Student development theories

Student Development Theory refers to the body of educational psychology that theorizes how students gain knowledge in post-secondary educational environments.

The earliest manifestation of student development theory — or tradition — in Europe was in loco parentis. Loosely translated, this concept refers to the manner in which children's schools acted on behalf of and in partnership with parents for the moral and ethical development and improvement of students' character development. Ostensibly this instruction emphasized traditional Christian values through strict rules, enforced by rigid discipline. As such, the primary objective of in loco parentis was on the conditioning of social and individual behavior, rather than intellectual cultivation.

The second distinct shift toward a unified student development theory emerged in the late nineteenth century, through the first quarter of the twentieth century, marked by the growth of colleges and universities throughout Europe and the United States, simultaneous with the development of social science disciplines like psychology. By mid-twentieth century, behavioral psychologists such as B.F. Skinner and Carl Rogers influenced educational theory and policy, and a new paradigm emerged known as the Student Services paradigm. As the name indicates, the "Student Services" perspective articulated that students ought to be provided with the services that benefit knowledge acquisition.

By the mid-twentieth century, the service paradigm started to be replaced with the student development paradigm. This paradigm was influenced by the growing body of psychological and sociological theories, reflecting the idea that students learn both in-class and out-of-class, and are influenced both by their genetics and social environment (see nature and nurture).

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