Student Development In College Students

The college years are a time of important growth and change for students because they gain new ideas and experiences that could change what they already know and believe. No doubt, significant changes occur during the college years. Rodgers (1990c), defined student development as “the ways that a student grows, progresses, or increases his or her developmental capabilities as a result of enrollment in an institution of higher education” (p. 27; as cited in Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, Renn, 2010, p. 6). Student development occurs “when students are faced with new challenges in their lives, a response or way to cope with the situation must emerge” (Sanford, 1966; as cited in Gardner, 2009, p. 15).
Many theorists classify development into three categories: social identity, psychosocial and cognitive-structural development. Cognitive-structural theories “examine how people think and make meaning out of their experiences” (Evans, 2011,p. 175). Psychosocial development …show more content…
The interview was conducted at the library in the campus on Monday, May 26, 2016. My interviewee academic major is Music Education. She is in this program because she wants to become a teacher and teach music. Her goal is to help children to have that opportunity to learn any instrument. Furthermore, she believes that music has a great influence in our lives such as music defines culture, traditions, and diversity. Also, music can also help academically. As a child she had speech problems and what helped her most to be able to speak is singing songs and hymnals.
The goals of the interview were: to provide an overview of student development experiences, and present the common issues in that almost college students deal with, highlight theories on student development which I can apply in order to fully understand how students develop in higher education