1st Edition
Accommodating Marginalized Students in Higher Education A Structural Theory Approach
This book defines and examines the needs of the marginalized student and presents a theoretically grounded model to guide institutions of higher education toward developing new and more effective programmatic responses.
Taking the implementational experience of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa, as a case study, it investigates the experience of students who present problems of learning and inadequate preparation for sustained performance, including learning disabilities, lack of study skills, motivational factors, and cultural support systems. Further, it identifies the pressure for institutions to be responsive to social and political pressures to accommodate the needs of students previously excluded from participation in higher educational or vocational training opportunities. In addressing this timely area of development, the authors formulate a unique conceptual foundation for the consideration of a new paradigm, based on cognitive and biosocial theories: those of the theory of structural cognitive modifiability and mediated learning experience and of Feuerstein and Bronfenbrenner’s ecosystem structural orientation.
Innovative, applicational, and optimistic in nature, this book will appeal to scholars, researchers, administrators, and postgraduate level students working across the fields of higher education, educational psychology, and student counseling.
Part I: Theoretical Foundations 1. Setting the Context 2. The Marginal Student in the Higher Educational Setting 3. Proposing an Alternative Paradigm 4. The Theoretical/Conceptual Framework Part II: From Theory to Practice 5. The Peer Mentor Program 6. The Living-Learning Program 7. The Co-curricular Learning Program Part III: Components of the Implementation 8. Applying MLE in Program Implementation 9. Assessing Student Needs 10. Creating the Modifying Environment 11. Optimistic Alternatives for the Marginal Student in Higher Education Appendix
Biography
WP Wahl is Director of Student Life at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Louis H. Falik is Professor Emeritus of Counseling at San Francisco State University, USA.
