Exploring the Impact of Secondary Educational Contexts on College Student Formation and Development

Abstract

The intent of this study was to explore the impact of secondary educational contexts on college student formation and development. Semi-structured interviews were employed in order to elicit information from participants that revealed their personal perspectives regarding their approaches to acquiring, maintaining, and implementing knowledge. Students from three secondary educational contexts were included in this study: homeschool, private school, and public school. William G. Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development and John David Trentham’s 10 Epistemological Priorities and Competencies were used as a theoretical lens. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were also employed in order to elicit information from parents, teachers, and administrators from each of the secondary educational contexts. A review of the precedent literature for this research presented theological, epistemological, theoretical, and educational foundations that defined the context of this research study.

Overall, this research observed that epistemological positioning was generally consistent among evangelical undergraduates from differing pre-college learning environments, with homeschooler trailing slightly behind public and private school students, which reflected a range of positions within the Dualism stage to the mid stage of Multiplicity from the Perry Scheme. Additionally, this research observed that most entering freshmen have “emerging” epistemological competencies and priorities according to Trentham’s taxonomy. In addition, numerous prominent themes emerged from analysis of interviewees’ articulations that were identified as bearing relevance to how participants describe the impact of secondary educational contexts on students’ epistemological maturation and Christian formation.

KEYWORDS: homeschool, private school, public school, college student, biblical wisdom, biblical worldview, knowledge of God, imago Dei, intellectual virtues, intellectual disciplines, sources of knowledge, Center for the Study of Intellectual Development (CSID), Christian formation, cognitive development, college student development, critical thinking, educational philosophy, dualism, epistemological development, epistemological maturity, faith and rationality, faith and reason, pre-college learning environment, secondary education, intellectual development, inverse consistency, multiplicity, Perry Scheme, Perry Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development, evangelical undergraduates, William G. Perry, Jr., John David Trentha