involvement are addressed.Relative Emphasis: research, theory, practice

Creating the reasonable adventurer: the co‐evolution of student and learning environment

PurposeThis paper seeks to address the issue of how graduate skills are developed. The focus is not on which skills, but rather what type of learning environments are required within higher education to support the development of skills valued and demanded by SMEs within Australia.Design/methodology/approachThis paper takes a step back to consider the underlying issue of how an individual student's habits of thought are altered. In doing so, the past works of Morgan, Dewey, Whitehead, and Tyler are synthesized with the modern work of Baxter Magolda, Heath, and Biggs.FindingsIt is argued that that without the development of a student‐centred learning environment, most graduates will not develop the types of skills demanded by SMEs in a meaningful way. The failure to treat knowledge and skills as equal drivers of curriculum design will result in an imbalance that relegates skill development to a secondary learning outcome.Practical implicationsBy removing the distraction of what skills should be developed, a clearer focus is possible regarding how educators should assist students to develop a broad array of generic graduate skills. From this perspective, skills can be viewed as an essential element of the educational process, rather than a new element that must be squeezed in between content.Originality/valueThis paper extends recent discussion of skills development through the use of an evolutionary perspective. Viewed as a process of creating social change, education becomes increasingly connected to a world that lies beyond institutional boundaries, thus promoting the notion of developing graduates for the world that awaits them.

Moving Toward Self-Authorship: Investigating Outcomes of Learning Partnerships

This qualitative study investigates how the Learning Partnerships Model (LPM; Baxter Magolda, 2001, 2004a) could be operationalized in the context of an academic advising retention program. The findings focus on what epistemological outcomes emerge for students who entered the program as formula followers. Findings suggest that although students likely will not self-author in one semester, there are specific changes (e.g., beliefs, cognitive interdependence, and affect regulation) that emerge as precursors to subsequent self-authorship development.

What‘s It Really All About? The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as an Authentic Practice

Excerpt: For this inaugural issue of International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, Alan Altany asked me to contribute a short essay on ‘some aspect of, or approach to, SoTL that is significant internationally today’. This assignment invites numerous possible responses given that significant issues in relation to higher education pedagogy abound. For starters, it is widely acknowledged that the challenges of the twenty-first century require higher education institutions to prepare not only discipline specialists but independent thinkers, productive citizens, and future leaders (e.g., Baxter Magolda and Terenzini, 1999). In this context Baxter Magolda (1999) argues that students need to develop a certain intellectual (as well as intra- and inter-personal) maturity to deal adequately with the various challenges of our times and suggests that higher education pedagogies should be designed such that they promote what she calls student “self-authorship”.

Reconceptualizing the Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity: The Role of Meaning-Making Capacity in the Construction of Multiple Identities

We reconceptualize Jones and McEwen's (2000) model of multiple dimensions of identity by incorporating meaning making, based on the results of Abes and Jones's (2004) study of lesbian college students. Narratives of three students who utilize different orders of Kegan's (1994) meaning making (formulaic, transitional, and foundational, as described by Baxter Magolda, 2001) illustrate how meaning-making capacity interacts with the influences of context on the perceptions and salience of students' multiple social identities. Implications for theory, research, and professional practice are discussed.

Complex Partnerships: Self-authorship and Provocative Academic-Advising Practices

Self-authorship is an additional orientation to traditional college student, epistemological, development theories. Facilitation of self-authorship, via academic advising, may help students meet the desired outcomes outlined by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education and integrate these abilities into their knowing and decision-making processes. Through investigation of 132 student narratives about advising and selection of academic majors, I examined advising practices that are consistent with Baxter Magolda's (2001) learning partnerships model for self-authorship development. Findings suggest that student decision-making and self-authoring abilities were enhanced by advising sessions that focused explicitly on goal reflection and associated volitional planning. Students benefited from advising in which nonacademic factors were addressed. Implications for practice are discussed.Relative emphasis: * theory, research, practice

Self-Authorship and Identity in College: An Interview with Marcia B. Baxter Magolda

Marcia B. Baxter Magolda, is a featured speaker at the 2006 Institute on College Student Values that will focus on the topic of "Finding Wholeness: Students' Search for Meaning an Purpose in College." She responded to questions posed by JCC's associate editor Pam Crosby about her research on college student learning and development and on how higher education encourages maturity an identity integration.

Creating Crossroads for Self-Authorship: Investigating the Provocative Moment

Through examination of 613 students' narratives about self-selected important decisions, I investigated the student and situation characteristics related to provocation and use of self-authored ways of knowing. The findings gesture toward both particular skills students may need to develop in order to self-author, as well as suggest that movement through The Crossroads (Baxter Magolda, 2001) may be externally induced through programming, interventions, and reforms related to common collegiate experiences.

Learning Partnerships: Theory and Models of Practice to Educate for Self-Authorship (review)

Preface Part One: A Theoretical Framework to Educate for Self-Authorship: 1. Self-Authorship as the Common Goal of 21st Century Education - Marcia B. Baxter Magolda 2. Learning Partnerships Model: A Framework for Promoting Self-Authorship--Marcia B. Baxter Magolda Part Two: Models of Educational Practice to Promote Self-Authorship: 3. Promoting Self-Authorship Through an Interdisciplinary Writing Curriculum--Carolyn Haynes 4. Creating a Context to Promote Diversity Education and Self-Authorship among Community College Students--Anne M. Hornak and Anna M. Ortiz 5. An Urban Leadership Internship Program: Implementing Learning Partnerships 'Unplugged' from Campus Structures--Katie Egart and Melissa P. Healy 6. A Learning Partnership: U. S. College Students and the Poor in El Salvador--Kevin Yonkers Talz 7. Community Standards Model: Developing Learning Partnerships in Campus Housing--Terry D. Piper and Jennifer A. Buckley 8. A Community of Scholars: Enacting the Learning Partnerships Model in Graduate Education--Judy L. Rogers, Peter M. Magolda, Marcia B. Baxter Magolda, and Kathleen Knight Abowitz Part Three: Implications of Implementing the Learning Partnerships Model: 9. The Learning Partnerships Model: Framing Faculty and Institutional Development-Terry M. Wildman 10. Organizing for Learning in a Division of Student Affairs--Rebecca Mills and Karen L. Strong Part Four: Designing Learning Partnerships: Creating Learning Partnerships in Higher Education: Modeling the Shape, Shaping the Model--Patricia M. King and Marcia B. Baxter Magolda.

Teacher Education Students' Epistemological Beliefs

A teaching program based on relational pedagogy (Baxter Magolda, 1993a) was implemented to foster the development of epistemological beliefs in 29 pre-service teacher education students at a large metropolitan university in Australia. Epistemological beliefs are those personally held beliefs about the nature and structure of knowing. The students were interviewed in relation to their epistemological beliefs at the beginning (Time 1) and conclusion (Time 2) of the teaching program. The results of the qualitative data analysis indicated that students described more sophisticated relational epistemological beliefs over time. This finding is important given that teachers with relativistic epistemological beliefs are more likely to conceive of teaching as a transformative (constructivist) rather than transmissive. The perceived success of the teaching program has implications for the development of a relational teaching model in teacher education courses.

Perry's Legacy: Models of Epistemological Development

This paper compares the different ways that intellectual development has been described by W. Perry (1970) and M. Belenky, B. Clinchy, N. Goldberger, and J. Tarule (1986); M. Baxter Magolda (1992); and P. King and K. Kitchener (1994). The similarities are summarized into a comprehensive, gender-neutral 4-stage model (E. J. West, 1996). The nature of the stages is discussed from both a constructivist-developmental perspective (H. G. Furth, 1981; A. Colby & L. Kohlberg, 1987) and using skill-complexity theory (M. L. Commons, E. J. Trudeau, S. A. Stein, F. A. Richards, & S. R. Krause, 1998; M. L. Commons, D. Danaher-Gilpin, P. M. Miller, & E. A. Goodheart, 2002). Educational implications are proposed.

Table of Contents

About CampusVolume 6, Issue 6 p. 1-32 Table of Contents First published: 13 February 2002 https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.66Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract HELPING STUDENTS MAKE THEIR WAY TO ADULTHOOD—GOOD COMPANY FOR THE JOURNEY by Marcia B. Baxter Magolda The author found that most students don't develop the capacity for self-authorship until years after they graduate. What would it take to help them develop this earlier? THE FIRST DEANS OF WOMEN—WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THEM by Jana Nidiffer As the early deans of women discovered, admission to college is only the first of many steps in gaining access to higher education. PROVIDING A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: AN EDUCATOR'S DUTY by Cheryl Achterberg Studies show that learning opportunities in an international setting can foster vital communication and leadership skills. So what can our institutions do to make such opportunities more widely available to students? DEPARTMENTS IN PRACTICE—ONE STUDENT AT A TIME by Julie Bell-Elkins Framingham State College's response to alcohol-related incidents emphasizes one-on-one interaction with students and campus-community collaboration. The policy has vastly reduced the number of repeat alcohol-related offenses. CAMPUS COMMONS—NAMING NAMES by Patrick Love When the author was asked to speak about colleagues from the past, a surprising figure called out to be remembered. WHAT THEY'RE READING—BRIDGING THE CULTURAL DIVIDE by Peter M. Magolda What ethnography can teach us about students BOTTOM LINE—DOING LESS by Robert A. Bonfiglio What would happen if we gave students more time instead of more programs? Citing Literature Volume6, Issue6January/February 2002Pages 1-32 RelatedInformation