Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Constructive-developmental'

It has been long known that groups of adults learn and enact their learning in certain ways; what is little known is how groups learn and how they develop in cognitive complexity. This dissertation proposes a theory of group cognitive development by arguing that intentional adult groups are complex and dynamic, and that they have the potential to evolve over time. Groups are complex in that they are made up of individuals within different orders of consciousness (Kegan), and they are dynamic in that different orders of consciousness interact and conflict (Lonergan) during the formation and enactment of group vision, values, and procedures. Dynamic complexity theory of group development as it is referred to in this study is grounded in Robert Kegan’s constructive developmental theory and in Bernard Lonergan’s transcendental method. While both Kegan and Lonergan attend to the growth of individuals, their theories are adapted to groups in order to understand the cognitive complexity of groups, intragroup and intergroup conflict, and the mental complexity of leader curriculum. This theory is applied to two case studies, one from antiquity in the case of the first century Corinthian community engaged in conflict with its founder, St. Paul, and in one contemporary study of American Catholic parishioners engaged in contentious dialogue with diocesan leaders from 1994 to 2004. The parish groups experienced a series of dialogues during a ten year period over the issues of parish restructuring and the priest sexual abuse crisis yielding cumulative and progressive changes in perspective-taking, responsibility-taking, and in group capacity to respond to and engage local and institutional authority figures. Group development is observed against a pedagogical backdrop that represents a mismatch between group complexity and leader expectations. In Corinth, Paul’s curriculum was significantly beyond the mental capacity of the community. In the case of Catholic parishioners the curriculum of diocesan leaders was beneath the mental capacities of most of the groups studied. It is proposed that individuals sharing the same order of consciousness, understood as cognitive constituencies, are in a dynamic relationship with other cognitive constituencies in the group that interact within an object-subject dialectic and an agency-communion dialectic. The first describes and explains the evolving cognitive complexity of group knowing, how the group does its knowing, and what it knows when it is doing it (the epistemologies of the group). This dialectic has implications for how intentional groups might be the critical factor for understanding individual growth. The second dialectic describes and explains the changing relationship between group agency, which is enacted either instrumentally or ideologically; and group communion, which is enacted ideationally. The agency-communion dialectic is held in an unstable balance in the knowing, identity, and mission of groups. With implications for the fields of adult education and learning organizations, dynamic complexity theory of group development notes predictable stages of group evolution as each cognitive constituency evolves, and notes the significance of internal and external conflict for exposing the presence of different ways of knowing and for challenging the group toward cognitive growth<br>Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008<br>Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences<br>Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University, 2010.<br>Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 22, 2010). Advisor: Jon Wergin, Ph.D. "A dissertation submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2010."--from the title page. Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-210).

Cette thèse porte sur l’accompagnement d’une transformation organisationnelle d’une entité de maintenance de la signalisation du métro parisien. Dans une visée développementale, le défit est d’outiller les acteurs pour qu’ils soient capables de reconstruire leurs processus de manière capacitante, autonome et durable sur la base des besoins émergents de l’activité transverse. L’intervention a été pensée et outillée comme un processus formatif. Le Laboratoire Développemental (LD) impulse deux niveaux d’enquête transverse. Le LD1 porte sur le travail de production, voire sur la reconception des processus de maintenance (dimension fonctionnelle). Le LD2 porte sur les pratiques sous-jacentes le processus organisant précédemment réalisé (dimension métaréflexive). La place de l’analyse de l’activité et les rôles des l’intervenant capacitant sont également questionnés comme éléments clés pour traduire le potentiel développemental des acteurs (y compris de l’intervenant) et de leurs pratiques en productions effectives<br>This thesis presents the design of a model for an ergonomic intervention with developmental and autopoietic aims. It is based on the organizational change of an entity in charge of the signalling devises maintenance for the Parisian subway. Its developmental goal is to empower actors to redesign their work processes in an enabling, autonomous and sustainable way based on the emerging needs of a transversal activity that is to be imagined. The intervention was conceived and equipped as a formative process. The Developmental Laboratory (LD) impels two levels of cross-sectional investigation. The LD1 concerns the production work or even the redesign of maintenance processes (functional dimension). The LD2 deals with the practices underlying the previously organizing process (metaflective dimension). The place ofthe analysis of the activity and the roles of the enabling ergonomist appear as key elements to translate the developmental potential of the actors (ergonomist included) and their practices into actual production

This study was designed to analyze the text of autobiographical writing using three stage theories of constructive developmental psychology. The writing samples examined in this study were twenty (20) "prior learning portfolios", work-related autobiographies of adult students seeking credit for life experience. The students were undergraduates enrolled in the University Without Walls program of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The developmental variables employed in the study were social perspective-taking as defined by Basseches (1984), subject/object balance from the self psychology of Kegan (1982), and self-knowledge development as discussed by Weinstein and Alschuler (1985). The writing analysis was patterned after the oral interview scoring processes commonly used in determining cognitive developmental stage levels: codable items in the text were reviewed to obtain an overall stage score for each of the three developmental models. The developmental scores were then compared with academic credit awards assigned to the portfolios. Significant results were found in statistical analyses correlating increases in credit award with increases in stage scores for social perspective taking and subject-object balance. Other significant findings included a positive correlation between social perspective-taking and subject-object balance. Moreover, increases in the external knowledge of another's internal processes were matched by increases in one's own self-knowledge. The study's success in conducting constructive developmental analyses of narrative writing has potentially positive implications for lifespan developmental psychologists, educators, and writers.

Wilderness Experience Programs (WEPs) take youth into wilderness settings in order to teach wilderness travel and leadership, expand personal capacity, and equip youth with coping skills in order to manage life’s difficulties. Though considerable research has been conducted on WEPs, no one has sought to understand the student experience these programs provide through a constructive-developmental lens (Kegan, 1982, 1994). The purpose of this case study was to explore, describe, assess, and understand–using the framework of Robert Kegan’s (1982, 1994) constructive-developmental theory–the impact a 21-day wilderness backpacking experience had on five participating youth. The researcher believed that understanding how participants in a wilderness backpacking course make sense of their experience through the lens of their constructive-developmental perspective might help inform the theories of change that underpin WEPs, the means by which desired change is facilitated, and the reasons why some youth thrive and others struggle. This exploratory study utilized a case study approach. The researcher embedded as a participant-observer for the duration on a 21-day backpacking course with Outward Bound Canada in the Ghost River Wilderness, Alberta, Canada. Nine youth participated in the expedition, with five male students volunteering as research participants. Pre-trip and post-trip administrations of the Subject-Object Interview and post-expedition semi-structured interviews were conducted with each research participant. Additionally, the researcher made field observations and wrote field notes. The subsequent analysis produced in-depth profiles of each research participant’s experience of the course, pre and post expedition scores from the Subject-Object Interviews, and a description of how each research participant’s experience might be understood through the lens of their constructive-developmental perspective. Although no significant changes to constructive-developmental perspective were realized, implications of these analyses were discussed, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made.<br>Graduate

Given the immense challenges of the principalship and the high turnover of school principals, school districts—and other organizations—have looked to assistant principals as a major source of leadership talent to take up the role of principal. In this qualitative dissertation, I explored how eight principals—from different USA locations—described, understood, and experienced the transition from assistant principal to principal. Specifically, I examined what they named as the professional learning experiences they had on the way to becoming principals and how, if at all, their prior learnings supported them in this transition. Additionally, my study used purposeful developmental sampling to explore how, if at all, participants’ way of knowing (i.e., internal cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal capacities), as assessed by an expert developmental psychologist who employed the Subject-Object Interview (a reliable developmental assessment tool), might help with understanding how they made meaning of their experiences in transitioning to the principalship and their learning experiences along the way.This study is unique in that it focuses on the experiences of assistant principals—who have become principals—and provides a rich insight during a particularly critical and vulnerable time in their career trajectory. The study has implications for how school districts and district leaders – superintendents and principals – can provide differentiated supports for aspiring school principals. I recruited an expert developmental psychologist to conduct Subject-Object Interviews in order to develop a purposeful sample of eight participants, four who have a predominately socializing way of knowing and four who have a predominately self-authoring way of knowing. Eight Subject-Object interviews and sixteen in-depth, qualitative interviews (approximately 36 hours, transcribed verbatim) were the primary data source. Data analysis involved several iterative steps, including writing analytic notes and memos; reviewing, coding, categorizing data to identify key themes within and across cases; and crafting narrative summaries. I learned from the participants that their transition to the principalship involved increasing complexity in their work in three dimensions: an increased breadth of responsibilities (8 of 8), including budgeting, scheduling, supervision of all staff, and, in some cases, district politics (4 of 8); more complex interpersonal conflict among a higher number of stakeholders as they transitioned to assume a new mantle of authority as principal (8 of 8); and looking inward to clarify their internal values, which they said helped manage the breadth and depth of the first two dimensions of complexity (8 of 8). I also found two types of professional learning experiences that participants named as most helpful during their transition. The first was receiving mentoring (8 of 8), and the second was leading a large, complex project during their time as assistant principal (4 of 8). An additional three participants said that they had wished most for the opportunity to lead a large, complex project like those described by the other participants (3 of 8). For all five of the major findings – the three dimensions of complexity referenced above and the two types of professional learning that were most helpful to the participants in their transition – I found that the participant’s way of knowing was connected to how they experienced, made sense of, and managed that aspect of their transition. Predominantly socializing knowers struggled to manage their time and determine which priorities were most important and often described that their rise to this level of authority left them feeling lonely or as an outsider (4 of 4) and that it was difficult to manage conflicts and the expectations that others had of them as principals (4 of 4). In addition, those with at least some capacity self-authorship described an awareness of how new principals needed to do the hard work to develop these internal values (3 of 3). In contrast, the predominantly self-authoring participants told me that they did not feel like they were being pulled in multiple directions and described systems they had created to manage this kind of complexity (4 of 4). They also understood and appreciated others’ expectations of them as the authority figure and could turn inside to clarify their own beliefs to effectively manage the conflicts that arose (4 of 4). Finally, they pointed to these inner values as foundational to meeting the different types of complexity inherent in transitioning to the principalship (4 of 4). For the aspiring principals who are predominately self-authoring, they shared a higher level of comfort in their own ability to handle the increasing complexities that come with the principalship, and each of them (4 of 4) shared that they felt like they got what they needed as assistant principals to prepare them for the transition. For aspiring principals who are predominantly socializing in their way of knowing, my research shows that their learning opportunities need to be designed to help them develop a level of comfort with conflict as an opportunity for positive change rather than something to avoid altogether. Furthermore, I recommend that principals mentor with developmental intentionality such that they tailor their mentorship and feedback to make it effective for each AP they mentor. Last, I recommend that principals provide opportunities for APs to lead large complex projects, appropriately scaled based on the AP’s developmental readiness.

Child and youth care workers in residential care provide support and intervention to young people who are experiencing difficulties in their lives. Caring for these young people can be complex and demanding and many child and youth care practitioners struggle to meet the challenges associated with their roles. Practice problems include volatile and punitive environments, inability of practitioners to safely manage young people’s threatening and aggressive behaviours, and staff turnover and burnout. These problems are often attributed to job stress, personal characteristics of practitioners, and lack of education, training, and professional development. To reconceptualise the aforementioned practice problems, Robert Kegan’s (1982) constructive-developmental theory was used as a theoretical framework to explore the experiences of child and youth care workers in residential care. The research was guided by 2 main questions: 1. How do different meaning-making systems influence how practitioners cope with and experience the demands of the job? 2. What role does the organizational environment play, if any, in mediating or exacerbating the demands of the job for practitioners with different meaning-making systems? An exploratory study was conducted using a mixed methods design. The study was conducted in two stages. First, 99 participants completed the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), Work Environment Scale (WES), and Leadership Development Profile (LDP). Linear regression was conducted to explore the relationships between the ProQOL, LDP, and WES and most results were not significant. From the initial pool, 18 participants were selected for in-depth, qualitative interviews to assess their constructive-developmental orders – the ways in which they make meaning - and explore their experiences in residential care in the areas of job satisfaction and success, challenge, and coping with the demands of the job. The ways in which participants at different constructive-developmental orders experience and cope with the challenges of their jobs are described and themes are identified. There was internal coherence among participants of the same epistemological order and across organizations. This dissertation examines implications of the findings for child and youth care practice, education, training, supervision, research, and organizational management in residential care.<br>Graduate