Forms of Ethical and Intellectual Development in the College Years: A Scheme (Paperback)

by William G. Perry Jr. (Author) "We describe in this monograph an evolution in students' interpretation of their lives evident in their accounts of their experience during four years in a..." (more)
Key Phrases: contextual relativism, relativistic epistemology, developmental instruction, First Sample, Second Sample, Chart of Development (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"William G. Perry, Jr. is unique in his influence on those individuals who teach, study, and work with America's college and university students. His work--and by that I mean his entire career and the manner in which he lived it--has influenced generations of faculty members, administrators, and those who themselves have created theories of college student development and instruction." (L. Lee Knefelkamp, Professor of Higher Education, Teachers College, Columbia University)

Product Description
Since its original publication in 1970, this landmark book by William Perry has remained the cornerstone of much of the student development research that followed. Using research conducted with Harvard undergraduates over a fifteen-year period, Perry derived an Anduring framework for characterizing student development--a scheme so accurate that it still informs and advances investigations into student development across gAnders and cultures.

Drawing from firsthand accounts, Perry traces a path from students' adolescence into adulthood. His nine-stage model describes the steps that move students from a simplistic, categorical view of knowledge to a more complex, contextual view of the world and of themselves. Throughout this journey of cognitive development, Perry reveals that the most significant changes occur in forms in which people perceive their world rather than in the particulars of their attitudes and concerns. He shows ultimately that the nature of intellectual development is such that we should pay as much attention to the processes we use as to the content.

In a new introduction to this classic work, Lee Knefelkamp--a close colleague of Perry's and a leading expert on college student development--evaluates the book's place in the literature of higher education. Knefelkamp explains how the Perry scheme has shaped current thinking about student development and discusses the most significant research that has since evolved from Perry's groundbreaking effort.

Forms of Ethical and Intellectual Development in the College Years is a work that every current and future student services professional must have in their library.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (November 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787941182
• ISBN-13: 978-0787941185
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #460,760 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Putting the Perry Scheme in historical perspective, November 20, 2000

By	Howard Aldrich (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

If you already know the secondary literature on the Perry scheme, you know his model of undergraduate intellectual and moral development. Students move through Positions -- NOT "stages" -- as they mature, from a rigid dualistic view of knowledge ("right" vs. "wrong") through various forms of multiplicity -- there is no certainty & so all opinions have the same truth status -- until they reach relativism, in which Position they recognize that all knowledge is contextual. Moving beyond relativism, some become commited relativists, learning to live with competing & contradictory commitments. This is NOT a simple deterministic developmental scheme, as some students retreat from relativism, others deny or reject the implications of their positions, and the time spent in any one position is indeterminate.

What current users of the Perry scheme may not realize is how meticulous he was in constructing it. This book charts the origins of the project from his counseling of students at Harvard & Radcliffe in the early 1950s, through his creation of the Checklist of Educational Values in the mid-50s, to the semi-structured personal interviews with 109 students from the classes of '62 and '63. Although he never lost sight of his ultimate goal -- developing a tool to help people who counseled college students on their journey toward greater self-understanding -- he invested heavily in methodological innovations, creating valid and reliable measures toward that end. Working with a team of graduate assistants, he created interview & coding protocols that are a model of careful scholarly work.

Two other points about the book's value today: First, it contains extensive quotations from the actual recorded transcripts of the interviews, thus allowing us to see for ourselves the correspondence between the model's Position descriptions and the students' own words. Second, Perry's scheme was built on a very strong normative position. He firmly believed that intellectual and moral growth are desirable outcomes of a student's college years. He wrote of the courage students needed to assume the risks of forward movement toward higher Positions in his scheme.

In the last paragraphs, Perry called for a new model of education that would support students in their risk taking, and his call is just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb! A pleasure to see republished., April 27, 1999

By A Customer

An excellent read for those interested in the literature of education and student development. The introduction, written by L. Lee Kenefelkamp, not only pays homage to Perry's work, but also places it's relevence in modern educational philosophies. A must have for anyone involved in education!

5 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Snoozefest for a college student, February 10, 2004

By	"drmstrm16" (Bar Harbor, ME United States) - See all my reviews

Because I am getting certified to teach, I had to read Perry for a couple of college classes. While I recognize his importance to developmental theories (hence the 2 stars), I have to say that the book was dry, repetitious, sexist, and outright dull. I got no more from the book than I did from the handout my professor prepared, and the handout took less time to read. I'd say the worst part of reading Perry was the fact that he quoted verbatim what the students said, including every um, uh, ah, well, etc. Unless your looking to catch up on some sleep, find yourself a handout...