3. Background William Graves Perry Jr. (1913 – 1998) Born in Paris, France Graduated from St. Mark’s School Received both his bachelor’s and master’s from Harvard Studied English and Greek Taught English for 10 years Assistant dean at Williams College Returned to Harvard in 1946 Founded and lead the Bureau of Study Counsel for 33 years Educational psychologist who focused on the development of college students. "Every student in my class has a completely different teacher.“ http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/05.27/mm.perry.html
4. Background Father worked on the restoration of Williamsburg, VA and designed many of Harvard’s buildings. During WWII Perry Jr. taught celestial navigation to naval pilots, none of whom were subseqently lost due to navigational errors. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/18/classified/paid-notice-deaths-perry-william-g-jr.html While working at Harvard, he and his staff counseled over 400 students a year. He was appointed full Professor of Education in the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1965-1979) because of his work. His article “Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts,” discusses the role of “bull” (b.s.) in undergraduate epistemological development.
5. Literature Cognitive and Ethical Growth: The Making of Meaning (1981) Forms of Ethical and Intellectual Development in the College Years. Most well known/influential piece Published in 1970 after a 15 year study. Covered 50s and 60s. Proposes that college students pass through a predictable sequence of stages of epistemological growth. Epistemological - the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epistemological Primary reference for discussion on epistemological development of college students.
6. Perry’s Scheme Focuses on nine stages of development Basic Duality Full Dualism Early Multiplicity Late Multiplicity Contextual Relativism Pre-Commitment Commitment Challenges to Commitment Post-Commitment Dualist to relativist Viewing truth as black or white to viewing multiple truths all as legitimate alternatives.
7. Three broad categories Dualism + multiplicity Relativism discovered Commitments in relativism development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Perry
8. Dualism/Received Knowledge There is a right and wrong answer to all questions possessed by an authority. Basic Duality The authority has the answer. There is a right answer to question Teacher knows right and wrong. Students learn the right answer from authority/teacher Full Dualism Realize there is a right and wrong answer, but the authority does not know it, others do. Learn to find the right answer.
9. Rapaport, W: The Perry Scheme of Intellectual development: approaches to successful learning.
10. Multiplicity/Subjective Knowledge Diversity of opinion and values is recognized as legitimate in areas where right answers are not yet known. There are multiple conflicting answers. Early Multiplicity Teacher/Authority does not have the answer, but someone is working on finding the answer Student begin to trust self and explore finding the right answer. Late Multiplicity Where the teacher/authority doesn’t have the answer, everyone has the right to their own opinion. No wrong answer. Teacher/Authority does not want the right answer. Wants the student to think a certain way. Students B.S. Most Freshman are around this stage Rapaport, W: The Perry Scheme of Intellectual development: approaches to successful learning.
11. Rapaport, W: The Perry Scheme of Intellectual development: approaches to successful learning.
12. Rapaport, W: The Perry Scheme of Intellectual development: approaches to successful learning.
13. Rapaport, W: The Perry Scheme of Intellectual development: approaches to successful learning.
14. Relativism/Procedural Knowledge Diversity of opinion, values and judgment derived from coherent sources, evidences, logics, systems, and patterns allowing for analysis and comparison. Contextual Relativism Everything is relative but not equally valid There are no right or wrong answers, it depends on the situation, but some answers might be better than others. Theories are not truth but metaphors to interpret data with. All answers must be support and put into context. The search for truth is more precious than its possession.” -Einstein Pre-Commitment Student has to make their own decision What the student thinks is important not what the teacher/authority thinks. No one is going to tell you whether or not you are right.
15. Commitment/Constructed Knowledge An affirmation, choice, or decision (career, values, politics, personal relationship) made in the awareness of Relativism Commitment First commitment For this topic I think… Challenges to Commitment Several Commitments For these topics I think… Discovers responsibility of choices Post-Commitment Believe own values, respect others, ready to learn Students knows what they believe in, but willing and able to consider other views and reconsider their own views. Learning is an on-going process.
16. Challenges The idea of a fixed development process It is possible that different stages are visited through out development.
