4.2: Developmental Model
Use our developmental model as a method for integrating and evaluating curricular and co-curricular initiatives Other Information:
Our approach to undergraduate education is based on the understanding that intellectual, personal, and social maturing is
a progressive process, involving transitions that are often transformative. Fostering this developmental process is the task
that can serve to integrate academic, residential, and social life. As Duke students develop over their four years, we must
enable them to take increasing ownership and responsibility for their own education and social behavior. While the diversity
of our students precludes a single approach to, or model of, the Duke experience, we seek to be more intentionally guided
by a progressive model - from the first to fourth year - of students' cognitive, psychological, and social growth. At the
same time that we foster a student's growth toward independence, we will ensure that knowledgeable and compassionate mentors
are part of the process so that students gain the benefit of the mentoring and guidance that experienced adults can provide.
The first year is an inward-looking, transitional period, where students are acculturated to the primary values of the academic
community - integrity, freedom of inquiry and expression, respect for individual difference, reliance on reason and evidence,
and competition of ideas. Students develop the foundational knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be active participants
in the community, including how to join an intellectual conversation, formulate and support an argument, make claims in public
space, and go beyond tolerance to an affirmation of the value of difference. The first year is a time for students to begin
to figure out who they are and to be taken seriously for the quality of their thoughts and ideas. The sophomore and junior
college years are a time for building particular intellectual, personal, and leadership competencies and a depth of knowledge
through majors, interdisciplinary study, and experiential learning (e.g., study abroad, service learning, research, and internships).
This is also a time for deepening social entrepreneurship and civic engagement by learning how to link academic inquiry to
the social good, and developing the capacities for discernment and commitment. We will place special emphasis on the sophomore
year because, as is the case nationwide, the sophomore year is not currently as robust as the first or latter years: some
of the sense of community built on East Campus is lost with the move to West Campus, classes for many are appreciably larger,
and choosing a course of study and a major brings challenges. A key strategic goal will be to reconceptualize the sophomore
year in light of specific developmental challenges and to provide curricular and co-curricular opportunities targeted at making
this decisive year more meaningful. We will work with departments and programs to develop courses more responsive to this
cohort, and we will collaborate more closely with student affairs to increase co-curricular opportunities that align with
sophomores' developmental needs and capabilities. The senior year refines and consolidates intellectual and personal skills
and transitional in the move to greater autonomy and self- regulation. Our efforts to create Central Campus as a culminating
and transitional space reflects this final stage of undergraduate development. As we seek to further enhance the undergraduate
experience, we will work to more expressly map new initiatives and programs onto this multi-year student development model
so that undergraduates are supported as they grow intellectually and personally throughout the course of their Duke experience.
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