I have always wanted to attain a higher position in the field of education since my college days. Now I am at the verge of completing my PhD program and after that I will start trying to get a job. My natural and favorite choice in this regard is a post of campus president. I like this job and the responsibilities of campus president. A campus president is selected by university board of governors and in consultation with the chancellor of university. He advises the chancellor about the policies and plans related to the campus. He is initially selected for a term of three years which could be extended to five years or more after the scrutiny of his performances by the board of governors. Campus president is a member of the university leadership council.
Campus president has several responsibilities apart from implementing the academic and financial of the university, approved by the chancellor and board of governors. He has the following responsibilities:
Academic responsibilities- a campus president is expected to promote the academic policies of the campus. He should make new strategies to promote the academic activities and always encourage the students, teachers and academic staff to strengthen scholarship and student learning. He should be adroit in innovation and formulation of the ideas and should make the collaborations with other educational institutes to promote the academic excellence. Campus president is responsible for keeping his university ahead from others by providing excellent education. He is expected to identify and implement innovative ways like integration, alliance with good universities, introducing new latest courses and technology in the campus. He should introduce scholarship program to promote intelligent students in the campus. He should also take calculated risk by introducing new innovative methods to make learning process more effective and to provide excellent education.
Financial responsibilities – campus president is responsible for financial planning of the institute. He is required to develop fund management system of the institution i.e. Cash inflow and out flow, budget, fund allocation, efficient business ideas, identification of various monetary disciplines and resources allocation. Campus president is expected to raise fund for the institute from various sources. He is responsible for channelizing various fund raising sources like volunteer donors, businessman’s and various organizations etc. president generate fund for the projects developed to serve special needs for example free education to poor children of a community. President is also responsible for organizing various periodic campaigns to generate fund for the university.
Decision making ability – campus president should be able to take wise decision even in adverse situations. He should also be ready to take uncommon decisions in tuff situations. He should never take decision if he is having knowledge and information about the problem.
William Perry has recognized the importance of cognitive structural theories in the study of psychology. He says “Cognitive-structural theories examine the process of intellectual development during college years. These theories focus on how people think, reason, and make meaning of their experiences”. Cognitive structural theory is a very helpful method that helps students in learning the psychology of a person. A set of postulations are used in this way of study to determine the psychology and behavior of a person, at different stages. At the sixth stage, he mentions commitment foreseen which is related to making choices and ethical development.
Jean Piaget believes in that action is the source of all the developments and development come into view because of actions only. Jean has intensively worked on the children, their behavior, and thinking. He made certain observations regarding his study and suggested that the children live in a heteronomous stage of moral reasoning which is the result of two factors. The one is cognitive structure of a child and the other is social relationship with the elders. Piaget suggested the schools to put emphasis on the problem solving, and moral development aspects of a child’s personality.
Lawrence Kohlberg in his theory talks about the morality of the judgments. He mentions three qualities of judgments and analyses the judgments on the basis of these qualities. Kohlberg discusses about six stages of the theory. Stage one is Heteronomous morality, stage two is individualistic morality, stage three is interpersonally normative morality, stage four is social system morality, stage five is human rights and social welfare morality and the last stage, according to Kohlberg, is morality of reversible and prescriptive general principles. This six stage theory indicates the notion of the relativism and it suggests a way to upper direction from the lower direction.
Carol Gilligan in her theory of moral development advocates that women identify care and the responsibility. Carol in her theory mentions three levels with two transitional phases. Level one is orientation to individual survival, goodness has been described as self sacrifice in level two and level three talks about morality of non violence. Gilligan suggests that Kohlberg and Piaget do not talk about the women and they have presented the picture of men only. Her works ae focused on the female relationship and female position in the society. Carol’s theory can be seen as a blend of Freud’s theory with the theory of the Piaget and Kohlberg.
Psychosocial theory has two categories, first belongs to the overall development. Arthur chickering has been advocating for this theory while second belongs to selected aspects of the development like gender and race etc.
Psychosocial theory of Erik Erickson reflects three elements. Epigenetic principle is the first among these which says that "anything that grows has a ground plan and that out of this ground plan the parts arise, each part having its time of special ascendancy, until all parts have arisen to form a functioning whole". This theory is very specific and addresses some very specific and limited issues. Erickson’s second contention is that the development appears after the need or the crisis. Erickson opines that these needs does not necessarily means that there is any emergency which is required to be addressed but it suggests that some biological or psychological changes are interacting with the socio-cultural demands. Erickson’s third principle belongs to the identity development; he recognizes identity development as one of the most important issues and one of the most prominent among the psychosocial theories which belongs to the students.
Chickering has proposed seven vectors theory of student development. His seven vectors theory is considered as the most comprehensive theory in respect of the student development which covers almost all the aspects of the subject. This theory discusses several aspects of the student development and thoroughly addresses the issues of the related subject. The seven vectors, according to the chickering are: achieving competence, managing emotions, moving towards interdependence, developing mature interpersonal relationships, establishing identity, developing a purpose, and developing integrity. Every component has several sub components and the theory is very elaborative which touches every aspects and thus a very useful in the study of student development.
Schlossberg discusses four major factors as situation, self, support and strategy. These are very important factors which influence the ability of a person to handle a situation. These all factors are supported by the time. The all four factors are the outcome of her extensive research and the study that she did over a period of time in this field. An observable thing in this regard is that her original theory was proposed in the year 1981 but it has seen several changes that occurred as a result of the ongoing researches in this field. The study has been found to be very useful in terms of the effective results.
Learning styles are a set of different methods which helps the students in the learning. There are scholar who have proposes the theories related to the learning and intelligence. David Kolb and Myer-Briggs have worked very intensively in this field and discussed their opinions in respect of learning and intelligence. Kolb discusses his ideas of learning as abstractness, activity, concreteness and reflection. His contention is that every person uses these methods for learning though there are several who use some additional methods according to their conveniences.
Myer Brigg theory recognizes and differentiates the students according to their personality, behavior and intelligence. They have categorized the students as Extroverts, sensors, thinkers and judgers. This theory decides the learning methods according to the personality and atmosphere of the students.
References
Frick, W. B. (1991). Personality theories: journeys into self : an experiential workbook. New York: Teachers College Press.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development. United States of America: Harvard University Press.
Jane Goodman, Nancy K. Schlossberg and Mary L. Anderson. (2006). Counseling adults in transition: linking practice with theory. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Lawrence Kohlberg, Charles Levine and Alexandra Hewer. (1983). Moral stages: a current formulation and a response to critics. Basel: Karger.
Perry, W. (1999). Forms of Ethical and Intellectual Development in the College Years. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Piaget, J. (2002). The language and thought of the child. New York: Routledge.
