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Assignment 1

According to Perry's theory of cognitive development, there are four stages a student goes through to successfully transition to university life: dualism, multiplicity, relativism, and commitment. In the dualism stage, students accept knowledge from authorities and believe there is a single correct answer. To transition successfully, students must initially trust professors as authorities. In multiplicity, students begin to find answers themselves with help from peers when authorities don't provide a clear answer. The relativism stage involves evaluating arguments critically. With support from instructors, students can achieve this but may regress without structure. Ultimately, commitment requires appreciating ambiguity and recognizing learning is a lifelong process to take action despite uncertainty.

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71 views2 pages

Assignment 1

According to Perry's theory of cognitive development, there are four stages a student goes through to successfully transition to university life: dualism, multiplicity, relativism, and commitment. In the dualism stage, students accept knowledge from authorities and believe there is a single correct answer. To transition successfully, students must initially trust professors as authorities. In multiplicity, students begin to find answers themselves with help from peers when authorities don't provide a clear answer. The relativism stage involves evaluating arguments critically. With support from instructors, students can achieve this but may regress without structure. Ultimately, commitment requires appreciating ambiguity and recognizing learning is a lifelong process to take action despite uncertainty.

Uploaded by

Felistas Chitemere
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Transition from high school to university can be a painful experience for a first year student,

basing on Perry’s Theory of Cognitive Development .Identify skills one would need for a
successful transition to University life.

Perry’s theory is based on the cognitive and ethical development in undergraduate


students ,Perry believed that college students go through in four different stages of mental and
moral develop. These stages include dualism,multiplicity,relativism and lastly commitment.

According to Perry one have to do dualism so as to success transition to University life. Dualism
from Perry’s theory means that knowledge is received, not questioned, students must feel there is
a correct answer to be learned.So as a student you have to listen carefully to the authority for
receiveing knowledge constitutes education.Perry argued that in the early stages of development
there is a properly functioning of brain and also it is when students trust the authority for
instance scholars ,to know the whole information and inform them for what ever students
need.The authority does not include not only people texbooks,television and whatever they
accept as long as they are showing the way things are.Moving on there is also another dualism
which is called Full dualism ,this dualism it is when students they started to believe themselves
and student are taught to find the answears for themselves.This is how Perry’s theory shows that
one have to do so as to success transition to University life.

Moving on the second Perry’s theory is multiplicity is that there are two types of problems that
that are solvable and also problems that the answer is not known yet and it is when students must
put their trust in their own inner voice. Maybe there was no clear answer from the authority to
answer the question so students at this stage have to settle down in peers and discuss till they
come up with their answears.At this level Perry argued that at this level brains tend to withdraw
from authority and seek the company or affirmation of peers.At this stage if a student becoming
educated is equated with schooling turning the crank on the systematized learning process
without necessarily much personal buy in to the true value of the learning
In addition according to Perry’s theory the third stage is contextual relativism ,at this stage brains
started to recognize that important challenges have more defensible and less defensible solutions
rather than a single correct answer or no answers at all.Maybe the brain is not yet adept at
resolving which arguments is most reasonable among competing arguments when all sound
plausible.A student may recognize the need for evaluating evidentiary claims according to some
standard .This stage brings feelings of insecurity ,self doubt and occasional anger .The student
desire to understand yet at the same time wish to escape from the intellectual work involved .So
many students achieve this stage in their upper division courses with help and scaffolding of
their instructors but regress to earlier stages when removed from the structured classroom
environment ,this is how students success transition to University life.

The last stage according to Perry’s theory is commitment within contextual relativism.At this
stage the brain appreciates ambiguity as a quality of the most interesting challenges.Brains at this
stage recognize the reasonable answears often depend upon process throughout life .Perry’s
model suggests that while learning is generally difficult ,cognitive development can be
downright painful.The principle benefit that can come through the formal training of a university
education is that one can take committed action in the face of uncertainty .Along the way
students should expect to feel insecure ,become frustrated ,doubt themselves and possibly want
to quit,while discomfort accompanies this development ,persistence will bring success.This how
Perry viewed from his theories for one to be able to success transition to the university life.

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