Hunter and the Spoon Concept

Dr. Hunter Boylan’s name is widely associated with developmental education, and rightfully so.  His bio lists his career in the field as spanning over thirty years.  He is Director of the National Center for Developmental Education, Professor of Higher Education at Appalachian State, Director of The Kellogg Institute, and myriad other titles relating to research and innovation in developmental education.  Titles aside, Hunter is awesome.  He lectured this morning from 9:00 until 11:30, and the time flew.  Lecturing to 43 people, all of whom are leaders in Developmental Education at our own institutions, could have been a tough sell, but everything Hunter had to say was interesting and pertinent, and it set the tone for the next four weeks.

Developmental Education, by definition, is a continuum of services ranging from remedial courses for new college students all the way to GRE or MCAT preparation courses for students preparing for graduate school.  People grow and learn in stages, Hunter reminded us, and one of those stages might be remediation.  Developmental education, however, is not all remediation.  The field of developmental education encompasses a large framework, all of which surrounds the concept of developing.  That could be developing a first year student to learn the skills necessary to succeed in college, or it could be developing the higher level thinking skills of a graduate student preparing to enter medical school.  It all falls under the continuum of services guided by the principles of adult development and learning and serving underprepared college students – in whatever ways in which they are underprepared.

Dr. Hunter Boylan and Dr. Caroline Seefchak.  Photo credit:  Taunya Paul, Kellogg 2011

Hunter went on to discuss the principles or guiding concepts of developmental education.  I will undoubtedly discuss all of this in more detail during either staff development or during a department meeting when I return, but one of Hunter's guiding concepts was particularly well defined.  It was #5 on his list, and it was “Encourage students to gradually accept responsibility for their own learning." That is certainly a principle with which there is universal agreement, but Hunter brought up some interesting points that are worth repeating.  He stressed that it is a part of the job of the developmental educator to teach responsibility. Well, yeah.   

Then he brought up something developmental educators hear often:  “But, you are spoon-feeding them."  Well, yes, was Hunter's reaction.  You spoon feed babies to keep them alive.  You have to keep them alive so that you can teach them.  You spoon feed them until you have taught them to do it themselves.  The same concept applies to our students.  It is important, he emphasized, that we not ever take our eyes off of the goal of teaching our students to accept responsibility for their learning.  We may spoon feed them to keep them alive while we teach them, but we must keep teaching them.  He concluded by saying that with some students, it may feel like it will kill us both, but we keep doing it!

Duncan Hall, Kellogg Institute, Appalachian State University