Abigail Lynam
Understanding one’s own development as an educator, as well as the developmental diversity of students can have a significant impact on how educators approach teaching, mentorship, and design learning experiences. Developmentally informed educators recognize the phases of development that students are likely to be in and adapt their teaching accordingly. Recognizing developmental diversity, they adjust the outcomes, processes, and mentoring to meet the students where they are developmentally. Without this awareness and knowledge, educational programs are more likely to teach for particular forms of development, which provide an appropriate stretch for some students but not for others. In addition, educators may be more likely to project their own developmental needs onto students, teaching who they are, rather than who is in front of them. This article offers a review of adult development theory, specifically O’Fallon’s STAGES model, and its application to teaching and learning. It includes the results of research on the impact of learning about adult development for faculty and students in a graduate program and the findings of additional research on the meaning-making and perspective-taking of educators through the stages of development. It concludes with practical insights and principles for teaching and mentoring developmentally.
Tags: constructive development theory, Higher Education, adult development, transformative learning., stages, adult learning, ego development, Lynam, developmentally aware teaching
