Chickering Seven Principles
Chickering Seven Principles
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SEVEN PRINCIPLES
FOR
GOOD PRACTICE
IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
atdrhis document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
by Arthur W. Chickering "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
MATERIAL H BEEN GRANTED BY
onginating it.
0 Minor changes have been made to improve
and Zelda E Gamson*
reproduction quality
*Prepared uith the assistance of Aleuznder W. Education Commission of the State& The John-
Agin, Houard Bowen, Carol M. Boyer, K son Foundation sty:forted the preparation of
Patricia Cross, Kemzeth Eble, Russell Edgenon, early drafts and a meeting for the authors at
Jary Gaff, Jaseph Katz C Robert Pace, Martin WMgvread in Racine, Wisconsin William
W. Peterson, and Rithard C Richardson,Jr. Bowl and Henry Halsted of the Johnson Foun-
This woriz uas co:sponsored by the Ameri- dation made usefid contributions to the
can Association for Higher Education and the grotp's deliberations and to revisions.
2
MHE BULLETIN/MARCH 1987/3
A FOCUS FOR IMPROVEMENT
T hese seven principles are not
ten commandments shrunk to a
twentieth century attention span.
Good practices hold as much
meaning for professional programs as
for tht liberal arts. They work for
wide range of schooLs in this countty.
We draw the implications of this
research for practice, hoping to help
They are intended as guidelines for many different kinds of students us all do better.
faculty members, students, and white, black, Hispanic, Asian, rich, We address the teacher's how, not
administratorswith support from poor, older, younger, male, female, the subject-matter what, of good prac-
state agencies and trusteesto well-prepared, underprepared. tice in undergraduate education. We
improve teaching and learning. These But the ways different institutions recognize that content and pedagogy
principles seem like good common implement good practice depends interact in complex ways. We are also
sense, and they arebecause many very much on their students and their aware that there is much healthy
teachers and students have experi- circumstances. In what follows, we ferment within and among the disci-
enced them and because research describe several different approaches What is taught, after all, is at
supports them. They rest on 50 years to good practice that have been used least as important as how it is taught.
of research on the way teachers teach in different kinds of settings in the In contrast to the long history of
and students learn, how students last few years. In addition, the power- research in teaching and learning,
work and play with one another, and ful implications of these principles there is little research on the college
how students and faculty talk to for the way states fund and govern curriculum. We cannot, therefore,
each other. higher education and for the way make responsible recommendations
While each practice can stand on institutions are run are discussed about the content of a good under-
its own, when all are present their briefly at the end. graduate education. That work is yet
effects multiply. Together, they employ As faculty members, academic to be done.
six powerful forces in education: administrators, and srudent personnel This much we can say: An under-
10. Activity staff, we have spent most of our graduate education should prepare
P. Cooperation working lives trying to understand srudents to understand and deal intel-
O. Diversity our students, our colleagues, our ligently with modern life. What better
10. Expectations institutions, and ourselves. We have place to start but in the classroom
110. Interaction conducted research on higher educa- and on our campuses? What better
10. Responsibility tion with dedicated colleagues in a time than now?