User:Justin Javier/sandbox

NEW IDEA:

Adding to Student Development Theory page. Specifically adding Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support. Specifically, I want to focus on Sanford's Theory and showing empirical evidence that the theory is effective when working with ***(find empirical examples of challenge and support being used on population I would like to focus on)*** college students. WHY AM I DOING THIS, WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY, WHO IS THIS FOR?

My audience is student affairs professionals, young and old, understanding the application of Sanford's theory, and the effectiveness of the theory when applied to ***(population)*** of college students

Challenge and Support --> --> I want academic advisors to know what barriers that first generation students face and how to support them. Understanding who my audience is. Why am I doing this. What am I trying to say?

Theoretical application

Effective

One thing --> find a lot of evidence

___________

Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support

Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support states (1966 as cited in Patton et al., 2016) that for students' developmental growth in a college environment to be optimal, challenges they come across must be met with support that can tolerate the amount of challenge the student encounters. If students are met with too much challenge, they could regress in their developmental growth and give up on the challenge at hand. For example... (will add example from literature) If students are met with too much support, they could not understand what they need and their development would be limited. For example... Sanford's condition of readiness can aid a student's developmental growth if he or she is physically or psychologically ready. If not, it could limit their developmental growth (Sanford, 1966 as cited in Patton et al., 2016).

Nevitt Sanford, a psychologists, was an early scholar who theorized about the process college students would encounter throughout their development in college. He addressed the relationship between the student and their college environment. He proposed this foundational concept that proposed three developmental conditions: readiness, challenge, and support (Sanford, 1966 as cited in Patton et al., 2016).

Sanford's Definition of Readiness refers to internal processes associated with maturation or beneficial environmental factors. This includes...

Sanford's Definition of Challenge refers to situations for which an individual does not have the skills, knowledge, or attitude to cope.

Sanford's Definition of Support refers to buffers in the environment that help the individual meet challenges to be successful.

***I have graphs I made to help show this concept, but cannot seem to upload them onto wikipedia*** [let's youtube this for a tutorial if it doens't work on the full page]

Examples of Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support in Practice:

If a postsecondary college or university environment fails to provide the appropriate support for diverse student populations, the challenges may be too overwhelming to overcome (Sanford, 1966 as cited in Patton et al., 2016). Although Sanford's theory addresses the relationship between a college environment and students' transition in general, it is important to recognize that different populations of students (e.g., adult student learners, learning communities, study abroad students, Asian American students, and self-authorship) have different challenges, and that support from a postsecondary college or university will look different for every population. It is inevitable that students will face some sort of challenge throughout their postsecondary college or university experience and the appropriate support must be in place to aid students success in their educational journey.

Chaves (2006) analyzed adult student learners, whom he defined as students 24 years or older, attending community college for the first time and who were inadequately prepared both academically and socially for college-level learning. Using Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support, he discussed the unique challenges of being an adult student learner, such as integration into an institution, commute to campus, social integration, part-time work, and absence from school for a number of years. For these unique challenges, Chaves looked at both Astin's (1984 as cited in Chaves, 2006) Involvement Theory and Schlossberg's (1989 as cited in Chaves, 2006) Theory of Marginality and Mattering to shed light on the type of support adult learners could use to obtain developmental growth. Support structures such as learning assistance centers, and coursework that included topics of persistence, time management, memory techniques, and test taking, increased involvement and sense of mattering for adult student learners. Additionally, he stressed the significance of adult student support groups, networking, mentoring, counseling, and peer support. Ultimately, the support Chaves looked at for these unique challenges, increased the retention rates of adult student learners and allowed students to have the appropriate amount of support for the challenges they faced.

Zhao and Kuh (2004) analyzed learning communities, whom they defined as communities of students that frequently spent a substantial amount of time engaged in common intellectual activities. Applying Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support, they looked at campus resident status and level of development they faced as some of the challenges being students in a learning community. Zhao and Kuh discussed how support should come from academic advising, relationship with peers, faculty members and administration, engagement activities, and the quality of the campus environment as a whole. Specifically within engagement activities, they saw higher order thinking skills, academic integration, active and collaborative learning, and diversity-related experiences as relevant ways to add value in the support. Additionally, residential learning communities were associated with greater social interaction with peers and co-curricular involvement that supported ones level of development. Again, Zhao and Kuh’s study on learning communities, showed that students optimal developmental growth occurred with challenges they came across were met with the appropriate amount of support.

Berg (2009) observed United States (U.S.) students from several US campuses and compared second language and intercultural learning from study abroad programs that US students enrolled in. Applying Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support, in order to have optimal growth, he concluded that students needed to identify their own program learning goals and provide support in challenging learning environments with cultural mentors that could help the students balance the intercultural challenges. He found that students who were met with too great of a challenge retreated from the learning environment both physically and psychologically. While students with too little challenge become bored and disengaged with their study abroad program. Again, he reiterated the idea that challenge must be met with the appropriate amount of support to aid optimal college student developmental growth.

Alvarez (2002) looked at Asian American students and their racial identity. Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support  showed appropriate ways to develop particular statuses of Asian American racial identity. One challenge the study discussed was how Asian American students operate primarily from a conformity worldview as their color-blind perspectives begin to conflict with their college experiences. To show support, Alvarez discussed exposing the student to positive elements of Asian American communities, history, and culture to introduce students to the significance of race and culture. He goes on to give examples of appropriate support for challenges that Asian American students may face. Alvarez makes it possible for practitioners to design programs, exercises, lectures, and activities that provide a developmentally appropriate degree of challenge and support, aiding optimal college student development in Asian American students.

Marx (2012) reviewed a 25-year longitudinal research study by Baxter Magolda on self-authorship. Applying Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support, she concluded that college campuses provide too much support (Magolda, 2001 as cited in Marx, 2012). The challenge is that this ample amount of support did not create enough challenge to promote movement forward in self-authorship during college. Marx discussed how increasing independence of students, and the interactions of student affairs professionals as a means of support, could advance a student’s development of self-authorship. Additionally, Marx explained advising skills and competencies that student affairs professionals could develop within their own practices to better support the challenge of college students’ movement forward in self-authorship during college. Again, the study demonstrates that the appropriate amount of support must be met with the challenge to aid a student’s developmental growth.

Student development theories, such as Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support, are not meant to be used alone in practice. It is important to acknowledge that multiple theories can be cross pollinated in an individual student’s situation, and often, the intersection of many student development theories is what is most effective in working with postsecondary college or university student environments    

FEEDBACK

Start with a paragraph about the theory itself and not the psychologist. This will help to ensure that this wiki page is about the theory, not the person. So for example, you can start by saying. The Sanford Theory of Challenge and Support states that....

Generally, this looks great. To move this to the next level, I would suggest building the examples into categories instead of separating them out by the article itself. For example, you could create a section for each of the developmental conditions and then using the articles to provide examples and support for them. That way the author isn't the highlight but rather the study/example would be the highlight of the description.-----

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Final Revision for Dr. Tran to review (below)

I will be contributing the information below to the Student Development Theory page. I have written information on the talk page, but have not received any feedback.

Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support

Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support (1966 as cited in Patton et al., 2016) states that for students' developmental growth in a college environment to be optimal, challenges they come across must be met with support that can tolerate the amount of challenge the student encounters. Nevitt Sanford, a psychologist, was a scholar who theorized about the process college students would encounter throughout their development in college. He addressed the relationship between the student and their college environment. Sanford proposed this concept of three developmental conditions: readiness, challenge, and support (Sanford, 1966 as cited in Patton et al., 2016). He speculated that If students are met with too much challenge in their environment, they could regress in their developmental growth and give up on the challenge at hand. For example, in a review by UCLA, Chaves (2006) discussed the juggling of multiple challenges that adult student learners encounter such as integration into an institution, commute to campus, social integration, and absence from school for a number of years that cause adult student learners to regress in their time to graduation, or not graduate at all. If students are met with too much support in their environment, they could not understand what they need and their development would be limited. For example, in a qualitative study grounded in constructivist theory methodology, Marx (2012) concluded that college campuses provided too much support, limiting students' forward movement in their ability to internally define their own beliefs, identity, and relationships during college (Baxter Magolda, 2001 as cited in Marx, 2012). In both studies, the research indicated individuals were unable to reach optimal developmental growth without the appropriate amount of support or challenge.

Sanford's Definition of Readiness refers to internal processes associated with maturation or beneficial environmental factors. Sanford's condition of readiness can aid a student's developmental growth if he or she is physically or psychologically ready. If not, it could limit their developmental growth (Sanford, 1966 as cited in Patton et al., 2016).

Sanford's Definition of Challenge refers to situations for which an individual does not have the skills, knowledge, or attitude to cope.

Sanford's Definition of Support refers to buffers in the environment that help the individual meet challenges to be successful.

It is likely most students wills face an academic, social, or personal challenge throughout their postsecondary college or university experience. Research shows that challenges are different for traditional age students and adult student learners (Chaves, 2006), various marginalized and majority identity groups (Alvarez, 2002), international students (Berg, 2009), students in specific learning communities (Zhao and Kuh, 2004), and numerous other characteristics (Patton et al., 2016). However, appropriate support must be in place to aid students success in their environment and educational journey regardless of the challenge they face. Research indicated that support for students can be in the form of mentoring and involvement from faculty, staff, and peers (Berg, 2009; Chaves, 2006; Rendón, 1994 as cited in Patton et al., 2016; Zhao and Kuh, 2004), ability to be involved in meaningful college activity (Astin,1984 as cited in Chaves, 2006; Astin, 1984 as cited in Patton et al., 2016), believing they matter (Scholossberg, 1989 as cited in Chaves, 2006; Schlossberg, 1989a as cited in Patton et al., 2016), and designing their own curriculum or programs (Alvarez, 2002; Berg, 2009), among other support options. Student development theories, such as Sanford's Theory of Challenge and Support, are not meant to be used alone in practice. It is important to acknowledge that multiple theories, such as Astin's Involvement Theory, Chickering's Theory of Identity Development, Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development, Rendon's Theory of Validation, Schlossberg's Theory of Mattering and Marginality, Schlossberg's Transition Theory, among others, can be cross pollinated in an individual student’s situation, and often, the intersection of many student development theories is what is most effective in working with postsecondary college or university student environments.

*find positive correlation to equal support for challenge