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Purpose-guided education


Purpose-guided education prioritizes intrinsic motivation and helps students to become more engaged in learning experiences through connecting their beliefs and life goals to curricular requirements. Jerry Pattengale first coined the phrase “purpose-guided education”, and began its application at Indiana Wesleyan University in 1997. The graduation rates increased over 20% during the next ten years, and ensuing publications, collaborative research projects, and other scholarly activities gained national attention. The Center for Life Calling and Leadership is perhaps the most visible manifestation of this educational philosophy. Key books include Why I Teach,The Purpose-Guided Student,The Explorer’s Guide, and the basic thesis of Educating Students Purposefully. Pattengale began questioning aspects of the prevailing approach to student success, as noted in “Student Success or Student Non-Dissatisfaction”. Through surveying over 400 institutions he discovered that over 90% of them based their student success approach on student satisfaction surveys and external issues instead of intrinsic motivation. The original application of this student success approach is found in The Purpose-Guided Student.

Pattengale contends that “Students are most at-risk when they have no clear understanding of the relevance of college to life after or outside of college. It is important to help alleviate obstacles to educational pursuits, and to address areas of dissatisfaction." However, as noted in The Purpose-Guided Student, a fundamental objective should be for students to learn about their values and develop a sense of purpose. He argues that this sense of direction will overshadow dissatisfactions and help to sustain them in their challenges. This notion is similar to the maxim of the late Chip Anderson, co-author of Gallup’s StrengthsQuest, “If the Why is big enough, the How will show up.”

The application of Purpose-Guided Education to the college student success discussion reflects a general theme among recent best-sellers and trends.

A battery of popular books reflects this idea of “beginning with the end in mind,” as Steven Covey champions in his Seven Habits for Highly Successful People. An increasing number of teachers and professors are shoving aside mainstay “student success” curriculum and making room for this Coveyistic genre. Themes throughout the texts of popular writers like John Maxwell, “Dr. Phil” and Parker Palmer imbibe this notion of “alignment,” or “merging” a person’s core with an articulated life purpose. Likewise, Alfie Kohn’s provocative best-seller, Punished by Rewards, candidly chastises educators for focusing on external issues and incentives instead of intrinsic concerns. Denise Clark Pope’s Doing School likewise challenges the current educational steps to academic “success”, a notion also implied in My Freshman Year.


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