Personal Development Portfolio 150 is an introduction to the liberal arts and to the academic community of Bridgewater College.  Students begin their personal development portfolios which document the processes of intellectual discovery, emotional and physical wellness, ethical and spiritual growth, and citizenship.  Special attention will be given to practicing reflection skills and evaluating personal and social choices. 

Objectives of the Course:     

1.  To introduce you to the liberal arts.  Students will explore the purposes, goals and values of a liberal arts education.  ‘Liberal’ means free, thus we will focus on understanding the ways the liberal arts can make us free.  The phrase “liberal arts” designates the type of education we seek to offer here at Bridgewater College.  Educating students in the liberal arts tradition means, on a basic level, giving them the broad skills and knowledge one acquires from study in such areas as literature, philosophy, history, and the arts, as opposed to the more specialized and technical education one would receive in professional and vocational training programs.

2. To develop your skills in critical reflection.  To that end, there will be material assigned throughout the term that students will reflect upon, sometimes in writing and sometimes in classroom discussion.  Critical reflection involves the practice of liberal learning: being open to new ideas, evaluating ideas in the light of experience and our preconceived values and ideas, and exploring the implications of the conclusions we come to for ourselves and our society.    

3. To begin the your personal development reflective essay, the central component of the personal development portfolio.  The essay provides the opportunity to meaningfully reflect on one’s growth as a “whole person”, that is in each of the four dimensions of personal development.

 THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

 A key piece of the Bridgewater experience involves challenging ourselves to become free human beings by reflecting on our personal development.  Personal development personal portfolios consist of four distinct areas in which the College hopes to foster your development.  

• Intellectual Growth and Discovery. In addition to meeting the minimum academic standards specified in the catalog, Bridgewater students develop the skills and perspectives to be passionate lifelong learners who can integrate their varied academic experiences in a meaningful way.

• Emotional Maturation and Physical Health. Bridgewater students understand the importance of emotional and physical well-being, and possess the skills to pursue wellness during their college years and throughout the rest of their lives.

• Ethical and Spiritual Growth. The curricular and co-curricular experiences at Bridgewater require students to examine and act upon fundamental ethical choices, and to define, refine, and pursue their personal spiritual paths.

• Citizenship and Community Responsibility. At Bridgewater, students become more aware, involved, and effective citizens of the communities-campus, local, national, global-to which they belong. Responsible citizenship at Bridgewater implies the ability and willingness to provide leadership and other forms of service to the community.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

You have each signed the honor code statement and it is expected that you will internalize and abide by this norm. Cheating and plagiarism are taboo and are considered "serious offenses, which can result in dismissal from Bridgewater College." [See your Student Handbook] Violations will be treated seriously and swiftly. Come see me if you are in difficulty.

Student Participation

            The course involves your participation at every level and in every activity.  Seminar sessions, debates, presentations, group projects, labs, multimedia, and social occasions will be integrated to encourage learning together and to encourage personal relationships formed among students and between students and faculty.  Come to class prepared for each day. Come with the attitude that you have personal responsibility for the success of the course. 

 Writing requirements

Grading:                          

·         See Bridgewater’s Undergraduate Catalog for official academic policy on grading

 Initial Reflective Essay Assignment

 In your life, up to this point, you’ve had many experiences.  You’ve read many things, seen many films, heard many songs, seen a good bit of visual imagery, participated in many discussions, and had a number of adventures.  All of these things have contributed to the person you are today.  In the PDP program, we identify four dimensions of a person’s development: intellectual growth and discovery; emotional maturation and physical health; ethical and spiritual growth; and citizenship and community responsibility.  Together, these dimensions describe the development of the whole person. 

 In this initial essay assignment, we ask that you take some time to reflect on the person you are today.  Describe for us how you’ve developed in each of these dimensions to this point in your life, using your past experiences and thoughts as examples and explanation.  Describe to us what sort of person you are in terms of your intellectual curiosity and development.  Give us some idea of how much you’ve matured over the years, and how you’ve developed physically and emotionally.  Give us some insight into your spiritual and ethical development, your understanding of values and the sort of principles you live by.  Give us some idea of your understanding of what it means to you to be a contributing member of society.   Illustrate your thoughts using examples and anecdotes from your past experience.  Think about books or films that inspired you; think about all the influences that have gone into your development as a person.   

 The initial reflective essay should be 3-4 pages long—type written and double-spaced. 

Prompt for PDP 150 Personal Reflective Essay 

            With respect to the four dimensions of personal development (intellect, wellness, character, and citizenship), who is the person you are becoming, and who is the person you want to be?  As you reflect on these questions, consider the key experiences of your college life thus far, including the readings and assignments of PDP 150 and other courses, your service learning experiences, and your extracurricular activities.  How have these experiences affected your understanding of your role and responsibilities in the world, your intellectual curiosity, your values and spirituality, your emotional or physical health, and your planning for the rest of college?  Did the ideas and experiences you encountered relate to each other in any way—that is, did the ideas and concepts in one class have relevance for another, or did your classes connect in any way to your extracurricular activities?  Using these experiences, and referencing the four dimensions, recall the person you were as an entering freshman, and examine the person you are now.  Have there been, or should there have been, any significant changes?  Is the trajectory of your college life thus far pointed in the direction of the person you want to be in a few years?  If so, how will you continue that transformation?  If not, what adjustments do you need to make?

The Personal Development Reflective Essay Assignment

 The reflective essay will become the primary component of the senior portfolio a few years from now, but the process begins here in PDP 150 as students learn to apply their new reflective skills in developing of an effective portfolio.  The reflective essay provides the opportunity to describe and document one’s growth as a person during this time in a student’s life, and the key to understanding the task is to emphasize the term “reflective.”  In PDP 150, students learn that reflection can sometimes be confused with words such as “reaction” or “response.”  Through the many reflective exercises in PDP 150, students learn that to document their reactions or responses to experiences would be to merely document how they feel about them or to describe the emotional or practical impact the experience had on them; whereas reflection is something more than this.  To reflect on experiences is really to engage in an intellectual activity whereby students review in detail what they know (what they’ve read, or learned, or observed, or felt, or experienced) and then draw some conclusions about the experience’s significance in relation to the context of their lives as a whole.  

 The personal reflective essay assignment isn’t something radically different from the other classroom assignments of the course, but in this assignment the focus of the reflection is the student’s own development.  However, earlier assignments should help in a direct way in that when students discuss their intellectual development and discovery, they will probably include readings or films or discussions from either their PDP 150 class (or perhaps their History or Sociology class) that especially provoked their thinking.  Or, perhaps they will recall some reading or film or discussion from their English or Religion class that made them challenge their ethical assumptions, or some discussion from their Political Science or Economics class that helped them understand their relationship to the community in a different way.  All experiences at college, both in the classroom and outside the classroom are fair game for exploration as students document their growth and development in the context of the personal reflective essay.

COURSE COVERAGE