Psychological Theory and the General Education Curriculum

1
Psychological Theory and the General Education
Curriculum

• Marion Schwartz
• Penn State University
• NACADA October, 2006

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The Logic of General Education

• Many historical influences
• Utility to serve the needs of the student in
  college and beyond
• Bonding to engage student with academic and civil
  community
• Fulfillment and transcendence of self

3
Maslows Hierarchy

• Basic survival needs
• Safety
• Connection to others
• Recognition, self-esteem
• Self actualization
• Self-transcendence

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General Education/Maslow

• Math and writing skills
• Self knowledge
• Learning about others
• Critical thinking, competence
• Breadth of knowledge
• Knowledge for own sake

• Academic survival
• Beginning engagement
• Relating to others
• Self-esteem, effectiveness
• Self-actualization
• Self-transcendence

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Out of Date?

• Maslow was seeking to get beyond preoccupation
  with weakness
• Reflected in new move to positive psychology
• Useful for managers motivating talented employees
• Insisting that healthy person uses all talents

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Problems

• Maslow and other hierarchical theories
  discredited as elitist
• Stages are not so separate
• Can you nurture someone from one stage to another?

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Implications

• Still may be a useful way to analyze students
  entry into curriculum
• Disengaged how can I survive?
• Ego-centered how can I get a good job?
• Socially engaged how can I understand my
  friends?
• Civically engaged how can I understand
  community?
• Academically engaged how can I enter into new
  ideas?

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Survival

• Students lack confidence in the curriculum, fears
  that courses will be difficult and irrelevant.

• Explain the need for skills like statistics to
  make sound experimental conclusions, composition
  to handle later writing assignments, qualitative
  thinking.

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Egocentric

• Students are confident they can succeed in life
  but lack commitment to the academic enterprise.

• Explain how the world is bigger than their
  present vision and place in it, offer scenarios
  with as much concrete evidence as possible, e.g.
  a salesperson talks art, a journalist knows Asian
  history.

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Socially Engaged

• Students willing to study themselves and
  interactions with otherspartners, friends,
  social groups
• Students willing to work for the esteem of
  others, take responsibility

• Guide students to social sciences, literature,
  culture as it relates to human decisions,
  relationships.
• Guide students to activities that will also apply
  theoretical learning.

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Civically Engaged

• Students willing to learn about political and
  social problems.
• Students willing to work on community issues.

• Suggest courses that address these problems
  directly in social or natural science, arts,
  humanities.
• Suggest ways that course work applies to activity.

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Academically Engaged

• Students are intellectually curious.
• Students ready to integrate ideas from one course
  to another.
• Students developing independent critical
  judgment.

• Use student interests to broaden reach into new
  areas.
• Suggest cross references among courses.
• Encourage qualitative workresearch, projects,
  writing.

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Self-transcending

• Students love learning for its own sake, can get
  lost in reading or creative endeavor.
• Students complete service or project without
  relying on self-esteem as motivator.

• Teach students to expect that learning will be
  satisfying. Ask about occasions when time stands
  still.
• Encourage students to appreciate what they admire
  in others as they serve, how they grow through it.

14
Complexities

• Students feelings may not match objective
  situation
• Students can articulate correct answers without
  owning them
• The hierarchy leakscategories mix.

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Case 1 Sam

• Inner city high school
• Minority student with strong support from family
  and community
• Top of class but middling test scores
• Goal is medical school
• No one from home comes to this university
• Teacher referred to ethnic service club

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Case 2 Marissa

• Suburban upper-middle class high school
• Strong family pressure to get lucrative job
• Top third of class, good test scores
• Goal is business degree
• Has several friends from high school here
• Intends to join sorority her sister is in

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Case 3 Jared

• Rural high school
• Blue collar family, first generation college
  student
• Family unsure how to support academically
• Top half of class, middling test scores
• Goal undecided
• Has three acquaintances here, most friends went
  to community college
• May walk on for baseball team

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Is There a Hierarchy?

• Maslow could not prove that one had to meet
  primitive needs first in order to attain peak
  experiences.
• But students who engage the curriculum for more
  than basic needs may
• learn more
• lead richer lives
• be freer from the manipulation of others