Transforming Students: Fulfilling the Promise of Higher Education

by Charity Johansson

College has the power to transform students into intentional, critical, and engaged people. The recent trend of trying to measure higher education’s return on investment misses a fundamental point, argue Charity Johansson and Peter Felten. The central purpose of a college or university is to transform the lives of students—not to merely change them or help them mature. This transformation is an ongoing process of intentionally aligning one’s behavior with one’s core sense of personal identity. It is the university’s central role to lead students in this transformation, a process that shapes students into intentional, critical, and engaged individuals. Recognizing the remarkable influence of the college experience on peoples’ lives, the authors offer a guide to how colleges and universities can effectively lead students through this life-changing process. Drawn from extensive interviews with students and graduates, faculty and staff, Transforming Students gathers diverse stories to show how students experience the transformation process, which rarely follows a neat or linear path. The interviews illustrate central themes from the literature on transformative learning and the undergraduate student experience. A sequel of sorts to George Keller’s classic Transforming a College —which chronicled Elon University’s metamorphosis from struggling college to a top regional university— Transforming Students addresses the school’s core educational to shape students into engaged adults who embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor. Given this effect, the college experience is much more than preparation for a career. It is preparation for life.

Genres: Education

124 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 2014

Reviews

[Aydan Aliyeva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special. Didn't meet my expectations

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the way many current higher education initiatives were presented together-- from George Kuh's work to First-Year research.

[Curt Bobbitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This manifesto defines “transformative learning” primarily for residential students at 4-year colleges and universities. The authors teach at Elon University where they have observed several of the benefits. They develop the definition with numerous interviews with faculty and students at Elon and some faculty from other schools. The refer to scholarly research without sounding pedantic. The book’s six chapters emphasize the importance of “verification”: “Verification is about answering the questions, ‘What is it I want or need to become and what actions does that require?’ ‘What do I need to enact?’ The verification part of the process has students trying those new ways on, seeing what fits and what does not and what feels true and what does not, and acting out their new understandings in the community around them” (64).